Paid In Sweat: VARSITY BLUES (1999)

PAID IN SWEAT’S presents a BEFORE TRILOGY, starting…

In West Canaan Texas football is everything – When the starting quarterback Lance blah (Paul Walker) is injured, his back up Mox (James Van Der Beek) must step to first string for the needs of the team and the town.

BEFORE THERE WAS Friday Night Lights, there was VARSITY BLUES

A star knocked down, an underdog rises to the occasion, on a high school football team in Texas – the premise Friday Night Lights and Varsity Blues may be similar, but 1999 came first. Varsity Blues continues to be iconic, and the reason is James Van Der Beek, who shed his golden locks and nerdy-New England-cinephile character Dawson, for secret academic, sex stirred, football jock, Donovan Mox. In every review of this film, negative or positive, there is consistent consensus, Van Der Beek rises to the occasion just like Mox tries to do in the film. Though a very different character from Dawson Leary, what they share might be the very essence of what Van Der Beek brought to the role: earnestness, intellectualism, and nobility that seems authentic. Even at its most unhinged moments, Varsity Blues maintains its charm, and cool, from the screenplay written by W. Peter Illiff (Point Break) to the cast, to the soundtrack. Let’s see the Coyotes kick some butt this fall! 

Part of the Paid In Sweat series!

Cast/Crew Info
Director: Brian Robbins | Cast: James Van Der Beek, Amy Smart, Jon Voight, Paul Walker, Ron Lester