Odessa is an oil town in the western part of Texas that is home to the Permian High School Panthers, the football team with the best winning record. The city's economy is in a tailspin, but football is the one thing that brings all the people of Odessa together, and on Friday nights, as many as 20,000 people fill Permian's football stadium to watch Coach Gary Gaines lead the team to victory. And in Odessa, a football victory is prized above all else....

Big-city lawyer Hank Palmer returns to his childhood home where his estranged father, the town's judge, is suspected of murder. He sets out to discover the truth and along the way reconnects with the family he walked away from years before.

Hart's war: Honor, courage, and sacrifice are revealed in unexpected ways as a ranking U.S. prisoner in a Nazi POW camp is joined in December 1944 by a law-student lieutenant who'd been captured despite his father's powerful military connections. When a black pilot from the famous Tuskeegee airmen is falsely accused of murdering a fellow prisoner, Lt. Hart tries his case and discovers the real motivation behind the ranking officer's kangaroo court....

All the pretty horses: In the 1940's, two young Texas cowboys ride into Mexico. Cowboy up: In the world of professional bull riding, newcomer Ely is the craziest guy around. His brother, Hank, is a rodeo clown, and they use each other to play up their acts. When Ely falls for the rodeo's sweetheart, Hank is filled with jealousy and hatred. The brothers try to come to grips with their differences, but the competition gets as fierce as the bulls in...