THE MOSQUITO BOWL movie poster | ©2026 Netflix

Rating: R
Stars: Nicholas Galitzine, Bill Skarsgård, Ray Nicholson, Tom Francis
Writers: Peter Berg and Mark L. Smith, based on the novel THE MOSQUITO BOWL: A GAME OF LIFE AND DEATH IN WORLD WAR II by Buzz Bissinger
Director: Peter Berg
Distributor: Netflix
Release Date: October 30, 2026 (theatrical), November 25, 2026 (Netflix)

Released in 2004, FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS was a drama directed and co-scripted by Peter Berg, based on Buzz Bissinger’s non-fiction tome about life and especially football in Odessa, Texas. The film (and its 2006-2011 TV series follow-up) is considered a modern classic of football-centered storytelling.

Now director/co-writer (with Mark L. Smith) Berg has adapted another football-oriented book by Bissinger, this one a novel with historical aspects, THE MOSQUITO BOWL: A GAME OF LIFE AND DEATH IN WORLD WAR II.

The film opens by telling us it is “based on a true story.” This much is indeed factual: John McLaughry (Nicholas Galitzine), Robert “Bob” Baumann (Bill Skarsgård), Anthony “Tony” Butkovich (Ray Nicholson) and David “Dave” Schreiner (Tom Francis) were all college football stars in December, 1941, when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. All four signed up and wound up together in the U.S. Marine Corps’ Fourth Division, serving in the Pacific.

In both reality and the movie, it occurs to the commanding officers while the Marines are stationed on Okinawa that, especially with the talent on hand, a football game would be good for the morale of both players and observers. Thus was born “the Mosquito Bowl,” named for the insects tormenting everyone present.

As director, Berg does a splendid job of providing the terror and pure chaos of war. Casual conversation can be interrupted by gunfire and fatal explosions, and people are suddenly ripped open by bombs. Some people go crazy, and there’s little warning beforehand.

The actors are all adept at saying a great deal wordlessly with their faces and physicality, though writers Berg and Smith have provided some choice bits of dialogue.

Excellent players of team sports, especially football with its requirements of speed and strength, make excellent soldiers. This is because they generally have great physical stamina, and they are accustomed to following orders and operating as a unit. This is so obvious that it doesn’t need stating, and to the credit of THE MOSQUITO BOWL, nobody ever says it.

However, this aside, for viewers who don’t necessarily derive profound meaning from football overall, THE MOSQUITO BOWL, the movie never otherwise makes a discernible connection between the game and the war. In FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, the Berg/Bissinger creative combination made it clear how the town and the game were inextricably intertwined.

Here, the game and the war don’t feel like they intrinsically overlap. Granted, our heroes are not an especially talkative group, except for the self-described “over-thinker” Schreiner, but we’re not shown how football gives them a unique bond. Their brotherhood seems to be born out of sharing the experience of surviving the moment-to-moment trauma of battle.

The performances are full of feeling and conviction, and the main quartet exudes an easy camaraderie with one another. It’s just that football remains an interesting footnote rather than any kind of driving force. The Mosquito Bowl game provides them an afternoon of joy, nothing less, nothing more.

It may be that THE MOSQUITO BOWL wants to make the point that, in the circumstances, some actual happiness is hard to come by and the best thing the men could have. In this, it makes its case.

Zooming out, THE MOSQUITO BOWL shows sober respect for not only the U.S. troops, but for the war dead on all sides the world over. It has photos and grainy footage of the real individuals involved, and it convincingly depicts war as a hellish business. On that score alone, it is worth seeing.

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