American High School Football: Is it really like its portrayed in the movie/ TV?

Hello, let me try my best to answer this for you. In short its a little of both, "for the most part" high school football is not like this, the movie added alot of hype but this does happen. It depends on where you are (Texas, Florida, Ohio & Cali are big football states), and how big of a school your from, (theres division I-V), D-I being all the biggest schools and V the smallest).
Permian at the time the film took place, was a top contending D-1 school in a town where they didnt have much of anything besides football. Their stadium is in actuality, huge (too huge lol), way bigger than the school I played for (D-III) or any opponent's field I played on.
So while this film does not accurately describe football in America as a whole, I'd say they did a good job showing "the elite". Back then and even today, DI highschool football in Texas during the playoffs is a pretty big deal that could sell out a stadium.

Football can get fairly intense across much of the southeast at least. One high school I worked at canceled sixth period every Friday during football season in order to have pep rallies in the gym. Everyone was expected to attend, but I hated them because the noise always gave me a headache.
Honest school officials will tell you frankly that coaches get priority for teaching jobs both in hiring and in layoffs. They know that a winning football team can make voters and taxpayers more tolerant of substandard academic performance.
Teaching duties are often neglected in favor of coaching. My driver's education instructor, for example, sat beside me sketching out football plays virtually the entire time I was behind the wheel. Likewise, my physical education classes were usually nothing more than unsupervised basketball games. The teacher would call the roll and leave to attend to higher priorities. Problems can occur when a mediocre teacher gets tenure based on his coaching, then decides that he doesn't want to coach anymore.

As the others have said, it varies from community to community, but yes, it definitely is like that in some areas. Football in general is by far the biggest and most popular sport in America, and high school football in small communities (or even bigger communities if they have a powerhouse team) is huge, and sometimes big enough to pretty much "shut down the town," have "everyone" go to the games, be talking about the game all week, etc. This is especially true in places like Texas, Ohio, western Pennsylvania, and the south. Also in certain parts of California and Florida--Cali and Florida are two of the states with the most high school talent, but the "passion" of the fans is not quite as intense across the board in those states as the other places I mentioned; they have a lot more options and things to do in those states, lol.

It IS indeed crazy that that much pressure is put on the coaches and players (who mostly aren't even 18 yet), and that that much money is put into the stadiums, weight rooms, etc., but that is certainly how it is in lots of places. And while like I said, I do think it's kinda crazy, despite that, I still think it is a great tradition of America's and really cool anyway, despite how crazy it might be looking at it from a detached, logical, outsider's perspective lol.

I played high school football in Ohio and loved it and had a blast. I experienced a lot of the same things that the characters in the movie did (and the TV show too--which I like even better than the movie. If you liked the movie and haven't seen the TV show, I HIGHLY recommend checking it out).