Hoosiers (1986)

Hoosiers is one of the best high school sports films ever made. Made me think of Bobby Knight because the story follows a washed up coach Norman Dale (Hackman) who gets one last chance to coach because of a personal friendship with the principal at Hickory HS. Like Knight, Hackman lost his job because of anger problems. He comes to Hickory to seek redemption.Hoosiers excels at so many levels. The cinematography is beautiful and breathtaking, capturing the local community and nature with wonderful shots of being alone in mid America. Hackman also gets isolated when he lets the locals know in no uncertain terms that HE is the coach, not them, and that they better let him be. Hackman delivers a masterful performance with his smiles and easygoing yet tough exterior. He uses charm to get his way, but he uses his tough character to teach the boys that he's serious about coaching them to be great.Barbara Hershey's character is more complex. A local who left and came back. She seems stuck in the mud, at time literally, in this little community, this little school of 84 kids. Never going anywhere. Makes you kind of think of George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life. Hershey is not as good an actor as Hackman by any stretch, and she had trouble keeping up with him. Also, the screenplay with their relationship left me wondering if that part made any sense. Hackman guides the team with help from a recovering drunk played wonderfully by a young Dennis Hopper as Scooter. He's terrific, and offers another challenge for Hackman to overcome, especially because his son is one of the stars on the team.The team improves when Jimmy rejoins the team after a personal tragedy. He's a star and immediately lifts the entire town. They fight and claw and battle and give it their all. Can they go as far as they are challenged to go?Like MacFarland or Friday Night Lights or other sports comeback flicks, this one will leave you cheering. I think the end could have been a bit longer and more played out. Plus the Hershey/Hackman relationship could have been revised a bit. Otherwise - great film. A classic basketball film that will have you cheering. Enjoy.

A coach with a checkered past (Gene Hackman) and a local drunk (Dennis Hopper) train a small town high school basketball team to become a top contender for the championship.Although I am not one who cares for basketball or sports films (they all seem to follow the same general plot), this one does have some good things going for it. Namely, Gene Hackman, who never makes a bad movie (or at least never plays a bad role). And Dennis Hopper, who is something of a wild card and is appropriately cast as a drunk.Beyond that, it is just a feel good movie. Nothing too heavy, sort of the thing you expect from the 1980s. And that is just alright.

This film has great heart. Gene Hackman turns in a great performance, as does Dennis Hopper. Having grown up in Indiana, and having been part of more than one caravan to watch a high school basketball game, I know of no film that captures the heart and spirit of the Midwest -- let alone Hoosier basketball -- like Hoosiers. One sign of a great film is the ability to drop in at any time and be absorbed in the film. This is such a film. And yes, it's about a lot more than basketball. It's about new beginnings and overcoming hardship and adversity and second chances -- and in that respect it is a quintessentially American film. It's worth revisiting every NCAA season.

It's 1951 and Gene Hackman is an ex basketball coach who has spent the war years and then some in the Navy. He's hired by a small-town high school in rural Indiana to care for their team. The team members are a little self satisfied, having been runners up in some small-time contest a few years ago. Hackman finds the town unfriendly. They liked their last coach and resent him. He brings new ideas to the game -- no more zone defense but rather man-on-man. But he's determined to see these boys whipped into shape and win Big Time.I ask you, the discerning viewer, does he succeed? Barbara Hershey is a teacher hostile to Hackman. Does he win her over? Dennis Hopper is a disgusting drunk but he knows everything about the local teams and how they play basketball. Does Hackman hire him as Assistant Coach? Does Hopper overcome his demons? Is Hackman fired by the town but saved at the last minute by a revelation of some sort? Does he improve the team's spirit. Does he make them want to fight like dogs? Does this get them to the Big Tournament at the state capitol? Does the music on the sound track swell with triumphant fanfares? Are you kidding? I couldn't predict all of the obstacles that would crop up in the screenplay but, once presented with them, pretty much knew exactly how they'd be solved.Maybe part of the reason I found it so tiresome is that I'm not a fan of basketball. But I don't follow baseball either and always enjoy "The Natural." And I'm a lousy pool shooter but think "The Hustler" is a near masterpiece.On the plus side, the cinematography by Fred Murphy is very good indeed, and so is the location shooting. When the distracted Hackman first arrives in Hickory, Indiana, it LOOKS like the beginning of school in September. It's misty, people's breath steams, the ground is littered with tannic leaves. And, as the season progresses, the branches become bare and patches of snow appear in the shadows. If you were driven to find a small farming community dominated by an over-sized white church and an elderly brick high school, you'd want to come here.But how is it possible to take any of this seriously, as the writer and director seem to expect us to? It's a heart-warming write-by-the-numbers story of dispiritedness turning to success. It seems to be aimed at the kind of audience represented by the gangly pituitary cases we watch on the court. The harder you pray, the harder you play.Ho hum.