Movie Review: Hoosiers 

Reviewed by Gerti

The inspirational 1986 movie “Hoosiers” is a classic, and not just to the people of Indiana. It’s a film that shows the love of simple people for the game of basketball, the premise being that we Indiana-living folks just eat, sleep and breath basketball, and that any road you drive down in the Hoosier state, you’ll see some boy shooting hoops. I don’t know how true that is anymore, certainly not in this part of Indiana, but the movie does live up to the moniker ESPN gave it, as one of the best sports movies of all time. Several performances, including those by Gene Hackman and Dennis Hopper, as well as the film score by Jerry Goldsmith, are award worthy, even if they didn’t win Oscars.

The plot is based loosely on the 1954 state championship game between little Milan High School and big-time, high-enrollment Muncie. For some reason, the filmmakers (director David Anspaugh and writer Angelo Pizzo) felt they needed to change the original storyline, and suddenly, the town is named Hickory, and they play South Bend in the finals, not Muncie. The coach’s name is changed too. Hackman plays Norman Dale, who has come to this little Indiana town as his last shot at redemption thanks to the principal at Hickory, an old friend. Apparently, Dale got into trouble before for hitting one of his star college players. The town’s longtime coach has retired, and everybody has an opinion about how the current team of 7 boys should be coached. Dale alienates all the adults, and a few players, too, until the boys apologize and come back (in one of the deleted scenes. Crazy, I know.) But Coach Dale is so good, he takes these boys with a love of the game and turns them into champions by forcing them to do conditioning and learn the basics. They win sectionals, regionals, etc. and then win by a squeak in the championship. Cinderella story = good drama.

Drama is also infused when the townfolks try to fire Coach Dale, but the star player says he won’t play without him. Barbara Hershey appears as a supposed love interest of Coach Dale, but I truly wish they had left that part out. First she hates him, then she loves him. Yawn. It’s been done before. A better story line is that of Dennis Hopper, Shooter, who knows the ins and outs of the game, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of other teams, when he’s sober. He’s been fighting against the bottle (and losing) for years, but Coach Dale gives him a chance to redeem himself, and (hoorah) he kind of does.

This Collector’s Edition has a copy of the real game that took place between Milan and Muncie on the DVD, which is cool. If I really cared about basketball, I’d have watched that, since the final few minutes are supposed to match precisely. The producers were really careful about that. Now why they took the original story and changed all the names, that I don’t understand. You want to be accurate, but then you want it to be fictional. Hoosiers is “the best basketball movie of all time”; I only wish the filmmakers had thrown out the romance and given the “long-shot triumphs” storyline an authentic treatment.