Hoosiers

This movie is authentic nostalgia for anyone who grew up in the mid-west in the 50's and 60's. It's what life looked like when I myself "came down to this planet" in the late 1940's and experienced my teens in the 60's.

The old school with high ceilings and gleaming wooden floors, the gyms with the gold-toned wall-tiles, even the hospital scene with the nurse in her starched white uniform -- all evoke a peculiar beauty that you no longer find today.

There is even a scene where a young teen girl yells "NO!" to an unjust referee call, and her pointy glasses and pony tail look so much like me back then, it feels like a glimpse into a parallel dimension.

I'd say this is a must-see experience for people my age -- although all ages can thoroughly enjoy the basketball action.

I'm glad for the social progress since then. But there is a "peculiar beauty" from those times that is starkly missing today.

This film is primarily about Basketball, but don't let that fool you, I have no interest in the game but I was yanked into it and was feeling the passion of the coach, players and the town all the way through.

The underlying thread is of forgiveness and second chances. You never really know what was behind the need for these second chances, but that doesn't matter, you feel for these people, and a lot of that is to do with Gene Hackman.

One of my favourite actors, Hackman pulls off a fantastic performance here, with an amazing backup from Dennis Hopper. What a combination.

Passion, guts, determination, and without too much of a sickly taste in the mouth. A lovely film to watch.

I have been reading, and summing up comments about this movie. I can't believe how misunderstood this movie is. First and foremost this is not a movie about the Milan team's championship, and Bobby Plump's winning shot. The Milan game is the most famous, and storied game in Indiana and is only used as the quientessential example.

The movie is a collection of typical things that happen in Indiana High School basketball which is known as "Hoosier Hysteria". The locker room scenes are typical, found each year at tournament time. The small town involvement is typical. Players deciding if they want to succumb to the social pressures of the sport, or dreaming of winning is typical. Teacher nudging is typical. The appearance of religious faith is also typical in small town Indiana. It's right in the bible belt.

Smaller, less talented underdog teams are the life-blood of passion about playing, and winning. Winning systems, coaching tactics, fundamentals, and character-building are staples of the Hoosier H.S. game. Read John Wooden's books and you'll see them clearly. (John Wooden-Martinsville, IN; Purdue, and UCLA).

The character played by Dennis Hopper is underscored, not by his drunken state and redemption, but by his basketball knowledge. In Indiana, everyone from every walk of life knows more about the history of the game, and how to win the game than the coach. There are walking, talking Hoosier basketball historians in every small town.

Another Hoosier staple is the sequence of the tournament. Every march since the 1920's the Indiana H.S. tournament starts with a sectional, regional, sweetsixteen, and final four state championship. Hence, all games and scores that were shown in the movie. Although, Hickory H.S. is fictictious, the opposing team names were real Indiana schools in the western part of the state: Jasper, Linton, Logootee, etc.

The movie actually tried, but fell short in my opinion of the excitement at tournament time. The noise level, and absolute excitement of the H.S. tournaments is something you have to experience. Just walking into the gyms gives you chill bumps. Being the local game night hero is paramount, (but it creates it's own special problems.) I firmly feel, having experienced it myself, that the movie makers were trying to capture a unique phenomenon in sports using typical events. They displayed the key aspects of Indiana H.S. basketball in film to communicate the experience to the rest of the world.

I was pleased, and excited to see how many reviewers were inspired by the film. Many who lived these events over the years are similarly motivated.

P.S. Coaches do not kiss teachers except in Hollywood.

When this film came out in 1986, my 5-year-old son Jeff was absolutely determined to see it -- and on the first day of release, at that. He had read about it and seen the trailer on TV, and wouldn't take "no" for an answer. So, I relented, took that Friday afternoon off, and we went to the theater for the first showing.

Just as the title credits started to roll, with Gene Hackman driving through the early autumn Indiana countryside toward his date with Destiny, Jeff laid his head on my shoulder and promptly went to sleep -- and slept throughout the entire film. He had apparently gotten so excited over the prospect of seeing the movie that exhaustion overcame him, as it will with children. I didn't have the heart to wake him up, since I knew we could come back again -- and by the time the movie was over, I knew that I would indeed be seeing it again...and again, because it was plainly one of the all-time greats. It was the best sports movie I had seen up until that time, and it still is. In fact, it has legitimate claim as the best American movie ever. It incorporates all that is unique and good in American culture, and does it better than any other film has ever done. It is a magnificent artistic achievement, quintessentially American and an inspiration to everyone who sees it.

Jeff forgave me for not waking him up -- but not before we went back the very next day. He immediately agreed with me on its greatness. Every time he comes home now, we watch it together, and marvel at its perfection. He has become something of an expert on artistic values (Ph.D. in literature from Yale), but even at the age of 5 he could see that this movie was truly something special. And that it certainly is.

"Hoosiers" is a film that feels like it was made during Hollywood's Golden Age. The movie is somewhat based on the true story of a small Indiana high school that defied the odds in 1952 and won the state basketball championship. Gene Hackman is the mysterious, hard-nosed coach that must win at all costs. However, he has a secret from his past that could tear the team apart. Hackman does some of the best work of his storied career here. His character is reminiscent of his Oscar-winning turn in "The French Connection" some 15 years earlier. Barbara Hershey is super as usual as one of the school teachers in town. Dennis Hopper shines the most in his greatest screen role. He received his lone Oscar-nomination here by playing a drunken father of one of Hackman's players. "Hoosiers" is very similar to "The Last Picture Show" in its ability to show small-town life at its most realistic. It is also a film that will have the whole audience cheering, ala "Rocky". Easily the best basketball film ever made and one of the best, and most under-rated, films of the 1980s. 5 stars out of 5.