Le grand défi

David Anspaugh's "Hoosiers" is a film about the passion to excel in sports. It's also about a man's comeback to the game after a rough patch in his own life. "Hoosiers" is a timeless film that will look good after years of its release because it speaks to us about how someone can inspire a group of people to do their best, as they become confident in what they are trying to accomplish. The film was lovingly written for the screen by Angelo Pizzo.

Coach Norman Dale gets a reprieve in life when he is hired to coach the Hickory basket ball team in rural Indiana. Basketball is the game where most people in that state take an unusual interest. Their passion for the sport is evident. The new coach is looked with suspicion because he is an outsider and he believes in teamwork. He wants everyone to participate equally, which doesn't make for excitement in the court. The coach doesn't want anyone overshadowing another, that's why he insists in total involvement. Needless to say, his method clashes with the parents and towns people from the start.

The coach's past comes to haunt him when Myra Fleener, one of the teachers, discovers an article that reveals an incident Mr. Dale would like to forget. At the same time, Myra realizes the goodness in the coach's heart by involving the drunken Shooter into helping him with the team.

Gene Hackman has one of the best opportunities of his distinguished career with his portrayal of Coach Dale. He is splendid in the film and he wins us with his decency and by sticking to his principles, which he passes on to the team members. Barbara Hershey is also good as Myra, the young woman who falls in love with Dale. Dennis Hopper plays Shooter, the father of one of the kids in the team who has a drinking problem.

"Hoosiers" is an inspiring film that ought to be seen by young people because of its message about team spirit and how to interact with one another in peace and harmony.

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.

I rate it 7 basketballs out of ten. See this movie's discussion board to reply my comments.

The movie is loosely based on the 1954 season of the tiny town of the Milan Indians in Indiana. I dug up some facts about this team. It was coached by Marvin Wood and his coaching was met with great controversy in the town as in the movie. The movie plays with the actual events to increase drama but the real story seems just as sensational. It is called the greatest story in Indiana sports history. The team beat NBA great Oscar Roberston's high school team in the semifinals. Coach Wood actually did measure the height of the basketball goal in the fieldhouse to keep the team from being intimidated. Towards the end of the real final game, the Milan team was exhausted. To help out, Milan's best shooter, Bobby Plump, held the ball for an excruciating 4 minutes, an eternity in basketball, before taking a final shot. He then missed the shot! In the final seconds the Indians were able to get the ball back from Muncie and Plump hit the last second winning shot. Where the movie strayed is that the real `Hickory' team had a roster of 12 players, and the real coach was in his second year of coaching the team and was long-time married. I dunno if there was a real life alcoholic character like Shooter. Coach Wood died of cancer Oct. 13, 1999 at the age of 71. At the funeral the 1954 basketball team members who attended all wore carnations, dyed in the school's yellow-gold team color. Wood had often said, "God was coaching that team, not me."

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.

What makes this one of the most popular sports films of all time isn't just the sport, it's because it's such a human-interest film, such a wonderful story of giving people second chances in life. Add a true-life David beat Goliath story and you have an appealing film.

It doesn't hurt that Gene Hackman is the star, either. He may not have that celebrity appeal or the looks of Clark Gable or Bratt Pitt, but this man can flat-out act! He makes a very believable high school basketball coach who is tough-but-fair on the outside and soft-and-compassionate on the inside.

The story of an extremely tiny school defying the odds and becoming a state champion in dramatic form was so inspiring that this film has played thousands of times for 20 years now by high school coaches to their kids for motivation.

But the key to the story is the coach getting a second chance in life to do what he loves and does best and he, in turn, giving others a second chance such as the alcoholic here played by Dennis Hopper. There are great lessons on teamwork, patience, tolerance and a whole bunch of other qualities. In one of the DVD documentaries, both Hackman and Hoppper comment on how many times people have approached them and THIS is the movie they mention that meant so much them. That says a lot since both men have made many famous movies.

An unsung hero of this movie is the cinematography. Man, this is beautifully filmed and the rural Midwest has never looked so pretty and appealing. It paints a beautiful picture of this part of the United States. It also paints a fond remembrance of the early 1950s. You get an honest-to-goodness feel of what it's like to be part of a basketball in this area during that time,

Basketball meant an awful lot - and still does - to these folks. If you are sports fan in particularly, this movie will bring a tear or two to your eyes. However, this story is for everyone who believes people deserve chances to overcome previous mistakes. Few films, whatever the topic, have the "heart" this movie demonstrates.