I'm no armchair sportsman and I've never played basketball, but to enjoy "Hoosiers" you don't need to meet those requirements. "Hoosiers" is simply great, superbly acted drama. The story is standard underdog material, but with a terrific cast including Gene Hackman, Dennis Hopper and Barbara Hershey, it soars. It is refreshing to see a sports movie in which the players are not a bunch of arrogant, obnoxious, beer-swilling yahoos whose only ambition off the court is to get laid. No, these high school boys from a very small town are a sorry lot whose spirits are revived by a coach (Hackman) on the last legs of his checkered career. Dennis Hopper, who plays the embarrassing, alcoholic father of one of the players, is a revelation here as a man given yet another chance to prove that he isn't a terminal loser. The film is comprised of many games, and in the hands of a hack, it might have become tiresome. But director David Anspaugh works hard to inject great dramatic tension into every game and is ably assisted by Fred Murphy's beautiful photography and Jerry Goldsmith's extraordinary score, a mix of electronic and strong orchestral elements. The film has an extremely emotional build and powers along like a steam train. Hackman, a long way from fine work such as "Prime Cut" and "The Hunting Party", is simply ultra-solid and commanding. A marvellous film about being given chances. I suggest you give it one, too.

I guess because on either side of Indiana, both Ohio and Illinois have two major league baseball team franchises, the state of Indiana has rebelled and adopted basketball as the official state sport. Some could compare Indiana's basketball mania to many southern states and their local devotion to college and high school football. It's more like a secular religion down there.

In the early Fifties Gene Hackman has been hired by a local high school to coach its floundering basketball team which is built around one star player, Maris Valainis. Maris's father was the assistant coach and is also the town drunk and is played by Dennis Hopper. He's as jealous as Lloyd Bridges was when Gary Cooper didn't recommend he move up to the job of marshal in High Noon.

Barbara Hershey plays a teacher who is worried about Valainis getting a good education and who actually now has custody of the kid because Hopper's been ruled an unfit dad won't let him play. That's the specific problem that Hackman is facing.

The general problem is that especially in a small town setting everyone and his brother think they can do a better job than the current athletic coach of whatever sport. Just listen to any sports phone-in show on the radio and you'll have that fact confirmed. Still that's just what comes with the territory.

The best character in Hoosiers is without a doubt Hopper. He was a star basketball player in the town and he can't get over the fact that those years in high school were the high point of his life. He never went on to anything else and that's what Hershey is trying to prevent happening with his son. Ironically this same situation is humorously exploited in Married With Children where Al Bundy waxes nostalgically about his high school football days, remember four touchdowns in a single game.

In fact Dennis Hopper got an Oscar nomination in the Best Supporting Actor category, one of two that Hoosiers got the other being for best musical scoring.

I think Hoosiers misses being a classic though a lot will disagree with me. The characters except for Hopper are not really developed by the script. Other than Valainis the kids on the team have no real individual identities, we never learn just Hackman did that brought him out of college ranks and in the Navy for eleven years between his last college job and this one.

The basketball scenes move at a good pace though and Hoosiers is after all about basketball. And nothing but basketball.

The film begins with the hiring of a new high school basketball coach (Gene Hackman) in a rural Indiana town in 1951. Despite the townsfolk loving basketball (after all, it IS Indiana),the people really aren't that friendly. They try to tell him how to coach and some of his players have major attitudes as well. It's easy to say that it's a downright unfriendly place for outsiders. However, being a movie, you figure things must change...otherwise it wouldn't make for an interesting film! Into this enjoyable but predictable formula, fortunately, you have a lot of great characters. There is the nice but sick Principal, the teacher who initially hates the coach (Barbara Hershey) and, the most interesting of all, an alcoholic who is actually hired to be the coach's assistant (Dennis Hopper). All of these, along with lovely writing and a strong attention to 1950s details, make this an inspiring and impressive film.

I wish all basketball players were forced to watch this game today. It has a lot to say about the game, self-discipline, self-respect and teamwork. So, even thought today's players are probably a lot better than those back in the old days (they are a lot bigger and stronger, that's for sure),they still have a lot to learn.

As you watch the film, you need to keep reminding yourself that basketball was MUCH different back in the 50s. There was no shot clock and games OFTEN had total scores below 60...or even 40! So, the Coach's insistence on passing, passing, passing is pretty consistent with the way the game was played at the time--sort of like playing keep-away with occasional shots. So, actually, while the game seems kind of slow in this film, it's really a lot faster than they usually played it back then. They also seemed to have a lot more fights in the film than they probably had in real life.

Recently another film was made that was clearly patterned on "Hoosiers" ("The Winning Season"). However, this newer clearly ignored the positive lessons of "Hoosiers" and is a funny film...though I clearly would NOT want to have a real coach be THAT awful! Well worth seeing...sort of an "Anti-Hoosiers"!

One of the best films of the genre.