by Julian Spivey
Truthfully, there aren’t that many great
sports films in cinema history. There are even less great or even good basketball films. David Anspaugh’s 1986 film
“Hoosiers” might be the only “great” basketball film ever made.
“Hoosiers,” written by Angelo Pizzo,
is the story of Coach Norman Dale, played by Gene Hackman, and his 1952 Milan High School basketball team.
Dale is a first-year coach for the team who had a checkered past as a college basketball coach. He was fired from his previous
job for punching one of his players.
The small school team begins the season with only
five players and gets off to a pretty bad start, of course, that’s standard procedure for sports films. The town of
Milan, which like any city in Indiana takes its basketball seriously, holds a town meeting to try to have Coach Dale fired.
At the meeting Jimmy Chitwood, played by Maris Valainis, who is the best basketball player in town, but doesn’t play
for the team, says that he will play ball, but only if Dale stays on with the team. Dale’s job is saved and, of course,
the team starts to win.
The story of “Hoosiers” is a pretty
simply one. The small town school starts off rough, but begins to win a lot of games before making it all the way to the state
championship game. It is the acting in the film by Hackman and Dennis Hopper, who was nominated for a best supporting actor
Oscar for his role as town drunk and assistant coach Shooter Flatch, that makes “Hoosiers” the truly great film
that it is.
Most sports films suffer from the lack of great
and more importantly realistic sports action shots. “Hoosiers” is not one of those films. The film’s basketball
sequences are some of the greatest scenes in the film. Some critics have said that “Hoosiers” relies too much
on basketball scenes and not enough on other aspects. However, this is a basketball film; if you don’t care about sports
then don’t watch the film.
The American Film Institute named “Hoosiers”
the fourth greatest American sports film of all time in 2008. It finished behind: “Raging Bull” (1980), “Rocky”
(1976) and “The Pride of the Yankees” (1942). It was the only basketball film on the list. The AFI also named
“Hoosiers” as the 13th most inspirational film of all time in its 2006 list. “USA Today”
readers voted “Hoosiers” the best sports film of all time and in 2001 the film was chosen to be included if the
Library of Congress National Film Registry for its significance to the art of film.
“Hoosiers” is definitely a feel good
movie.
