Hoosiers
by David Anspaugh
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DVD details
Actor: Barbara Hershey, Dennis Hopper, Fern Persons, Gene Hackman, Sheb WooleyDirector: David Anspaugh
Brand: Team Marketing
Cinematographer: Fred Murphy
Producer: Angelo Pizzo
Writer: Angelo Pizzo
Producer: Carter DeHaven
Producer: Derek Gibson
Producer: Graham Henderson
Producer: John Daly
DVD: 2 Sides, Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Letterboxed, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: Letterbox, 1.85:1
Running Time: 114 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-02-29
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
DVD Reviews of Hoosiers
DVD Review: 2.5 stars out of 4
Summary: 3 Stars
The Bottom Line:
Hoosiers might have been considerably more novel when it came out, but like many a good film it has been weakened by its imitators--after 20 years it appears just as formulaic and tired as all the clones it spawned, and thus it's not very interesting as a film.
DVD Review: Good but not wonderful
Summary: 3 Stars
I enjoyed this movie, but it appeared to show it's age. On the same genre, I prefer "Miracle" or "Rudy". DVD Review: THE KING OF ALL SPORTS MOVIES
Summary: 5 Stars
The film is not really based on the story of the 1954 Indiana state champions, Milan High School (pronounced /maln/ MY-lun), but the term "inspired by a true story" may be more appropriate as there is little in the movie that coincides at all with Milan's 1953-54 season other than that both were small schools that won the State Championship in the 1950s. The winning shot in the movie was based on Bobby Plump's last second shot to win the 1954 Indiana State Basketball Championship. In most US states, high school athletic teams are divided into different classes, usually based on the number of enrolled students, with separate state championship tournaments held for each classification. At the time, Indiana conducted a single state basketball championship for all of its high schools, and continued to do so until 1997.
Some elements of the film do match closely with those of Milan's real story. Like the movie's Hickory High School, Milan was a very small high school in a rural, southern Indiana town. Both schools had undersized teams. Both Hickory and Milan won the state finals by two points: Hickory won 42-40, and Milan won 32-30. The final seconds of the Hoosiers state final hold fairly closely to the details of Milan's 1954 final; the final shot in the movie was taken from virtually the same spot on the floor as Bobby Plump's actual game-winner. The movie's final game was even shot in the same building that hosted the 1954 Indiana final, Butler University's Hinkle Fieldhouse (called Butler Fieldhouse in 1954) in Indianapolis.
The rosters
In the movie, Hickory begins its season without tryouts, Drew Igel wins the position over most of the other players. as only seven players are even concerned with playing basketball for Hickory. Two players quit the team on the first day of practice, though one returns the next day and the other also returns to the team later into the season. Jimmy Chitwood is also added halfway through the season, bringing its roster to seven plus Ollie, the manager, who sees some time on account of injuries. At Milan, 58 of the 73 boys enrolled at the school tried out for the team, and had a roster consisting of 10 players.
Coaching controversy?
The controversy surrounding the coach and his methods, an important element of the movie's story, was completely absent in Milan -- at least by 1954. Milan had fired its previous coach, Herman "Snort" Grinstead, after the 1951-52 season for ordering new uniforms against the superintendent's orders. Years later, Plump would tell an ESPN interviewer that Grinstead had been "the most popular coach in Milan's history." While Grinstead's successor, Marvin Wood, would initially make some waves in Milan, he was never the target of a town meeting to have him fired (unlike the movie). In his first season as coach in 1952-53, he would lead Milan to the state semifinals, defusing any remaining criticism.
Town drunk
The town drunk character in the movie, Wilbur "Shooter" Flatch, is the father of one of the members of the team, and becomes one of the assistant coaches. He has no Milan counterpart.
The previous coach
In the movie, Hickory's best player initially refuses to play, devastated by the sudden death of his previous coach. This has no parallel in the Milan story; as noted above, Milan's previous coach had been fired two years before their championship.
The manager
Hickory's manager, Ollie MacFarlane, plays in one game when the Huskers have no other players left, and sinks two free throws to win a key game. Milan had a manager with a similar name, Oliver Jones, but he never played.
The school song
The school song played twice in the Hickory/Linton game is not Milan's, but Manchester High School's located in North Manchester, Indiana. Filmakers wanted to use it because it was one of the few only original school songs in Indiana. The song was composed by former Manchester High School band and Manchester Civic Band director Harold Leckrone.[4]
Underdog status
Hickory is depicted as a massive underdog throughout the movie. Milan entered the 1953-54 season as one of the favorites to win the state title, as it returned four starters from the state semifinalists of 1952-53.
Close tournament finishes
In the movie, Hickory wins each of its tournament games by two points or less. In 1954, Milan won seven of its eight tournament games leading up to the final by double-digit margins, and the other by 8 points.
Head coaches
Wood, who died of bone cancer in 1999, could hardly have been more different from Hickory coach Norman Dale (the Gene Hackman character). Dale is a middle-aged former college coach with a shady past and a volatile temper, and had a romantic relationship with a fellow Hickory teacher. Wood was only 26, and married with two children, when Milan won the state title, and had coached the Indians to the 1953 state semifinals. By almost all reports, Wood was a soft-spoken man of high integrity who often practiced alongside his players.
The championship game opponent
In the state championship scene, the movie portrays South Bend Central (chosen presumably because Milan had lost to South Bend Central in the 1953 state semifinals) as a predominantly black team. The real team was from Muncie Central High School, which had a predominantly white team with three black members. The movie probably borrowed from the actual history of the 1954 semistate final (state quarterfinals), in which Milan defeated the segregated Crispus Attucks High School in Indianapolis, led by all-time great Oscar Robertson, then a sophomore. In the movie, the South Bend Central coach is played by Ray Crowe, who coached Crispus Attucks in 1954 and would, the next year, lead the team to become the first all-black team in the United States to win a state championship playing against schools with white players. The Attucks team, with Crowe as coach and Robertson as floor leader, would repeat as state champions in 1956, becoming the first undefeated team in Indiana high school history.
DVD Review: "You Are All Winners in My Book"
Summary: 5 Stars
Gene Hackman tells the boys that as they are about to take part in the state championship game at Butler stadium. Basically, he is with them, win or lose.
Hackman plays Norman Dale, a last chance basketball coach who was a national title winner in his university coaching days, however, his career ended suddenly. He was in the navy for the last few decades and here is his opportunity to get back into basketball. He comes to the small town of Hickory Indiana with a high school population of 65 students to coach and teach at the school. All the town ever thinks about is basketball. Some are stuck in the failure they had in their youth.
Dale has to face the challenge of a lack of respect from the kids, the parents and the whole town. There are glimmers of hope as one kid who walked off the court is brought back by his dad and apologizes. The story is, hey just let him coach. Hickory has only 6 players at the beginning with the best player sitting out basketball for his own reasons. Jimmy is the best player that people have seen in years. Dale acts unimpressed and tells Jimmy that in a one way conversation. His caretaker is played by Barbara Hershey, who is also a teacher in the school who is unfriendly toward Dale from the time he arrives.
Dale sticks to his guns and his process of leading his team. Eventually the team starts to get it, but the town has had it with his approach. Just as you think the door is closing, things turn around and Dale gets to continue to lead his team with the best player and finally, the full contingent of players he needs. Although a small school, they go on to beat teams much bigger then they getting them into the championship game.
The story has a lot of elements to it, persistence, a clear desire of everyone to be a winner, difference of opinion on how to get there, compassion and even a little love story to broaden the appeal of the movie.
DVD Review: Hoosiers - the best sprots movie around
Summary: 4 Stars
This is the best sprots that I have ever seen. The producers probably did the movie an injustice with the decision not to include some of the deleted scenes that are on the feature DVD. Specifically the harvest scene and the scene where Buddy is allowed back on the team. The movie makers were very smart to use actual basketball players - the athletic action was superb. Buy the DVD set.
Description of Hoosiers
Nominated* for two Oscars?(r) and hailed by Sports Illustrated and ESPN as one of the best sports movies of all time, this triumphant tale of a high school basketball team's long-shot attempt to win the state championship is filled with edge-of-your-seat suspense and breathless excitement! Featuring "fast-break cinematography that catches the pace of the game.One of the most rousingly enjoyable sports movies ever made, this small-town drama tells the story of the Hickory Huskers, an underdog basketball team from a tiny Indiana high school that makes it all the way to the state championship tournament. It's a familiar story, but sensitive direction and a splendid screenplay helped make this one of the best films of 1986, highlighted by the superb performances of Gene Hackman as the Huskers' coach, and Oscar nominee Dennis Hopper as the alcoholic father of one of the team's key players. As the drama unfolds we come to realize that many of the characters (including Barbara Hershey as a schoolteacher with whom Hackman falls in love) are recovering from disappointing setbacks, and this depth of character is what makes the otherwise conventional basketball story so richly rewarding. Like Rocky, Rudy, and Breaking Away, this is a quintessentially American movie about beating the odds and rising above one's own limitations. Just try to watch it without cheering! --Jeff Shannon
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