Solid Sports Drama

Rating: 9/10 (19 March 2005)

(Possible Spoilers)
Hoosiers is the definition of a well-rounded, strong sports movie. Taking place in southern Indiana where basketball is life, a new coach named Norman Dale (played by Gene Hackman) takes over as coach of a small town high school team in Hickory. Within his first ten minutes of coaching two players have quit. Things don't start out well, the team only has six players.
Soon, however, the team rebounds and a new player joins up with them, Jimmy Chitwood (based on the actual player for the state championship team Milan, Bobby Plump), and things go up. Coach Dale soon finds an assistant in a drunk towns person named Shooter. Throughout the film we watch Coach Dale deal with everything from being booted as coach to helping Shooter get over his alcoholism to constantly being the underdog.
What else is there to say, Hoosiers gives a person the real-sense of what high school basketball is and how it's a persons life in some places. The movie is well-acted, well-written (even though over forty minutes was cut) and well directed. The only problems with the film I had was that the events actually took place in 1954 and the actual school name is Milan. these details are small and don't have any effect on the movie.
All in all see Hoosiers. 4 out of 5 Stars.