Hard To Take Seriously.

Rating: 3/10 (5 October 2012)

It's 1951 and Gene Hackman is an ex basketball coach who has spent the war years and then some in the Navy. He's hired by a small-town high school in rural Indiana to care for their team. The team members are a little self satisfied, having been runners up in some small-time contest a few years ago. Hackman finds the town unfriendly. They liked their last coach and resent him. He brings new ideas to the game -- no more zone defense but rather man-on-man. But he's determined to see these boys whipped into shape and win Big Time.
I ask you, the discerning viewer, does he succeed? Barbara Hershey is a teacher hostile to Hackman. Does he win her over? Dennis Hopper is a disgusting drunk but he knows everything about the local teams and how they play basketball. Does Hackman hire him as Assistant Coach? Does Hopper overcome his demons? Is Hackman fired by the town but saved at the last minute by a revelation of some sort? Does he improve the team's spirit. Does he make them want to fight like dogs? Does this get them to the Big Tournament at the state capitol? Does the music on the sound track swell with triumphant fanfares? Are you kidding? I couldn't predict all of the obstacles that would crop up in the screenplay but, once presented with them, pretty much knew exactly how they'd be solved.
Maybe part of the reason I found it so tiresome is that I'm not a fan of basketball. But I don't follow baseball either and always enjoy "The Natural." And I'm a lousy pool shooter but think "The Hustler" is a near masterpiece.
On the plus side, the cinematography by Fred Murphy is very good indeed, and so is the location shooting. When the distracted Hackman first arrives in Hickory, Indiana, it LOOKS like the beginning of school in September. It's misty, people's breath steams, the ground is littered with tannic leaves. And, as the season progresses, the branches become bare and patches of snow appear in the shadows. If you were driven to find a small farming community dominated by an over-sized white church and an elderly brick high school, you'd want to come here.
But how is it possible to take any of this seriously, as the writer and director seem to expect us to? It's a heart-warming write-by-the-numbers story of dispiritedness turning to success. It seems to be aimed at the kind of audience represented by the gangly pituitary cases we watch on the court. The harder you pray, the harder you play.
Ho hum.