A winner anyway you look at it

Rating: 10/10 (1 June 2009)

What's the best sports film of all time, you ask? Well, it's debatable, but I'd rank HOOSIERS high up there. Coming out in 1986 (the dated decade!), HOOSIERS still holds up remarkably well thanks to really great cinematography and set design. It really looks and feels like 1950s Indiana, even today. Without overdoing the period piece aspect and focusing on small town life and hometown values, HOOSIERS is a top-notch movie. In particular, the film is incredibly fast-paced.
All credit goes to the great Gene Hackman, who plays dejected, displaced, and disgraced Coach Norman Dale from a big-time college program, who must take a downgraded high school coaching position as head coach at Hickory High School, the Huskers. Hackman exudes credibility as a no-nonsense, firm, yet sensitive man at the crossroads of his coaching career and his life. This actor could do it all by just being himself! Coach Dale arrives in the small town of Hickory, Indiana circa 1951 and immediately faces disdain and uncertainty upon his arrival. The small towners see him as a big-city guy who looks down on them and won't fit in. The locals question his coaching tactics and even challenge his authority directly at times. But Dale sticks to his guns and instills discipline and toughness into the promising basketball team. In particular, Dale shows particular interest in Jimmy Chitwood, a pure shooting guard who at first is not on the team, but then decides to re-join them on the condition that Coach Dale stays.
Dale also has an initially rocky relationship with local Myra Fleener (well played by Barbara Hershey), who isn't very crazy about basketball and thinks education is more important. Best Supporting Actor nominee Dennis Hopper plays town drunk Shooter, whose son is on the team. Hopper almost steals the show, but I still think this film belongs completely to Hackman, especially with 20+ years of hindsight.
Special mention should also go to the young men who played the Hickory Huskers. Really a band of unknowns who I don't think any have become famous since this film, the fact that real teens (and basketball players) played these characters helps make HOOSIERS all the more authentic.
Of course, you have the obligatory happy ending, but it all fits into this gem of a sports film. Really, it doesn't get much better than HOOSIERS!