This is one of the greatest sports movie ever made and scores on several levels.

Rating: 9/10 (5 February 2000)

This is a beautiful film that offers much more than the usual sports action. It tells the story of a tiny Indiana high school whose basketball team soars to great heights in the Indiana State High School Basketball Tournament.
Gene Hackman plays a coach with a checkered past. Ultimately, we find out about his past. Dennis Hopper, an avid basketball fan and the local drunk knows but doesn't tell. Barbara Hershey finds out and the story is revealed in the stubble of a cornfield as they talk.
Hershey plays a local girl who has come back to teach school after going away to college. "Why'd you come back to Hickory?", Hackman asks her in one scene. She doesn't tell him. I wish she had. Her character is very enigmatic and is perhaps the most interesting in the movie. The character has unusual depth. She is a substitute mom for a local basketball star. She wants him to focus on his studies and to get away from Hickory and basketball. She doesn't understand the importance of basketball to everyone around her. It appears that she may even resent the importance that her parents' placed on her brother's basketball experiences. Resentful or not, she too attends the games to cheer the team on. Her enthusiasm for the game and the team is more muted than most, however. There is a deep ambivalence in her character.
Dennis Hopper delivers a terrific performance as Shooter, the former high school basketball turned drunk. In one scene where he is describing an upcoming opponent to Hackman he is almost poetic. Hackman offers him a chance for redemption when his assistant coach (Sheb Wooley) becomes ill. The film offers us an opportunity to cheer for Shooter's redemption as well as the team. Hopper plays the role with sincerity, humor and emotion. There is a touching scene late in the film in which he and his son interact before the big game. Shooter who is now in the hospital must listen on the radio, but the film doesn't forget him.
I particularly enjoyed the visual aspects of this film. The film's opening scenes of Hackman driving through the rural Indiana countryside are some of the most beautiful images ever put on film. In one scene he stops at an intersection on a narrow road. There is a prettly little white church and a lot of corn. Otherwise, there is nothing. He passes a barn where some boys are playing basketball against a makeshift basket and backboard. This establishes at the beginning the importance of basketball in Indiana. Throughout the film there are beautiful scenes that showcase the Indiana countryside. The film deserves credit for showing Indiana's beauty against the backdrop of Winter.
The film found an beautiful old elementary school at Ninevah, Indiana to serve as the exterior for the Hickory High School. The school was closed several years ago because of asbestos contamination. The last time I saw it it was a wreck. The windows were broken and the building was surrounded by broken bricks and glass. I almost cried.
There is an intimacy in the basketball scenes that is missing from most sports movies. The gym at Hickory reminds me of my old home town at Winlock, Washington. The gym at Hickory, like the one at Winlock, has a dim, boxlike quality which roars to life on game night. In the final scenes the game loses this intimacy as the team goes to Indianapolis for the finals. Hackman realizes this and tries to help his team realize it's just another gym. He has them measure the distance from the foul line to the basket and the height of the rim. "Same as at Hickory", he says.
I also enjoyed Jerry Goldsmith's musical score for this film. There are beautiful cues to help us appreciate the beauty of rural Indiana. There are also pulsating themes underscore the sometimes tense basketball.
This is a great film which can be enjoyed on several levels. It has great characters, a wonderful script and awesome visual values. I watch it over and over again and have never tired of it.