A Basketball CLASSIC for the Ages!!!

Rating: 10/10 (23 August 2005)

If ever there was a basketball film that made you stand up and cheer, this one is it! Gene Hackman was simply brilliant in his portrayal of Norman Dale, the once failed college coach who gets another chance to make a mark for good. This is a film about redemption, about second chances and about coming together. It is a film about life itself. Perhaps this is why writer Angelo Pizzo said emphatically, "This is NOT a sports movie!" It all begins when Norman Dale is hired as a replacement for the previous coach who had died, and the blatant hostility that small town Hickory, Indiana gives him as part of his welcome. The locals complain that he has 'unconventional' coaching methods; he has closed practices in that the local townspeople are not allowed to attend; he has a specified regimen he expects his players to adhere to; and his word is law on matters pertaining to the team. All of this while the best player sits out because Norman is not "the old coach".
Keep in mind that Norman has been out of coaching for a while and has learned some life's lessons along the way. He's smart enough to learn  as I did  that athletics for almost all of us is a means to an end, and that most of use basketball or other sports either for increasing skill, or learning lessons that will help us in our lives after high school or college, and that we are not going into the NBA upon graduation.
The townspeople get restless and want results, and as Coach gets results, the tide begins to turn and the locals begin to see the long-range vision of what Coach had in mind all along.
Co-starring with Hackman is Dennis Hopper (in an Oscar®-nominated role) and Barbara Hershey as one of the teachers/vice-principal who learns there is another side to the coach, and in the process we see all the things that make this not a sports movie.
HOOSIERS is indeed a modern American classic that will be more and more treasured over time. It is well worth the purchase price and a welcome addition to any film library.
On a scale of 1 to 10, I give this film a 10/10. ***