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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: MGM (Video & DVD)
Salesrank: 1623
Released: February 29, 2000 |
| Our Price: $6.68 |
| Used Price: $2.00 |
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MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Nominated* for two OscarsÂ(r) and hailed by Sports Illustrated and ESPN as one of the best sports movies of all time, this triumphant tale of a high school basketball team's long-shot attempt to win the state championship is filled with edge-of-your-seat suspense and breathless excitement! Featuring "fast-break cinematography that catches the pace of the game.
Description of Hoosiers:
One of the most rousingly enjoyable sports movies ever made, this small-town drama tells the story of the Hickory Huskers, an underdog basketball team from a tiny Indiana high school that makes it all the way to the state championship tournament. It's a familiar story, but sensitive direction and a splendid screenplay helped make this one of the best films of 1986, highlighted by the superb performances of Gene Hackman as the Huskers' coach, and Oscar nominee Dennis Hopper as the alcoholic father of one of the team's key players. As the drama unfolds we come to realize that many of the characters (including Barbara Hershey as a schoolteacher with whom Hackman falls in love) are recovering from disappointing setbacks, and this depth of character is what makes the otherwise conventional basketball story so richly rewarding. Like Rocky, Rudy, and Breaking Away, this is a quintessentially American movie about beating the odds and rising above one's own limitations. Just try to watch it without cheering! --Jeff Shannon
Hoosiers Reviews:
No Loosers in Hoosiers 
2009-11-09 - Hoosiers is a movie I feel ambivalent about, which is why I gave it
only two stars. Some though, really like it, and claim it is the best
sports movie ever made, inspiring to them who play team sports,
especially basketball.
The movie is suspenseful. As you are watching this movie, you
might find yourself trying to solve a puzzle: Why is he there,
coaching a high school basket ball team? She says to him,
There are only two reasons a guy your age would come to a town
like this to coach a basket ball team: You are either running away
from something, or you could not make it anywhere else...She
refuses to let a boy play basketball and it is not clear why. She says she
wants him to escape the town, but not via a basketball scholarship.
She wants him to get an academic scholarship. It is puzzling because
the boy, although intelligent, is actually a "genius" on the basketball
court. Another puzzle, the boy appears to be unable (or unwilling) to
speak for himself, or fight authority, namely, hers...And then there is
the town drunk, who he decides to make his assistant basketball coach.
But why does he do this?...His strategy appears to be, forget basketball,
forget the team and the fans, and treat people as if they were persons,
instead: See the trees, rather than the forest.
A man who puts on a woman's garment is abomination unto
the Lord. Is that a toga, or a woman's sari? Is that a kilt, or a woman's
skirt? That said, the basketball uniform has changed over the years.
Now, players wear baggy shorts which resemble women's skirts.
The shoulder straps are still there, while the t-shirts have gotten longer,
which make the players look as if they are wearing "nighties" rather
than "t-shirts". Remember Dennis Rodman, dressing up as a bride?
I wish the uniforms were different, looked masculine, and that males
were not coerced into showering together, but had the option of private
dressing rooms...Given all the ornate carpentry, and brick-laying,
and other evidence of manual labour you see in this movie, I do not
think that that is an unrealistic goal. But do men build good things, such
as writing desks, for their sons, or their daughters only? The UN for example,
only seems to care about female illiteracy, while young males go work (toil)
in the fields...Ever see the dress of ancient Roman soldiers? Those garments
look like what women who desire to clothe themselves with masculinity might
wear...What is a woman's garment? God knows. For Truth is not something
that is discovered by consensus: Do not follow a multiitude to do evil...You
decide for yourself what is right and what is wrong, but the question is, Will
you decide correctly? And you decide what is right or wrong based on what
you believe is good and bad. Do not call evil good, or good evil.
See, Isaiah 5:20, KJV..."They" have been defiling males for thousands of years.
2.5 stars out of 4 
2009-03-26 - The Bottom Line:
Hoosiers might have been considerably more novel when it came out, but like many a good film it has been weakened by its imitators--after 20 years it appears just as formulaic and tired as all the clones it spawned, and thus it's not very interesting as a film.
Good but not wonderful
2009-01-19 - I enjoyed this movie, but it appeared to show it's age. On the same genre, I prefer "Miracle" or "Rudy".
THE KING OF ALL SPORTS MOVIES 
2009-01-10 - The film is not really based on the story of the 1954 Indiana state champions, Milan High School (pronounced /maln/ MY-lun), but the term "inspired by a true story" may be more appropriate as there is little in the movie that coincides at all with Milan's 1953-54 season other than that both were small schools that won the State Championship in the 1950s. The winning shot in the movie was based on Bobby Plump's last second shot to win the 1954 Indiana State Basketball Championship. In most US states, high school athletic teams are divided into different classes, usually based on the number of enrolled students, with separate state championship tournaments held for each classification. At the time, Indiana conducted a single state basketball championship for all of its high schools, and continued to do so until 1997.
Some elements of the film do match closely with those of Milan's real story. Like the movie's Hickory High School, Milan was a very small high school in a rural, southern Indiana town. Both schools had undersized teams. Both Hickory and Milan won the state finals by two points: Hickory won 42-40, and Milan won 32-30. The final seconds of the Hoosiers state final hold fairly closely to the details of Milan's 1954 final; the final shot in the movie was taken from virtually the same spot on the floor as Bobby Plump's actual game-winner. The movie's final game was even shot in the same building that hosted the 1954 Indiana final, Butler University's Hinkle Fieldhouse (called Butler Fieldhouse in 1954) in Indianapolis.
The rosters
In the movie, Hickory begins its season without tryouts, Drew Igel wins the position over most of the other players. as only seven players are even concerned with playing basketball for Hickory. Two players quit the team on the first day of practice, though one returns the next day and the other also returns to the team later into the season. Jimmy Chitwood is also added halfway through the season, bringing its roster to seven plus Ollie, the manager, who sees some time on account of injuries. At Milan, 58 of the 73 boys enrolled at the school tried out for the team, and had a roster consisting of 10 players.
Coaching controversy?
The controversy surrounding the coach and his methods, an important element of the movie's story, was completely absent in Milan -- at least by 1954. Milan had fired its previous coach, Herman "Snort" Grinstead, after the 1951-52 season for ordering new uniforms against the superintendent's orders. Years later, Plump would tell an ESPN interviewer that Grinstead had been "the most popular coach in Milan's history." While Grinstead's successor, Marvin Wood, would initially make some waves in Milan, he was never the target of a town meeting to have him fired (unlike the movie). In his first season as coach in 1952-53, he would lead Milan to the state semifinals, defusing any remaining criticism.
Town drunk
The town drunk character in the movie, Wilbur "Shooter" Flatch, is the father of one of the members of the team, and becomes one of the assistant coaches. He has no Milan counterpart.
The previous coach
In the movie, Hickory's best player initially refuses to play, devastated by the sudden death of his previous coach. This has no parallel in the Milan story; as noted above, Milan's previous coach had been fired two years before their championship.
The manager
Hickory's manager, Ollie MacFarlane, plays in one game when the Huskers have no other players left, and sinks two free throws to win a key game. Milan had a manager with a similar name, Oliver Jones, but he never played.
The school song
The school song played twice in the Hickory/Linton game is not Milan's, but Manchester High School's located in North Manchester, Indiana. Filmakers wanted to use it because it was one of the few only original school songs in Indiana. The song was composed by former Manchester High School band and Manchester Civic Band director Harold Leckrone.[4]
Underdog status
Hickory is depicted as a massive underdog throughout the movie. Milan entered the 1953-54 season as one of the favorites to win the state title, as it returned four starters from the state semifinalists of 1952-53.
Close tournament finishes
In the movie, Hickory wins each of its tournament games by two points or less. In 1954, Milan won seven of its eight tournament games leading up to the final by double-digit margins, and the other by 8 points.
Head coaches
Wood, who died of bone cancer in 1999, could hardly have been more different from Hickory coach Norman Dale (the Gene Hackman character). Dale is a middle-aged former college coach with a shady past and a volatile temper, and had a romantic relationship with a fellow Hickory teacher. Wood was only 26, and married with two children, when Milan won the state title, and had coached the Indians to the 1953 state semifinals. By almost all reports, Wood was a soft-spoken man of high integrity who often practiced alongside his players.
The championship game opponent
In the state championship scene, the movie portrays South Bend Central (chosen presumably because Milan had lost to South Bend Central in the 1953 state semifinals) as a predominantly black team. The real team was from Muncie Central High School, which had a predominantly white team with three black members. The movie probably borrowed from the actual history of the 1954 semistate final (state quarterfinals), in which Milan defeated the segregated Crispus Attucks High School in Indianapolis, led by all-time great Oscar Robertson, then a sophomore. In the movie, the South Bend Central coach is played by Ray Crowe, who coached Crispus Attucks in 1954 and would, the next year, lead the team to become the first all-black team in the United States to win a state championship playing against schools with white players. The Attucks team, with Crowe as coach and Robertson as floor leader, would repeat as state champions in 1956, becoming the first undefeated team in Indiana high school history.
"You Are All Winners in My Book"
2008-12-23 - Gene Hackman tells the boys that as they are about to take part in the state championship game at Butler stadium. Basically, he is with them, win or lose.
Hackman plays Norman Dale, a last chance basketball coach who was a national title winner in his university coaching days, however, his career ended suddenly. He was in the navy for the last few decades and here is his opportunity to get back into basketball. He comes to the small town of Hickory Indiana with a high school population of 65 students to coach and teach at the school. All the town ever thinks about is basketball. Some are stuck in the failure they had in their youth.
Dale has to face the challenge of a lack of respect from the kids, the parents and the whole town. There are glimmers of hope as one kid who walked off the court is brought back by his dad and apologizes. The story is, hey just let him coach. Hickory has only 6 players at the beginning with the best player sitting out basketball for his own reasons. Jimmy is the best player that people have seen in years. Dale acts unimpressed and tells Jimmy that in a one way conversation. His caretaker is played by Barbara Hershey, who is also a teacher in the school who is unfriendly toward Dale from the time he arrives.
Dale sticks to his guns and his process of leading his team. Eventually the team starts to get it, but the town has had it with his approach. Just as you think the door is closing, things turn around and Dale gets to continue to lead his team with the best player and finally, the full contingent of players he needs. Although a small school, they go on to beat teams much bigger then they getting them into the championship game.
The story has a lot of elements to it, persistence, a clear desire of everyone to be a winner, difference of opinion on how to get there, compassion and even a little love story to broaden the appeal of the movie.
