“Hoosiers,” David Anspaugh’s acclaimed 1986 debut as a film director, is a sacred film to its fan base.
Meeting a devotee of “Hoosiers” is akin to encountering an intensely enthusiastic sports fanatic, who will tell you at length why it’s either one of the greatest movies ever made or simply the best basketball movie, period.
Considering that the film is now 40 years old and has lots of competition in the unofficial Basketball Movie Hall of Fame, it says a lot that this film remains the one I hear the most whenever the best in basketball cinema is ever in question.
Despite that pedigree and the film’s lasting legacy, “Hoosiers” is so humble and unpretentious that it reflects the mindset and demeanor of its protagonist, Coach Norman Dale (Gene Hackman). Dale is the new coach for a high school that is immediately unprepared for his unconventional methods.
The town of Hickory, Ind. has high hopes for Dale but is immediately troubled by his unwillingness to compromise his approach.
Coach Dale further upsets the locals by hiring Wilbur “Shooter” Flatch, the town drunk (Dennis Hopper) to assist him. Myra, a fellow teacher (Barbara Hershey), winds up becoming one of the few to give Coach Dale a chance to prove himself to the school and the entire town.
What I find surprising is that those who love the movie aren’t just basketball fans or even Hackman devotees. I’ve encountered “Hoosiers” fanatics who see the film as a cinematic encapsulation of a sacred place and time in their lives.
While visiting my friend Zach in Indianapolis decades ago, he took me on a tour of the Butler University basketball stadium where the film’s big game was shot. It’s a looming, echoing building with a circular lobby, full of framed photos and glass-encased memorabilia of all the games played there.
Being at the Butler University stadium during an off season, strolling quietly from each picture to the next, I was filled with the sense of being in the midst of ghosts, whispering their former glories and hard-won victories in my ear.
After seeing the massive basketball court, with a roof that seemed Victorian and stretched high above me, I spotted one last photograph on my way out: it featured the cast of “Hoosiers,” who were in period costume. It was amusing to see how casually that photo hung with the others, as though the film’s history was every bit as essential to the non-Hollywood games that played in the building.
A few days later, Zach took me to a friend’s house, and we had a party in his furnished basement and makeshift man-cave. Our host had a framed poster of “Hoosiers” on his wall. He explained to me how much the film meant to him, that it was so much more than just a movie.
He said it was a film about everything that was great about Indianapolis.
More than a chronicle of a series of basketball games, “Hoosiers” is an examination of character. Coach Dale comes across as introverted and frustratingly stubborn to the town folk who employ him, but his players recognize the unique fire within him.
FAST FACT: “Hoosiers” endures, in part, because Anspaugh understood the bond between basketball and Indiana culture. “It is a religion,” he said, “it’s how communities and schools define themselves.”
Hackman retired from acting in 2003 and passed away last year at the age of 95. I really miss him. He gave depth, integrity and touches of humor to every role he played, and he really is one of the best film actors of my generation.
The latter statement is easy to make because of an easy fact: it’s not hard to name a movie with Hackman that wasn’t great, but good luck naming even one where he wasn’t great in it.
As Coach Dale, Hackman’s portrayal of a driven, remarkably focused and brilliant teacher is so precise; his affection and dedication to the character resonates.
Hershey has some nice scenes opposite Hackman and Hopper is superb as a man struggling to be more than a local joke. In addition to Anspaugh’s fine, observant direction, Jerry Goldsmith’s score is deeply in synch with the film’s emotions and depiction of small-town hopes and values.
There have been many true-life sports dramas before and since “Hoosiers,” but few are as lovely, lived-in and carefully observed as this one.