Hoosiers [Best Shot] **** (1986, Gene Hackman, Barbara Hershey, Dennis Hopper) – Classic Movie Review 3485

Director David Anspaugh’s poignant and complex 1986 sports drama classic stars Gene Hackman as Norman Dale, a crusty burnt-out basketball coach with a troubled past who is given one last chance to salvage his career. So he trains Fifties Indiana high-school boys for basketball success in this stimulating, sometimes exhilarating sports comedy drama.

Though we’ve been here often before, the old story is given a thoroughly good workout, thanks to the vim of Hackman’s performance, Angelo Pizzo’s truthful, flavourful screenplay, and the zip in Anspaugh’s direction.

Dennis Hopper’s turn as Shooter, the town’s drunken oddball, who finds a second life on the bench as a sober assistant coach, appears to advantage, and he was deservedly nominated for an Oscar. It was Hopper’s only ever actor nomination, though he was also nominated for a shared Best Story and Screenplay Oscar for Easy Rider (1969). Jerry Goldsmith’s score was also nominated for an Oscar.

Also in the cast are Barbara Hershey, Sheb Wooley, Fern Parsons, Brad Boyle, Steve Hollar, Brad Long and David Neidorf. But the real stars are the members of the fictional Hickory High School basketball team, who, despite distraction and pressure from their fellow townsfolk, make their way to the 1952 Indiana state high school basketball championship game.

The movie is based on the true story of a small-town Indiana team that made the state finals in 1954.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3485

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