Hoosiers (1986) Review

Thank you for taking a look at Movies In The Rockies. This blog will take a stab at reviewing movies from the eyes, ears and mind of my non-hollywood mind. I am not an artist, insider or expert. I just like movies and want to share some opinions. Each review will start with a quick synopsis of the film, followed by my perceptions. A final rating will be given with the following rating scale:


Sea Level = The movie falls short of climbing even to the first tier Altitude.


Colorado Plains = The movie starts moving upward but lacks the legs to take it to the hills.


Foot Hills = The movie has legs, but air has left the lungs and stops the movie in its tracks.


Montains = The movie has legs & lungs.


14ers = This movie has eclipsed the summit.

In 1986 two memorable things happened in my life. 1. I graduated from high school and 2. Hoosiers hit the big screen. Ask any basketball junkie what their favorite movie is and there is a great probability that they will tell you "Hoosiers". Hoosiers, directed by David Anspaugh (Rudy, Hill Street Blues), is a story of David vs. Goliath, that is if David wore Chuck Taylors and way too short basketball shorts!! It is based on the real Milan High School basketball team that won an improbable Indiana State Championship in 1954. For those that don't know the story: The State of Indiana had one classification for their High School Basketball tournament until a rule change in 1997. This meant that Milan High School, with an enrollment of 162 total students, was matched up against Muncie Central High School, enrollment over 1600 students. That would be similar to Denver East playing in the state championship in Colorado against Cripple Creek / Victor High School. For those non Colorado readers you may need to look these two schools up on the internet for further reference. Anyway, that is a synopsis of the true story.

The movie begins with Coach Norman Dale (Gene Hackman) being hired on as the new basketball coach for Hickory High School. Hickory, like the real Milan, is a small rural town in southern Indiana. In his first practice Coach Dale sees that he only has 8 players on his roster, 2 of which quit after a spat with the coach. Of course they return later in the movie as no Indiana parent would allow a kid to quit basketball. That would be like some of my book club friends actually quitting wine.. it aint gonna happen... wink, wink. To say the season gets off to a rough start is an understatement.

Making matters even worse, the town superstar, Jimmy Chitwood (Maris Valainis) isn't on the team for personal reasons and his guardian, Myrna Fleener (Barbara Hershey) encourages Jimmy to avoid basketball. Well the season gets going and the team struggles, to say the least. With only 6 players on the opening season roster they actually end one of their games with only 4 players (non basketball folks need to know that there are 5 players on the court at any given time). Of course later in the movie the 2 other players show up (seemingly out of nowhere) and all seems to be going better until the townspeople get together and vote the have Coach Dale relieved of his coaching duties. Once the results of the vote are read, Jimmy enters the meeting and says "I play, coach stays. He goes, I go." The townspeople re-vote and the coach stays.

With Jimmy, everything turns around. The team is starting to become very good. As all smart coaches do, when things are going well they hire the town drunk to be their assistant coach. Especially when the town drunk has a son on the team. Even the drunken antics of the assitant coach could not stop Jimmy and the rest of the Hickory team from taking down all of their opponents. Hickory wins sectionals, regionals and makes it all the way to the state championship. The Hickory boys walking into the gym for the state championship game are visibly intimidated by the size of the arena and Coach Dale settles them down by measuring the dimensions of the court. Coach Dale tells the boys that they will find the same measurements in their gym in Hickory. They are now ready to play!!

The championship game starts out slow for Hickory. They seem beaten in early action when the coach says it looks like we don't belong. This motivates Hickory and Jimmy turns it on. He starts making everything. With only a couple minutes left in the game Hickory makes a run and as time expires, Jimmy makes a 15 foot shot to win the game.

This movie has been at the top of my list of favorite movies for a long time and has earned a rating of 14ER. Although the movie is headlined by a couple of great actors many of the stars are not your everyday Hollywood types. As a matter of fact all of the Hickory players played college basketball except, you guessed it, Jimmy Chitwood. The movie has a homey feel to it that moves the insprirational story along. I have to admit, I'm a sports fan and a basketball junkie so my rating is definitely biased, but I recommend all readers see this movie if you haven't already. If you have seen it already, I recommend renting Hoosiers and Rudy and watching both in an inspirational movie quinella (both movies directed by David Anspaugh!!