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Actors: Gene Hackman, Barbara Hershey, Dennis Hopper
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| Review Summary and Plot Commentary about Hoosiers |
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A strong-willed college coach is banned from coaching college basketball by the NCAA for life (about 1940). After 10 years in the Navy, a friend (high school principal in rural Indiana) recruits him to coach the school's (total enrollment 64) basketball team. He must win over the close-knit church-going town, a skeptical team and teacher, Barbara Hersey. He not only improves his life, but wins over the town and the heart of Barbara Hersey by leading the team to the Indiana high school basketball championship game.
--, Resident Scholar
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Before Gene Hackman coached a pro football team filled with misfits in The Replacements, he was the coach of an Indiana high-school basketball team in Hoosiers. The basketball team is also filled with misfits, but Hackman has a way of keeping them in line. The games are shot in black-and-white, which gives the film an authentic 1950s feel. The season is told in retrospective by a player who describes the action that builds up to the state championship game.
--Teddy, Resident Scholar
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In 1951, washed-up college basketball coach Norman Dale (Hackman) arrives in tiny Hickory, Indiana to take the job of coaching the small and undisciplined squad of Hickory High. The citizens becomes suspicious of his unorthodox methods, the vice principal (Hershey) tries to keep his best player in the classroom, and another boy's father is the town drunk (Hopper), whom Dale nevertheless takes on as his assistant coach. With the whole town wanting him fired, Dale and his plucky team aim for the state championships. This is a lovely, uncomplicated, and moving film about life's underdogs that will make you cheer. Hopper won a best supporting actor Oscar in place of the one he should have gotten for "Blue Velvet" that same year.
--David Loftus, Resident Scholar
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| Analysis of Hoosiers |
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Time/era of movie:
- 1930's-1950's
Kind of sports story:
- basketball
Sports story?
Yes
Job/Profession/Poverty Story?
Yes
Job:
- athlete
Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Profession/status:
- coach
Age:
- 40's-50's
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
Sense of humor?
- Strong but gentle sense of humor
Physique
- average physique
Secondary Main Character
Identity:
- Female
Hair color
- brunette (Brown)
How much in movie?
- 60%
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
Main Adversary
How sensitive is this character?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Strong but gentle sense of humor
Setting
United States
Yes
The US:
- Midwest
Farm/Ranch?
Yes
Farm/Ranch:
- farm
Small town?
Yes
Small town people:
- dumb Rednecks, like Gomer Pyle
Misc setting
- sports arena
Style
Accounts of torture and death?
- no torture/death
Any profanity?
- Occasional swearing
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Resident Scholar Profiles
TOP SCHOLAR:
 David Loftus
SCHOLARS:
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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