This film has great heart. Gene Hackman turns in a great performance, as does Dennis Hopper. Having grown up in Indiana, and having been part of more than one caravan to watch a high school basketball game, I know of no film that captures the heart and spirit of the Midwest -- let alone Hoosier basketball -- like Hoosiers. One sign of a great film is the ability to drop in at any time and be absorbed in the film. This is such a film. And yes, it's about a lot more than basketball. It's about new beginnings and overcoming hardship and adversity and second chances -- and in that respect it is a quintessentially American film. It's worth revisiting every NCAA season.

A lot of reviewers have given their arguments already. All I can say is: this will bring joy to your heart if you have ever played a team sport. It's a feel good movie, and you should not be ashamed to feel good when you watch it. Three points! *** But it seems IMDb does not allow reviews of less than 10 lines. Sorry. The rest of the review is superfluous to what I said, but ... the mood in the locker room, the bonding as a team in opposition, Gene Hackmann's redemption, a coach actually making a difference with his personal style of how to train; it all resonated with me, a former (absolutely former) elite athlete, having experienced a coach not unlike the protagonist. Just watch, m'kay. I did tonight that for the third time, on a whim, and this movie still holds up.

It's 1951 and Gene Hackman is an ex basketball coach who has spent the war years and then some in the Navy. He's hired by a small-town high school in rural Indiana to care for their team. The team members are a little self satisfied, having been runners up in some small-time contest a few years ago. Hackman finds the town unfriendly. They liked their last coach and resent him. He brings new ideas to the game -- no more zone defense but rather man-on-man. But he's determined to see these boys whipped into shape and win Big Time.I ask you, the discerning viewer, does he succeed? Barbara Hershey is a teacher hostile to Hackman. Does he win her over? Dennis Hopper is a disgusting drunk but he knows everything about the local teams and how they play basketball. Does Hackman hire him as Assistant Coach? Does Hopper overcome his demons? Is Hackman fired by the town but saved at the last minute by a revelation of some sort? Does he improve the team's spirit. Does he make them want to fight like dogs? Does this get them to the Big Tournament at the state capitol? Does the music on the sound track swell with triumphant fanfares? Are you kidding? I couldn't predict all of the obstacles that would crop up in the screenplay but, once presented with them, pretty much knew exactly how they'd be solved.Maybe part of the reason I found it so tiresome is that I'm not a fan of basketball. But I don't follow baseball either and always enjoy "The Natural." And I'm a lousy pool shooter but think "The Hustler" is a near masterpiece.On the plus side, the cinematography by Fred Murphy is very good indeed, and so is the location shooting. When the distracted Hackman first arrives in Hickory, Indiana, it LOOKS like the beginning of school in September. It's misty, people's breath steams, the ground is littered with tannic leaves. And, as the season progresses, the branches become bare and patches of snow appear in the shadows. If you were driven to find a small farming community dominated by an over-sized white church and an elderly brick high school, you'd want to come here.But how is it possible to take any of this seriously, as the writer and director seem to expect us to? It's a heart-warming write-by-the-numbers story of dispiritedness turning to success. It seems to be aimed at the kind of audience represented by the gangly pituitary cases we watch on the court. The harder you pray, the harder you play.Ho hum.

The film begins with the hiring of a new high school basketball coach (Gene Hackman) in a rural Indiana town in 1951. Despite the townsfolk loving basketball (after all, it IS Indiana), the people really aren't that friendly. They try to tell him how to coach and some of his players have major attitudes as well. It's easy to say that it's a downright unfriendly place for outsiders. However, being a movie, you figure things must change...otherwise it wouldn't make for an interesting film! Into this enjoyable but predictable formula, fortunately, you have a lot of great characters. There is the nice but sick Principal, the teacher who initially hates the coach (Barbara Hershey) and, the most interesting of all, an alcoholic who is actually hired to be the coach's assistant (Dennis Hopper). All of these, along with lovely writing and a strong attention to 1950s details, make this an inspiring and impressive film.I wish all basketball players were forced to watch this game today. It has a lot to say about the game, self-discipline, self-respect and teamwork. So, even thought today's players are probably a lot better than those back in the old days (they are a lot bigger and stronger, that's for sure), they still have a lot to learn.As you watch the film, you need to keep reminding yourself that basketball was MUCH different back in the 50s. There was no shot clock and games OFTEN had total scores below 60...or even 40! So, the Coach's insistence on passing, passing, passing is pretty consistent with the way the game was played at the time--sort of like playing keep-away with occasional shots. So, actually, while the game seems kind of slow in this film, it's really a lot faster than they usually played it back then. They also seemed to have a lot more fights in the film than they probably had in real life.Recently another film was made that was clearly patterned on "Hoosiers" ("The Winning Season"). However, this newer clearly ignored the positive lessons of "Hoosiers" and is a funny film...though I clearly would NOT want to have a real coach be THAT awful! Well worth seeing...sort of an "Anti-Hoosiers"!One of the best films of the genre.