Hoosiers

    Hoosiers
    1986

    Synopsis

    Failed college coach Norman Dale gets a chance at redemption when he is hired to coach a high school basketball team in a tiny Indiana town. After a teacher persuades star player Jimmy Chitwood to quit and focus on his long-neglected studies, Dale struggles to develop a winning team in the face of community criticism for his temper and his unconventional choice of assistant coach: Shooter, a notorious alcoholic.

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    Cast

    • Gene HackmanCoach Norman Dale
    • Barbara HersheyMyra Fleener
    • Dennis HopperShooter
    • Sheb WooleyCletus
    • Fern PersonsOpal Fleener
    • Chelcie RossGeorge
    • Robert SwanRollin
    • Michael O'GuinneRooster
    • Wil DewittReverend Doty
    • John Robert ThompsonSheriff Finley

    Recommendations

    • 100

      Washington Post

      Hackman anchors the movie with a performance of remarkable control. You see his hurt in his glances at his shoes, his little phony chuckle; you can feel him carrying his secret -- it's a rage held together with rubber bands. This is the Hackman of "The Conversation," not "The French Connection." [27 Feb 1987, Style, p.c1]
    • 100

      Los Angeles Times

      It's as engaging, as modest, as utterly American and as thrilling as the true-life story it's based on. [11 Dec 1986, Calendar, p.6-1]
    • 100

      San Francisco Chronicle

      The pieces of the drama are put forth like the shapes of the five fingers of a hand, and finally they find a kind of awkward unity that was predictable from the start. And yet, the gesture of it all is utterly captivating, the way a dream would be if it ever really came true. [27 Feb 1987, Daily Datebook, p.74]
    • 100

      Chicago Sun-Times

      In the way it combines sports with human nature, it reminded me of another wonderful Indiana sports movie, "Breaking Away." It's a movie that is all heart.
    • 75

      Chicago Tribune

      There is enough intelligence and craftsmanship in the execution of Hoosiers to make it seem, if not exactly fresh, at least respectably entertaining. [27 Feb 1987, Friday, p.A]
    • 70

      TV Guide Magazine

      The film clearly functions as wish-fulfillment for the kind of people who are nostalgic about all-white basketball, leaving a nasty aftertaste.
    • 63

      Christian Science Monitor

      Gene Hackman is solid as the hero, and Dennis Hopper does his best screen work ever. [6 Mar 1987, Arts & Leisure, p.23]
    • 63

      The Globe and Mail (Toronto)

      As manipulative as a charmer with a snake, and twice as much fun... Shameless, yes, but open your eyes, close your mind, sit back and enjoy - 'cause it feels so good.