David Anspaugh’s “Hoosiers” is showing at 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 8 at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. For more information, go to http://www.imamuseum.org/.
In 1986, director David Anspaugh and native Hoosier screenwriter Angelo Pizzo released what would become a classic — “Hoosiers,” loosely based on Milan High School’s legendary run to the state boys’ basketball championship.
“Hoosiers” successfully reflected the excitement of, and obsession surrounding, high school basketball in Indiana. The former blind-draw, single-class basketball tournament gave any small school a chance to defeat any large school. In the state final championship game, this happened approximately once — in 1954, when tiny Milan High School knocked off powerhouse Muncie Central via a last-second shot by Bobby Plump.
In “Hoosiers,” Pizzo’s screenplay made a number of changes, including inventing Hickory High School to stand in for Milan, and replacing Muncie Central with South Bend High, which apparently sounds bigger and more intimidating to those not born or raised in Indiana. The backstory of the coach and townspeople is also fictional, but then the beauty of “Hoosiers” is that it captures the essence of Indiana basketball rather than simply retelling a factual story.
Now before we go any further, I must tell you that I am the last person (and I mean the very last person) who should be reviewing “Hoosiers.” But that’s what I do here – I tell you about “Buried Treasures” of the motion picture world, and about opportunities to see classic films in and around Indianapolis. But, you see, back in 1986 I must have been the only film critic (and certainly the only native Hoosier and basketball fanatic film critic) who did not like “Hoosiers.” That’s right: I gave it a negative review. Now before you come after me with pitchforks and battering rams, allow me to explain.
Nobody plays “salt of the earth” characters better than Gene Hackman. His Norman Dale character ranks alongside Pat O’Brien’s turn as legendary Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne as the best portrayal of a coach in film history. Hackman — himself a native of Danville, Illinois, which is right on Indiana's border — brings exactly the right combination of backbone and affinity to the role.
At first, the players, parents, and townspeople dislike Coach Dale. He’s too hard on the players, he’s too stubborn and he concentrates too much on fundamentals at the expense of actual game situations. But of course, winning games has a way of changing public opinion, as we see during the second half of “Hoosiers.” Hackman gave us many great performances over his five-decade career, and Norman Dale is one of his best.
My problem is with how the screenplay treats the other characters. Instead of focusing on the team players, Pizzo’s script gives us two side stories that are not rooted in reality, have nothing to do with the progression of the success of the team, and are downright distracting. First and foremost is a relationship between Coach Dale and a Hickory High teacher played by Barbara Hershey. It's unnecessary, and takes up too much screen time that could have been given to the development of the stories of the actual players.
Second is Coach Dale’s “hiring” of the town drunk to help him coach ballgames. He’s played by Dennis Hopper, who could play a town drunk in his sleep but seems out of place here. While Coach Dale has a bit of a checkered past, he’s presented as the good guy — strong coaching skills, a real rapport with players and their parents, and basically an upstanding citizen. Why then would he want the town drunk, even if he is a former local basketball legend, helping him on the bench? And in a twist of irony, Hopper was nominated for a Best Supporting Oscar for this role, the same year he gave the world his best-ever job of acting in David Lynch’s classic “Blue Velvet.”
Neither of these stories adds anything to the plot, and both seem contrived to provide roles for well-known actors hired to bring more fans into the theater.
As I watched “Hoosiers” for the first time, I kept thinking back to Peter Yates’ 1979 film “Breaking Away," which told the story of four local teens who entered the Indiana University Little 500 bicycle race and beat the fraternity teams. That superior picture featured four previously unknown actors as the locals and no big-name stars as the adults (unless you count Paul Dooley and Barbara Barrie). “Breaking Away” succeeded by letting us into the lives of the four principal players. We knew their pasts; we knew their present situations; we knew what made them tick. No such similarity with “Hoosiers.” Save for star player Jimmy Chitwood, we aren’t given much background on the interchangeable players, and that’s a shame.
I also found Fred Murphy’s cinematography to be bland, and that’s hard to do with a sport as fast-paced as basketball. Remember Martin Scorsese’s “The Color of Money,” also from 1986? Remember the close-up shots of the pool balls crashing into one another? The quick cuts made a sport as slow-moving as pool seem fascinating. Imagine what Scorsese could have done with basketball.
As a native of this great state, I loved seeing various old high school gyms used for various venues in “Hoosiers.” And I loved seeing legendary Ft. Wayne broadcaster Hilliard Gates speaking into his microphone about the new “mammoth Hinkle Fieldhouse.” But these perks likely didn’t add anything for non-Hoosier filmgoers. After watching “Hoosiers” again recently, I stand by my initial review knowing full well that I will not change anyone’s mind.
Many consider “Hoosiers” the greatest sports film ever made, although I can’t imagine anything will ever top “Pride of the Yankees.” If you’re a native Hoosier, a Hoosier transplant or a basketball fan, you owe it to yourself to see “Hoosiers” at least once. Despite the opinion of one old fuddy-duddy writer here at The Film Yap, it is a classic.
Andy Ray’s reviews of current films appear at http://www.artschannelindy.com/.