Hoosiers
Film Title: Hoosiers
Director:David Anspaugh (1987)
Cast: Gene Hackman, Dennis Hopper, Barbara Hershey
If you love corny love stories AND inspirational sports films, Hoosiers is the film for you. It has star power (Gene Hackman, Dennis Hopper, Barbara Hershey) and a fantastic rural backdrop of India high school basketball. This is a must-see film for all ages.
Hoosiers is inspired in part by the story of the 1954 Indiana state champions, Milan High School In most U.S. states, high school athletic teams are divided into different classes, usually based on the number of enrolled students, with separate state championship tournaments held for each classification. In 1954, Indiana conducted a single state basketball tournament for all its high schools. This practice continued until 1997.
Some plot points are similar to Milan's real story. Like the film's fictional Hickory High School, Milan was a very small high school in a rural, southern Indiana town. Both schools had undersized teams. Both Hickory and Milan won the state finals by 2 points: Hickory won 42–40, and Milan won 32–30. The last seconds of the Hoosiers state final are fairly close to the details of Milan's 1954 final; the last basket in the film was made from virtually the same spot on the floor as Bobby Plump's actual game-winner. The movie's final game was filmed in the same gymnasium that hosted the 1954 Indiana state championship game, Butler University's Hinkle Fieldhouse (called Butler Fieldhouse in 1954) in Indianapolis.
Unlike the film's plot, the 1954 Milan Indians came into the season as heavy favorites and finished the '53–'54 regular season at 19–2. In addition, the 1952–1953 team went to the state semifinals, and they were considered a powerhouse going into the championship season despite the school's small enrollment. In 1970 Dennis Hopper would get a Best Director Oscar nomination for "Easy Rider". He would pick up his second nomination, this time for Best Supporting Actor playing "Shooter" in "Hoosiers."
Unlike the movie The Milan coach, Marvin Wood, was a much younger man than the character played by Gene Hackman in the film.
Despite having an Oscar winning actor starring in the film. The studio released the the film until February of 1987 after the holiday season. The film's popularity through video rentals, not box office.
