Now in our seventh calendar year! PCR #338. (Vol. 7, No. 37) This edition is for the week of September 11--17, 2006.
GREAT COMPANY SET PHASERS ON NUMB SPEAKING OF STAR TREK MUSICAL HISTORY SPEAKING OF MUSIC 10. 20th Century Man by The Kinks - an ode to simpler times. MY FAVORITE FILMS - CHAPTER 37
FIRST SEEN: Yorkridge Cinema, Baltimore, Maryland In 1954, the small town of Milan, Indiana took on the big city Munice Central Bearcats in a battle for the state high school basketball championship. An underdog in every meaning of the word, the Indians won a close game by the score of 32 to 30. Inspired by this true story, director Anspaugh, who had cut his teeth on such television shows as "Hill Street Blues" and "Miami Vice," decided to make this story his feature film debut.
Hackman is perfect as Coach Norman Dale, a one time big college coach that is reduced to coaching high school ball after an incident in which he struck a player. Dale teaches fundamentals, insisting on passes before shots and strict discipline when that shot is taken. When several players balk at his way, the team is made up of only six players, including the equipment manager. Jimmy Chitwood, the star player in town, has decided not to play, making the team even more desperate. After a few losses, the town meets and votes to fire Dale. However, Jimmy steps forward and says he'll play on one condition - if the coach stays. Well, play he does, leading his team to the promised land.
After a great comedy there is no better movie then one that inspires. The little guy standing up to the big guy. Films like "Rocky," "Remember the Titans" and others stress the importance of following your dreams, assuring you that you will be rewarded for your efforts. In a way, the films' message applies to the cast as well, especially Hopper, who also appeared the same year in "Blue Velvet." Like many, Hopper was surprised that the Oscar nomination he earned that year was for "Hoosiers" and not "Blue Velvet." Whichever film it was, the year would signal the return of a man who had never really left.
To share his thoughts on "Hoosiers" I welcome my good friend and "Groundhog Day" fan, Dana Goudreault:
It's Fall in New England, the leaves are changing, there's a cripsness in the morning air and as the burnt orange colors
sway in the numerous Maple trees of New Hampshire, I find myself thinking about...basketball. More specifically, the
high school team called "Huskers" from the small town of Hickory, Indiana.
Of course, there isn't really a Hickory basketball team...there isn't even a Hickory, Indiana period. Unless you count
the fictional one in Hoosiers, which, in reality, is based upon an actual team from another small town high school in
Indiana, Milan. They had quite a Cinderella story when they shocked the entire basketball crazy state of Indiana by
winning the state championship.
Now, being a huge Larry Bird fan (who grew up in the small town of French Lick, Ind), I knew immediately that this
movie was going to be something I must see, just from the shots of the small town atmosphere in the trailer I saw
either on TV or at a theatre while watching the latest Eddie Murphy movie, I honestly don't remember. But I do
remember the feeling that this movie looked as though it would take me to another place and time, a place that
my hero Larry Bird knew all too well...and I just had to be there.
The movie, as described on posters and in newspaper articles, previous to its release, painted a picture that this
was a story we have all heard before and that you could smell the beginning, middle and end before even getting
your popcorn and soda from the concessionaire. I didn't care. Everything this Bird fan saw, from posters to trailers,
made me wanna see it. I still feel that way twenty years later, whenever I see the video box at a flea market or the
dvd box in the bargain bin at Wal-Mart.
The movie isn't so much about winning and losing on the court as much as it is about second chances and redemption
away from the gymnasium.
Gene Hackman plays Coach Dale with such incredible depth, that you honestly feel like you are one of the guys he is
about to scream at because you just aren't getting what he's trying to teach you. He's fierce, he's determined, he's
incredibly blunt (like my Father-in-law) and yet he's so likeable, you want so much for this guy to overcome whatever
issues he has...and he has plenty. And while dealing with his issues, he's reaching out to the kids to help them, he's
reaching out to the drunken father of one of the players (played by Dennis Hopper, who recieved an Oscar nod for this) and
the exchanges between the three of them is an absolute joy to watch. There's a scene towards the end of the movie, where
Hopper's character is confined to a hospotal and his son visits him before the big game and...I cry like a baby everytime I
even think about that scene. It's so incredibly well done, so far away from what you would think this "sports movie" is all
about, that it really stirs you up.
But there is so much more to love about this movie. From the protective teacher played by Barbara Hershey, who from the
get-go tells Coach dale to "leave Jimmy Chitwood alone"...Jimmy is perhaps the greatest player in the state, yet doesn't
play because his teacher thinks focusing on academics is much important that reaching for a pipe-dream shot at an NBA
career, especially from such a small, unknown town as Hickory.
I haven't said much, if anything, about the basketball played in this movie, but...it's without a doubt, the most realistic footage
you will ever see in a movie. And if you think you already know the ending and it's a waste of time, well...I've seen the ending
twenty-plus times since 86 and I admire this movie all the way through the credits each and every time. It's about as perfect a
sports movie as you'll ever see, including Bull Durham, Rudy and Field of Dreams. I love those films too, but this movie is in a
class all by itself...a class inside a very small high school in Hickory, Indiana.
Whenever possible, I try to take a message from a great film and apply it. Several years ago while coaching baseball, my team was involved in a tournament that was played in a HUGE stadium. Seeing the boys' wide-eyed stares, I told the manager to give them "the Hoosiers speech," in which it was pointed out that the while the field may look impressive, the dimensions were the same as our home field. Case closed!
Next week it's back to the laughs of Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder with "Young Frankenstein".
Well, that's all for now. Have a great week. See ya!
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