A coach with a checkered past and a local drunk train a small-town high school basketball team to become a top contender for the state championship in 1950s Indiana.A coach with a checkered past and a local drunk train a small-town high school basketball team to become a top contender for the state championship in 1950s Indiana.A coach with a checkered past and a local drunk train a small-town high school basketball team to become a top contender for the state championship in 1950s Indiana.
- Nominated for 2 Oscars
- 3 wins & 5 nominations total
Skip Welker
- Junior
- (as Calvert L. Welker)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaFor the scene where Dennis Hopper stumbles onto the court drunk during the sectional game, Hopper wanted a 10-second notice before the director called action. He spun around for 10 seconds, allowing him to stagger onto the court and appear drunk. He remembered James Dean in Giant (1956) asking George Stevens for 30 seconds so he could spin around to better feel the inebriation.
- GoofsThe scoreboard at the final game is more electronic than the mechanical clocks and numerical flip-cards used in the 1950s.
- Quotes
[Just before the big game]
Preacher Purl: And David put his hand in the bag and took out a stone and slung it. And it struck the Philistine on the head and he fell to the ground. Amen.
- Alternate versionsThe TV version of the film has been disowned by director David Anspaugh, and its director's credit goes to "Jack Nemo".
- ConnectionsFeatured in Siskel & Ebert: Something Wild/The Mission/Hoosiers/Sky Bandits (1986)
- SoundtracksBig Band Highlight No. 2
Composed by Ole Georg (as Neil Amsterdam)
Courtesy of Capitol Productions Music
Featured review
Excellent Film That Has Always Been Vastly Under-Rated
"Hoosiers" is a film that feels like it was made during Hollywood's Golden Age. The movie is somewhat based on the true story of a small Indiana high school that defied the odds in 1952 and won the state basketball championship. Gene Hackman is the mysterious, hard-nosed coach that must win at all costs. However, he has a secret from his past that could tear the team apart. Hackman does some of the best work of his storied career here. His character is reminiscent of his Oscar-winning turn in "The French Connection" some 15 years earlier. Barbara Hershey is super as usual as one of the school teachers in town. Dennis Hopper shines the most in his greatest screen role. He received his lone Oscar-nomination here by playing a drunken father of one of Hackman's players. "Hoosiers" is very similar to "The Last Picture Show" in its ability to show small-town life at its most realistic. It is also a film that will have the whole audience cheering, ala "Rocky". Easily the best basketball film ever made and one of the best, and most under-rated, films of the 1980s. 5 stars out of 5.
helpful•71
- tfrizzell
- Oct 28, 2000
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Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official site
- Language
- Also known as
- Freiwurf
- Filming locations
- The Hoosier Gym - 355 N. Washington St., Knightstown, Indiana, USA(Hickory High gymnasium)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $6,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $28,607,524
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $220,068
- Nov 16, 1986
- Gross worldwide
- $28,607,524
- Runtime1 hour 54 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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