Independent Films, Film Profiles

Hoosiers

Hoosiers is a 1986 sports film about a small-town Indiana high school basketball team that wins the state championship. The film is set during 1952, when all high schools in Indiana, regardless of school size, competed in one state championship tournament. It stars Gene Hackman as a new coach with a spotty past, Barbara Hershey, Sheb Wooley, and Dennis Hopper as the basketball-loving town drunkard, a performance that brought Hopper an Oscar nomination. The movie was written by Angelo Pizzo, who would go on to co-produce the underdog sports movie Rudy, and directed by David Anspaugh, who directed the latter film. The score was composed by Jerry Goldsmith, who was also nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Score.Hoosiers was ranked number 13 by the American Film Institute on its 100 Years... 100 Cheers. The film was the choice of the readers of USA Today newspaper as the best sports movie of all time. In 2001, Hoosiers was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".In June 2008, AFI revealed its "Ten top Ten" — the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres — after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. Hoosiers was acknowledged as the fourth best film in the sports genre.[2]A museum to commemorate the real life achievements of the 1954 Milan Team has been established. Hoosiers was re-titled as Best Shot in the United Kingdom.