Hoosiers

Gene Hackman is at his best in one of the greatest sports movies ever.

James Lees

Mar 07, 2025

PRE GAME 🏀

Welcome back to Balls on Film! 👋🏻

I hope you all have had a good week.

The 2025 Glasgow Film Festival is currently in full swing, and it’s one of the things that I look forward to most every year. When this arrives in your inboxes and goes live on Substack, I’ll be attending Fright Fest, which I do each year. It’s a two-day horror movie festival that takes place as part of the Glasgow Film Festival each year, and over the course of the two days, the audience are treated to around 11 horror movies, ahead of them being released or sometimes even picked up by a distributor. I’ve seen some real gems at Fright Fest over the years, and I’m hoping for the same this year. I’ll report back next week!

Speaking of the festival, each year it hosts a surprise movie and it’s something I always get tickets for. It’s always a new film that’s not yet been released, but other than that there’s no guarantees as to what you’ll get. Some years have been better than others, but this year’s might have been my favourite one yet - and surely one that will be an early contender for my film of the year. I’ll talk more about it at halftime!

As I mentioned last week, I already had another film planned for today, but after hearing the sad news about the passing of Gene Hackman, I knew I had to honour the career of one of the all-time greats and revisit Hoosiers. It might be my favourite basketball movie ever, and one of Hackman’s best performances.

Let’s get to it!

FIRST HALF 🏀

There’s something about Hoosiers that always sticks with me long after the credits roll. Maybe it’s the way it captures small-town life, and how basketball is essentially the town’s identity. Maybe it’s the way it fleshes out the typical underdog story into something that feels more personal, and that goes beyond basketball with its messages of second chances and pursuing something greater than yourself. Or maybe it’s Gene Hackman, whose performance as Coach Norman Dale is a reminder of why he was one of the greatest actors of our time. As we reflect on his legendary career, this film stands as one of his defining performances, in a role that perfectly captures the mix of toughness and vulnerability that he crafted so well. Nearly 40 years after its release, it’s not just still my favourite basketball movie, but one of the best sports movies ever made.

Hackman plays Norman Dale, a coach with a bit of a mysterious past, who arrives in Hickory, Indiana having been banned from coaching basketball years earlier. His strict, no-nonsense approach immediately puts him at odds with the people in the town, most of whom are very much set in their ways. Basketball is the town’s beating heart, and everyone has an opinion about how to coach the correct way and him being the outsider coming in and shaking things up puts him in a tough situation from the jump. He arrives and meets Jimmy Chitwood, the star player who refuses to play, butts heads with players and school staff and initially struggles to get the team to adapt to his ways. You know where the story ultimately goes, but the journey is pure movie magic.

Hackman is such a force here. It’s a role that never feels cliched or tired, even though you’ve seen the same sports movie coach character before. Hackman makes it his own. He’s strict, but not the usual tough coach that the team eventually wear down - it’s evident from the start that there’s something deeper going on. He’s there to change the team, not the other way around. There’s no big, sentimental speeches, and no big moment of connection with the players. The locker room speeches are tough and everything is done the hard way, and by the time the final game arrives, you really feel what’s at stake for the coach and the team.

His performance is so good, that it makes all of the behind the scenes stuff even more unbelievable. For those unaware, Hackman reportedly hated working on the film and was miserable on set. He was convinced it would be a disaster, and apparently clashed with the director non-stop. You’d have never known waiting it, but we’ll get into that more in the second half.

While Hackman anchors the film, it’s not a one man-show by any means. Dennis Hopper plays Shooter, the town drunk and father of one of the players. He’s a basketball genius whose addiction has left him a shell of his former self. He’s dismissed by the whole town, but Dale sees something in him and gives a second chance as an assistant coach. Shooter’s journey is a rollercoaster, and Hopper makes him so easy to route for, despite his mistakes. There’s one scene in particular between him and his son in the film’s second half which is particularly powerful. In another scene, as he’s dressed in a suit and tie and nervously preparing to step onto the court in the Coach’s absence. He’s trembling, scared and desperate to prove that he‘s still capable of more. It’s heartbreaking, and one of the film’s most powerful moments. It’s odd to see Dennis Hopper in such a heartfelt role, since I’m so used to associating him with villains, but he absolutely nails it.

And then there’s Barbara Hershey as Myra, who’s initially sceptical of Coach and his past and protective of the students. The bond that forms between the two is such an effective way of allowing the audience to gradually learn more about his past that doesn’t feel forced or shoehorned in.

Another area in which Hoosiers really shines is in its authenticity. The basketball feels real - scrappy, sometimes messy, and tough. The small-town setting, the wooden gym floors, the fans packed into tiny bleachers - it all feels lived-in, like a real look back at a bygone era. The final game sequence at Hinkle Fieldhouse is one of my favourite final game scenes ever. The camaraderie and the bonds that have formed between the team really become evident as the film heads into the final stretch - emphasised by the great performances of the team. I actually think it helps that the actors aren’t big famous names - most of them don’t even have a profile picture on IMDb. It adds another layer of realism to what we’re watching.

Nearly four decades on, Hoosiers remains one of the greatest sports movies ever made. Its themes resonate just as strongly today as they did in 1986. it’s a great basketball movie of course, but it’s redemption arcs and characters finding their second chances in life are the real slam dunk here.

As we look back at Gene Hackman’s amazing career, Hoosiers stands as one of his most memorable. It’s one that, like both the film and Hackman itself, will never be forgotten.

Hoosiers is available to rent or purchase on most digital platforms, and currently streaming on Prime Video.

HALFTIME 🍿

Let’s take a break for halftime.

Here’s what else I’ve been watching this week:

The Pitt

It took me a while to get to The Pitt, but I’ve been completely hooked since episode one. The real time aspect really serves this type of show so well, and I can’t believe it’s taken this long for someone to adapt it for a show set in a hospital. The whole cast are incredible, Noah Wyle in particular. The Emmy race between this and Severance is going to be too difficult to call.

The Pitt is streaming on MAX now in the US, coming to Sky/Now TV in the UK soon.

The Ballad of Wallis Island

I mentioned it in pre-game - this was the surprise film of the 2025 Glasgow Film Festival, and it was a very special one indeed! An eccentric lottery winner who lives alone on a secluded island, tries to make his dreams come true by getting his favourite singer to perform at a private event. That’s all I really want to say about the plot, but this movie hit me deep in my soul in a way that few movies have. It’s incredibly funny, poignant and a story that you’ll get completely lost in. This is going to be right up there with my favourite movies of the year. Don’t miss it when it’s released!

The Ballad of Wallis Island releases in theatres on May 30th.

As usual, let me know what you’re watching or what you’re planning to go see. Let’s get back on to the field!

SECOND HALF 🏀

Let’s jump into some awards and bonus content.

BEST SCENE 🏆

There’s two scenes I want to highlight here.

One of the best movie locker room speeches ever, and there’s been a lot of them!

This one was such a pivotal moment for Shooter, and the build up to it and eventual payoff was perfect.

BEST LINE 🏆

Coach Norman Dale: “If you put your effort and concentration into playing to your potential, to be the best that you can be, I don't care what the scoreboard says at the end of the game, in my book we're gonna be winners.”

MVP AWARD 🏆

I can’t award this to anyone other than Gene Hackman. It’s a powerhouse performance and what elevates this to one of the best sports movies ever made.

TRIVIA HIGHLIGHT 🏆

I’m bringing you three pieces of trivia this week, but all of them are connected to Gene Hackman and him being generally miserable during filming.

Per IMDb:

Per director David Anspaugh, "[Before filming began] I was so excited to have Gene Hackman. He was the coolest guy to hang out with. He was funny and irreverent and [told] great stories and all that. And then, first day of shooting, I didn't recognize [him]. He became an entirely different person. And he just made it hell on Earth for me every day. ... He was everything negative. He wanted off the movie."

Gene Hackman and David Anspaugh clashed throughout most of the production. "Gene had me on the verge of a nervous breakdown," Anspaugh told Vulture. "He gave me my first anxiety attack: One morning I woke up and I couldn't walk; the room was spinning. I thought every day on the film was going to be my last because Gene's agent was trying to get me fired." According to Anspaugh, the only thing that saved his job was the dailies. "The producers said, 'Look, David's not getting fired,'" the director recalled. "And we showed a half-hour of dailies to Gene's agent, and he saw that what we were making was actually pretty good."

Gene Hackman, who during filming had predicted the movie would be a flop, insisted on viewing a rough cut of the film before going in to re-record some of his audio. "Angelo and I knew that if he didn't like the [rough cut], he wouldn't show up at the studio to re-record his dialog," David Anspaugh said. "But he showed up. He walked into the room, took his glasses off, looked me in the eyes, and said, 'How the hell did you do that?'"

BEST LETTERBOXD REVIEW 🏆

I did also question Jimmy Chitwood’s attire the first time I watched this.

BONUS FEATURES 💿

Here’s David Anspaugh talking to Rich Eisen on Gene Hackman hating the movie:

And here’s Dan Patrick remember the career of Hackman and discussing the movie:

And finally, here’s the Hickory players being introduced on the court at an Indiana Pacers game back in 2021 in honour of the Hoosier Gym’s 100th Anniversary and the movie’s 35th anniversary:

POST-GAME 🏀

Next week, I’ll go back to the original film that I had planned for this week. We’re heading to Japan with Tom Selleck next Friday with Mr. Baseball.

I’d like to hear your thoughts and get your suggestions on upcoming reviews. Are there any movies in particular that you’d like me to cover soon? Are there any sports movie sub-genres that I’ve not covered yet, that you’d like me to? I’m open to suggestions, so let me know in the comments.

As always, let me know what you thought of Hoosiers, and let me know what your fav Gene Hackman movie is.

See you next week! 👋🏻

~James