Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Libramedi Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

Sharkflei Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

Stephan Hammond It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

gavin6942 A coach with a checkered past (Gene Hackman) and a local drunk (Dennis Hopper) train a small town high school basketball team to become a top contender for the championship.Although I am not one who cares for basketball or sports films (they all seem to follow the same general plot), this one does have some good things going for it. Namely, Gene Hackman, who never makes a bad movie (or at least never plays a bad role). And Dennis Hopper, who is something of a wild card and is appropriately cast as a drunk.Beyond that, it is just a feel good movie. Nothing too heavy, sort of the thing you expect from the 1980s. And that is just alright.

christopher-r-brewster This film has great heart. Gene Hackman turns in a great performance, as does Dennis Hopper. Having grown up in Indiana, and having been part of more than one caravan to watch a high school basketball game, I know of no film that captures the heart and spirit of the Midwest -- let alone Hoosier basketball -- like Hoosiers. One sign of a great film is the ability to drop in at any time and be absorbed in the film. This is such a film. And yes, it's about a lot more than basketball. It's about new beginnings and overcoming hardship and adversity and second chances -- and in that respect it is a quintessentially American film. It's worth revisiting every NCAA season.

MartinHafer The film begins with the hiring of a new high school basketball coach (Gene Hackman) in a rural Indiana town in 1951. Despite the townsfolk loving basketball (after all, it IS Indiana), the people really aren't that friendly. They try to tell him how to coach and some of his players have major attitudes as well. It's easy to say that it's a downright unfriendly place for outsiders. However, being a movie, you figure things must change...otherwise it wouldn't make for an interesting film! Into this enjoyable but predictable formula, fortunately, you have a lot of great characters. There is the nice but sick Principal, the teacher who initially hates the coach (Barbara Hershey) and, the most interesting of all, an alcoholic who is actually hired to be the coach's assistant (Dennis Hopper). All of these, along with lovely writing and a strong attention to 1950s details, make this an inspiring and impressive film.I wish all basketball players were forced to watch this game today. It has a lot to say about the game, self-discipline, self-respect and teamwork. So, even thought today's players are probably a lot better than those back in the old days (they are a lot bigger and stronger, that's for sure), they still have a lot to learn.As you watch the film, you need to keep reminding yourself that basketball was MUCH different back in the 50s. There was no shot clock and games OFTEN had total scores below 60...or even 40! So, the Coach's insistence on passing, passing, passing is pretty consistent with the way the game was played at the time--sort of like playing keep-away with occasional shots. So, actually, while the game seems kind of slow in this film, it's really a lot faster than they usually played it back then. They also seemed to have a lot more fights in the film than they probably had in real life.Recently another film was made that was clearly patterned on "Hoosiers" ("The Winning Season"). However, this newer clearly ignored the positive lessons of "Hoosiers" and is a funny film...though I clearly would NOT want to have a real coach be THAT awful! Well worth seeing...sort of an "Anti-Hoosiers"!One of the best films of the genre.

Raoul Duke I expect this review will be a bit controversial to some. I am going to say something that some of you will agree with and well will outrage some as well. What is this magic word that will divide the hopefully two people who see this at some point before this blog disappears, well it is "OVER RATED !!!!!!!!!". I hated this movie. I thought the very 80's theme music sucked, I thought Dennis Hopper who got an Oscar nod for this over acted. I thought the love interest angle involving Barbara Hershey and Gene Hackman was obvious. Every thing from the towns people hating newly arrived basketball coach "Gene Hackman" , to the local phenom stepping up to the figuritive plate just at the right moment, to the incredible and subtlety racist ending was obvious. Have you said the phrase "this thing just writes itself" well the chuckleheads who got the green light to do this must have uttered that constantly as they wrote this piece of garbage. Oh and by the way I know I forgot to say it earlier but "hoosiers" is an Oscar nominated film about a basketball team that wins the big game in the 1950's and was made in 1986. You can skip this one "over rated" "over rated" "over rated"!