Wonderful Movie

Wonderful character development!

Absolutely Fantastic

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

"Norman Dale" (Gene Hackman) was a college basketball coach for 10 years until an incident force him to leave and subsequently join the Navy. Now, 12 years later, he has returned to the profession he loves by accepting a coaching position for a high school in Indiana. However, the people in this small town take basketball extremely serious and they aren't nearly as enthusiastic to his new methods as he would like. To make matters even worse he only has 6 players on the team with one key holdout named "Jimmy Chitwood" (Maris Valainis) deciding not to play the entire season. That being said, when the team gets off to a rocky start everyone in town begins to call for his scalp. But he remains determined in spite of everything that has gone wrong. The question is whether he can turn things around before he gets fired. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that having spent a little time in Indiana this film did an excellent job of capturing the basketball climate as well as presenting the small town atmosphere there during that particular time also. Truly excellent. Additionally, along with the aforementioned Gene Hackman, I also liked the performances of Barbara Hershey (as "Myra Fleener") and Dennis Hopper ("Shooter") as well. In any case, this is one of those few movies that I can watch over and over again and I have rated it accordingly. Definitely above average.

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.

A shy but talented young man leads his small town high school basketball team to the state championship. The small town atmosphere is nicely evoked in this film, which was inspired by the true story of the Milan High School's 1954 state title in Indiana. The game action is well simulated, but it seems too calculated and predictable to create true excitement. Hackman is terrific as usual as the coach who's been given a second chance to revive his career. Hershey is also effective as a teacher that Hackman initially clashes with. Hopper has a showy role as a former star player who's now a drunk, but is given a chance by Hackman to redeem himself.

Eleanor Roosevelt famously said that you can't be made to feel inferior without your own consent.Gene Hackman proves the words true as a coach from out of town whom the small-minded dismiss as washed-out and a has-been. He doesn't buy into the put-downs and winds up leading his rural Indiana basketball team to victory in this true-life tale dating to 1954. This may be one of those rare sports films that would interest even to those who don't follow the game. It's fairly easy to understand the court action, and it's enjoyable to savor the pretty scenes of Indiana along the way.Some time is wasted on internecine spats and a few too many cheer-leading scenes but the slow-to-simmer romance between Hackman and Barbara Hershey is believable. I remember seeing this ages ago in the theater. It stands up pretty well to time.