Jack Nicholson wanted the role. Upon learning that, we immediately wonder how that would have turned out. We imagine scenes from the movie with Nicholson. We cannot be sure of how such an alteration would have affected it. Hackman nailed the role. So at movie's start we see him as this very driven person - frankly so alone - driving across the country with urgency. He is truly alone with his sense of mission, en route for a high school basketball coaching opportunity.
The movie is set in 1952. Was the movie trying to tell us that those were better times? I do think the movie had a message for American society. Do not take this as a pretentious thought. Movies reflect society or the American zeitgeist. And in the middle of the 1980s - Ronald Reagan's steadying hand in play - America was pining for times where we could trust authority more. To trust authority again.
The zeitgeist through the '70s had been one of challenging orthodoxy on so many fronts. In many cases this became sheer fashion. Heavens, it seeped into academia in spades. "Discard everything you think you know."
The origin of this had some legitimacy. All the kids who rose up against the Vietnam war turned out to be right. The war was a pretty big mistake by America's leadership. Stung by the war and its cultural upheaval, America was sort of gasping for air by the mid-1980s, wanting to believe in its real underpinning of values again.
Here comes "Norman Dale" in the movie "Hoosiers." A very conventional-looking man imbued with conventional values that he would not question for a second. Short hair of course! You should know that men's hair length was once a matter of some restlessness. How can hair length possibly equate with meaningful political or cultural values? It's ridiculous but it happened. And by the mid-1980s, I think most of us wanted to move ahead without looking back much.
We were emerging from a period that seemed reckless, when "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" passed for standard prime-time entertainment. The show was impulsive, silly and disturbing. But we consumed it. That is, until we came to our senses. "Hoosiers" and "Groundhog Day" were movies that sort of slapped the boomer generation (mine) across the face. "Look, this is the way we're supposed to live." We needed a framework of rules and norms that promoted class and good sense in our behaviors.
So Hollywood felt that a movie evoking our way of life in the '50s would reflect the adjustment. Vietnam was long over. We could not forget Vietnam because we'd never want anything like it to happen again. It's tough. Iraq and Afghanistan justified? Good question. I'm inclined to say no.
Hackman as "Norman Dale" arrives at this quintessential little rural town where Hollywood tries to remind of some stereotypes. The stereotypes are voiced by the young female teacher who "Norman Dale" befriends. Barbara Hershey is the actress. Her character still strikes me as an enigma. I wonder if the movie makers themselves were bothered by this.
She gets right in coach Dale's face with pronouncements about how shallow is the enthusiasm for high school basketball. She props up the unflattering stereotype of small towns. She practically tells coach Dale to his face that he's a pathetic figure. She laments the middle age men who cannot get over their memories of their playing days. In contradiction to all that, she sure seemed content to live in "Hickory" and to show strong interest in the basketball.
She rose to speak at the town meeting on coach Dale. Where did this newfound affection for coach Dale come from? An even bigger surprise later in the movie: a genuine Hollywood kiss between the two. If you research the making of the movie, you will learn that a scene that presaged the kiss ended up on the cutting room floor.
If this woman thought that small town high school basketball really represented shallowness - was rather Neanderthal - why did she go to all the games? Why did she show such emotion at the end when Hickory beat the big city boys of South Bend Central? I wish Spike Lee would make a movie called "South Bend Central" that would tell the story of what it was like for African American youth in an American big city, circa 1952. Could South Bend Central be made to win at the end? Those boys were underdogs too, maybe even more than the hayseeds from Hickory.
"Hoosiers" was careful to show that while "South Bend Central" was the team we should root against, the behavior of the team and its fans was commendable all the way around.
It passed muster, yes
"Hoosiers" as cinema batted nearly a thousand, in my mind. Hollywood is the dream factory. We don't really expect movies to change the world. Hollywood reflects what is going on in society, can reinforce it. "Groundhog Day" started with the chief character being so turned off by the insurance salesman guy. Typical attitude of young people before they have acquired assets. What could be more boring than insurance?
But hey, by movie's end we see Bill Murray most receptive. And he no longer pokes fun at his own job with its cliche-ish assignments like covering "Groundhog Day" in Pennsylvania.
In "Hoosiers" we see Hackman as the classic authority figure - he has to be male? - who is to be taken 100 percent seriously. He told his boys that his word is the law. So didn't you find it strange at the end that his instructions for "Jimmy" to be the decoy for the last shot were disregarded? I'm champing at the bit to share my theory on that.
Many of the most classic movies have a subtle parallel with the Christ-as-savior story. Hackman himself struck a pose like Christ on the cross when he died in "The Poseidon Adventure," remember? Why does Hollywood do this? I don't know but there has to be a basis. The alien in "E.T." rose from the dead. "E.T." performed miracles like Christ. And in "Hoosiers" the Christ-like figure was "Jimmy," so talented he could literally be a savior. He could save this small town with all its rubes from defeat in the championship game.
I thought it was an odd scene: the players looking incredulous after getting their final instruction from the man whose authority was supposedly unquestioned. "Jimmy" suddenly says "I'll make it" (the last shot). Coach Dale then acceded and you know the rest of the script. For the sake of Christ we can put aside the anomalous nature of that scene. Christ supersedes everything.
The rest of the movie hit us over the head with how a strong male authority figure demanded respect, deference. "This man has a job to do," a player's father said. Yes, a "man." Well it was 1952. Was Hollywood trying to tell us that men still deserve deference? Just speculation.
There were three girl cheerleaders. They looked very nice but we did not get to know them at all. How about the pep band director? We see this individual in a fleeting scene only. Did Hickory have a wrestling team that winter too? So much focus on this obsession called "basketball."
I love "Hoosiers" and sometimes we nit-pick the movies we love. It's the prerogative of the moviegoer.
Wait a minute. . .
Did the thought cross your mind: For a team that was headed to the state championship, the "Huskers" sure played lots of close games. I'd expect an eventual state champion to be blowing people away regularly. Even with "Jimmy" back, the team played nail-biters like when they needed the short kid to make freethrows.
Sheb Wooley as the wise principal "Cletus Summer" looked pretty old for someone who graduated from "Buffalo State Teachers College" in 1931. Dennis Hopper's character may have been a little overdone. I wish he had stuck it out along the bench through the end.
Coach Dale took over for the stop-gap coach who was presented as a "heavy" in the movie. The stop-gap coach was shown as lax and doing things in such a generic way: lots of scrimmaging and zone defense. I happen to know these traits are plain vanilla, and sort of the lazy approach. This I gleaned from a couple friends I have in the sport.
However, had the temp coach been active for the whole season, I'm sure the team even without Jimmy would have been over .500 and had a very fun time. There would have been less stress. Maybe the guys could have asked out the cheerleaders!
Was winning at the end more important for the coach than for the players? So earthshaking was the end of the movie, I'd have to wonder if the players for the rest of their lives would simply not get over it. And that could be a bad thing. Sports! Such an opiate for us all, right? I have always been a mere observer and I feel fortunate. At age 68 I don't have to worry about the effects of head injuries, had I played football.
The movie makers could totally celebrate the success of "Hoosiers." It hit the sweet spot. Audiences were not bothered by any plausibility issues. Movie makers lose sleep over that I'm sure.
Did "Hoosiers" help steer Americans, particularly the youth, in a new direction? Back to conventional values, respect for our elders and authority figures? Maybe it did. But let's always put Christ first.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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