100
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
In the way it combines sports with human nature, it reminded me of another wonderful Indiana sports movie, "Breaking Away." It's a movie that is all heart.
Hoosiers
Critic Rating
(read reviews)User Rating
- United States,
- United Kingdom
- 1986
- · 114m
Director
David Anspaugh
Cast
Gene Hackman,
Barbara Hershey,
Dennis Hopper,
Sheb Wooley,
Fern Persons,
Chelcie Ross,
Robert Swan,
Michael O'Guinne,
Wil Dewitt,
John Robert Thompson
Genre
Drama,
Family
Failed college coach Norman Dale gets a chance at redemption when he is hired to coach a high school basketball team in a tiny Indiana town. After a teacher persuades star player Jimmy Chitwood to quit and focus on his long-neglected studies, Dale struggles to develop a winning team in the face of community criticism for his temper and his unconventional choice of assistant coach: Shooter, a notorious alcoholic.
Stream Hoosiers
What are critics saying?
100
San Francisco Chronicle by Peter Stack
The pieces of the drama are put forth like the shapes of the five fingers of a hand, and finally they find a kind of awkward unity that was predictable from the start. And yet, the gesture of it all is utterly captivating, the way a dream would be if it ever really came true. [27 Feb 1987, Daily Datebook, p.74]
100
Los Angeles Times by Sheila Benson
It's as engaging, as modest, as utterly American and as thrilling as the true-life story it's based on. [11 Dec 1986, Calendar, p.6-1]
100
Washington Post by Paul Attanasio
Hackman anchors the movie with a performance of remarkable control. You see his hurt in his glances at his shoes, his little phony chuckle; you can feel him carrying his secret -- it's a rage held together with rubber bands. This is the Hackman of "The Conversation," not "The French Connection." [27 Feb 1987, Style, p.c1]
90
Washington Post by Rita Kempley
Yet much of the movie's validity stems from time and place recreated with such authenticity that you can sense the wet chill in the morning air and the new wax pungent on the old gym floor. [27 Feb 1987, Weekend, p.n29]
88
USA Today by Mike Clark
This is one of the best re-creations ever of the early-'50s Midwest. [11 Sept 1987, Life, p.3D]
80
The New York Times by Janet Maslin
This film's very lack of surprise and sophistication accounts for a lot of its considerable charm.
75
Chicago Tribune by Dave Kehr
There is enough intelligence and craftsmanship in the execution of Hoosiers to make it seem, if not exactly fresh, at least respectably entertaining. [27 Feb 1987, Friday, p.A]
70
TV Guide Magazine by Staff (Non Credited)
The film clearly functions as wish-fulfillment for the kind of people who are nostalgic about all-white basketball, leaving a nasty aftertaste.
67
Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt
Gene Hackman is solid as the hero, and Dennis Hopper does his best screen work ever. [6 Mar 1987, Arts & Leisure, p.23]
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