In the small town of Hickory, Indiana, basketball is everything, especially at Hickory Highschool. When the school’s team is losing, they are looking for a new coach and the one they choose is the failed-college Coach Norman Dale (Gene Hackman). He is thrown into a team that isn’t really much to talk about when their star athlete, Jimmy Chitwood (Maris Valains), was convinced by a staff member of the school to quit sports to work on his school work. Dale has to try and work with what team he has as well as deal with the townspeople who only care about the team if Jimmy comes back. Well, it’s game time and “ Don’t get caught watching the paint dry.”
I will honestly say that the best character in the film is Shooter, who is played by Dennis Hopper. Dennis is meant for this role; he does such a great job of playing a man who enjoys the game he once played but he can’t get over family issues and his drinking. The entire movie is truly a work of film art that should be watched– granted the movie is about a basketball team, it’s also about growing up, helping friends through tough times, and also how a father and son learn to care for each other. It is a good family movie, the basketball scenes were excellently shot and they show how schools looked in the 1950s, especially when you may only have 1,000 kids in your entire school. The action shots truly give the film the edge it needs to show how these boys grow from being a slouch of a team to being an actual good team. Hackman does a great job of playing a coach who was run out of college coaching due to him laying a hand on one of his players. Reason being is unknown, but Hackman truly shows how this man loves the game of basketball, and he wants to give these kids the experience of a lifetime and play it to the fullest potential. Also, there is nothing better than when this film’s character of Norman Dale is based off of Indiana Hoosier College Coach Bobby Knight. I recommend this film, and I give it a 9.5 overall, I give the movie 9 silver bars for acting, 9.5 gold bars for directing, 5 gold bars for script. Lastly, I will see you the next time you want to come back to the movies.