HOOSIERS
Special Features: #13, AFI’s 100 Years…100 Cheers; #4, AFI’s 10 Top 10, Sports
Small-town Hickory, Indiana; the 1950s: hard-nosed basketball coach Norman Dale (Gene Hackman) surprises everyone when he reaches out to troubled alcoholic Wilbur “Shooter” Flatch (Dennis Hopper) to be his assistant coach. But there is a method to his madness, as the team and the town come to discover. Hackman, with his everyman charisma, imbues his character with earnest complexity as he whips the team into shape, his eyes set on the state championship. Hopper solidified his own return from the brink with this art-imitates-life role: a man who, in fits and starts, begins to find the strength of purpose to get straight and be a better father to his teenage son, a member of the team; he received an Academy Award® nomination for Best Supporting Actor for the role. Widely cited as one of the greatest sports movies of all time, HOOSIERS was added to the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry in 2001 and continues to inspire. DIR David Anspaugh; SCR/PROD Angelo Pizzo; PROD Carter DeHaven. U.S., 1986, color, 115 min. RATED PG
In Memoriam: Gene Hackman (1930–2025)
Run Time: 115 Minutes
Opening Date: Sunday, August 03, 2025
Genre: Sports, drama
