Okay, after hearing the hype for years about how good a rah-rah-for-the-underdog movie Hoosiers is, I decided to watch the thing for myself on TV tonight. It was okay, but certainly not the gem I was hoping it would be.
But I’m not posting here to discuss the quality of the film. I’ve got a question concerning one scene that left me scratching my head up to – and after – the movie’s end.
A little less than halfway through the movie – a little before the town meeting vote business – there is a scene where the coach is drilling the team in the HS gym. At the end of the scene the camera pans to an inconspicuous spectator sitting in the top corner of the stands who has been observing the action in silence. He is a white middle-aged man in a medium-gray suit. Who was that guy? I expected him to be some pro scout, or a big time newspaper reporter. But, as far as I could tell, he never made a reappearance. Then again, the whole movie was filled with middle-aged white men who all dressed in typical midwest 1950s garb, so maybe he was introduced earlier and I never took notice of him.
No, I don’t think it was him. The acting coach you’re thinking of did not dress very formally, whereas the guy I’m talking about was in a suit and tie, and looked on at Hackman’s practice behavior approvingly.
Could he have been related to Jimmy in some way? Not long after the scene in question, Jimmy shows up at the town hall meeting to tell the crowd he won’t play unless Hackman remains the coach.
I think the scene you’re referring to is the game just before the town meeting (we don’t see a practice in that time frame). The man is the guy who was the assistant when Hackman’s character was hired and who Hackman let go. The reason he looked happy was that Hackman got himself kicked out of the game, sealing his fate in the town meeting.
AMC has been running the flick-but (in typical AMC fashion) they chopped it up so much that its hard to follow. my reaction: a pretty formulaic movie-after 15 minutes, you know what is going to happen. but, I am fascinated with the level of attraction that Indianan resisdents have for HS basketball. People clearly go crazy about their favorite teams and players-you don’t see this in the NE area. My question: Indiana has produced some outstanding basketball platers (like Larry Bird). how come there are so few Indiana kids going pro today? Is it because the black inner city HS’s are so much more competitive?
As i say, the NBA today is a much differnet thing than the NBA of 1954-that’s a fact.