關於運動的電影——Sports and Film課程要求寫的影評之一 Hoosiers

Two Oscar nominates in 1986; Heartland Film Festival Special Achievement Award in 1996; Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards (LAFCA Award) in 1986 for best support actor, and many other awards, sure audiences love this movie. To analysis why audiences love this movie, the following aspects are very important for its success.

The movie was based on a true story, which a tiny high school team, led by a former college basketball coach won the state basketball championship of Indiana. The movie is called the Hoosiers means the spirit of people in Indiana. However the movie is kind of talking about redemption. In the movie, Shooter as a looser at the first, and became a responsible father by the end of the movie. Shooter was a drunk but knew lots of information about basketball. Coach asked him to drop the bottom and help the team with his knowledge. Coach was under a great pressure to let Shooter stayed in the team. However Shooter became the direct reason of the referendum on his removal as the basketball coach. But his insistence made redemption to Shooter. Coach was suspended by the N.A.C.C. and by leading this team to the championship, he made his own redemption.

There is a small character that many people would just ignore him, which is George. In this movie, George has several scenes that were flipped in the movie but I think they are kind of important. George represents the attitude of people in town towards coach, which is conservative and doubtful. In the scene when people in town gathered around talking with coach at the first night when coach was arrived, people said this town doesn』t like change much. The main conflict of this movie is the conflict between coach and people in town. George at the beginning was fired, and people in town was been told to stay out of the gym. When coach hired Shooter, people in town ran into the locker room to snarled to coach, and at the meantime, George was smiling on the bench. When coach hired Shooter, people in town decided to make a referendum to remove coach. On the referendum, George was excited as well as others in town because coach was going to be fired. But the plan didn』t work out, coach stayed. After the team won all the games, the attitude of people in town started to change as well as George. There is a scene, when Ollie was making his shoots, George was standing there agitated. When Ollie made his shoots, he was excited and felt truly happy for coach and the team.

The movie did a great job on shaping characters. Audiences can feel the fresh of the characters. They are not only figures without characteristic. Coach is a bad-tempered but nice and virtuous person. Shooter is a knowledgeable drunk. Rade is a willful player. Ollie is lake of self-confidence and so on. For each character, direct gave the fair amount of scenes to portray their special characteristic to let the audiences feel the fresh and blood of the characters.

Director used a lot of light color especially red to portray the hot-blooded game and their will. In most of the scenes, the light is bright and warm, except the scene in Shooter’s house. The music in the movie is kind of exciting and inspiring to work with the theme and rhythm of the movie. Therefore, this is a really good sport movie from all aspects.