Hoosiers (WS/RPKG/DVD)

You likely know and love the film, so I won't review that here. If you don't know the film, this is arguably the best sports film ever.I bought the blu-ray version and it is terrific. I'm a huge fan of extras and this one did not disappoint. First, the commentary with David Anspaugh (director) and Angelo Pizzo (writer) is wonderful. One of the better commentaries out there for any film, in my opinion. Lots of great insights into the making of the film and their vision for it. Second, there are a lot of deleted scenes included, introduced by Anspaugh and Pizzo, that provide a deeper look into the characters that was missing in the final edit of the film. The film was running way too long, so a lot of material had to be cut. SOme of it was really good stuff that survives only in these deleted scenes. Finally, the 1954 Indiana State Championship basketball game that inspired the film is included. You might enjoy seeing that.

What a movie!!! Hackman was the best!!! Greatest sports movie of all time!!!

I was born in Gary, Indiana in 1953, the year before tiny Milan High captured the Indiana State High School Basketball Championship. As most boys who grew up in Indiana, this Cinderella tale was a familiar one to me -- and the true story this film was based on.Last year, in preparation of attending the NCAA Women's Final Four in Indianapolis with my 11-year-old daughter, I purchased this Collector's Edition DVD to share with her. Although today I live a world away in the heart of Silicon Valley, I will forever remember the part of my childhood that was Hoosier Hysteria.Of what it was like to play in the annual state tourney, when every school, no matter how big or small, was thrown together into the same fire and born again every March whether their regular-season record was 25-0 or 0-25. Single elimination, do or die, winner take all.The excitement and hype leading up to the opening games of the first-round Sectional ... of the pride and joy that engulfed the entire communities of the 64 winners who advanced to the Regional ... and then, for a god-like 16 teams, the Semistate ... and ultimately, the originally named Final Four. I can't begin to describe it for you, but this film comes close, really close.My daughter has played basketball since she was in the third grade, and competes today on a traveling AAU team. She is 10 times the player I ever was at her age, but it is impossible for her to imagine a world without women professional athletes, cell phones or the Internet. And whenever I would tell her about what basketball was -- and still is -- like in Indiana, she would roll her eyes.Fortunately, I had this film to show her. And a few months later, she experienced the real thing, making the pilgrimage with me down the two-lane backroad blacktops to Milan, where we met the caretaker of the 1954 Milan Museum, Roselyn McKittrick, and later that day, dined with Bobby Plump himself, known as Bobby Chitwood in the film.I have a photograph of my daughter wearing a red Hickory High -- the fictional school in the film representing Milan -- jersey, holding the ball that Bobby arched high into the Butler Fieldhouse sky that fine and glorious day more than 50 years ago and into history.This is a rare film in that it somehow captures that special time, that place, that joy. How and why does not matter, only that it does. The tears that falll whenever I watch it are proof enough of that.This Collector's Edition compliments the original release by including recent interviews with Bobby, the two writer-producers who (as did I) attended Indiana University in the early 1970s, some deleted scenes that shed new light on the storyline, even a glorious B&W archived copy of the 1954 state championship game in its entirety.A beautiful moment in time captured in a truly beautiful film.Or, as my daughter later remarked to me, "You know Dad, basketball really is different in Indiana."

Gene Hackman must see. This is a great feel-good film. This is a cool film. This is not a cheesy film like they make nowadays. Before this new speak people brainwashed into watching shallow scripts with no soul.

One of the best sports movie of all time

I'm a big fan of Gene Hackman. So I was surprised to find him highly praised, after his death, for a film I had never heard of. In “Hoosiers” Hackman comes to small town in Indiana, so small it isn’t included on most maps, to coach high school basketball. It turns out that he is escaping a past, but so are all the other principal characters here. The town is totally obsessed with high school basketball, everyone wants to tell Hackman how to coach, and no one likes the job he’s doing. That he struggles with his own demons makes matters worse. Everyone here is damaged, but it seems that everyone can improve himself (herself) by working together as a team. Hackman repeatedly has his players stretch out their arms together, lift them together, and yell “team.” So, the basketball team turns out to be a metaphor for facing life’s struggles. The point is that you can succeed if you can work with others. Heart warming.

This film chronicles the true story of a small Indiana high school basketball team and the new coach who comes to try to help them win in a highly competitive state where basketball is the most important thing that gives people the wonderful distraction from their hard-working, rural lives of farming and small town Dreams of winning the Indians State high school basketball championship. Well made inspirational film with a great cast including Gene Hackman as the former college coach with a past incident that caused him to quit coaching and join the Navy. It also stars Dennis Hopper and Barbara Hershey, as well as a great supporting cast. Definitely a must-see film!

Excellent film - grows on you as time goes by. I love basketball!