Analysis Of The Film Hoosiers

Submitted By diff1234
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Pages: 7

I chose to further examine the film Hoosiers from week 13 of class. After reviewing the film I will compare it with chapter 13 of Major Problems. Hoosiers really caught my interest as a great underdog story and that is why I chose to further study the 1986 classic. I always had heard people talk about this movie but I had never seen it. In this paper I will discuss the historical period Hoosiers is set in, compare and contrast major themes from the week, and evaluate the film based on its effectiveness. Hoosiers is a fictional movie that is actually based on real events in a small town in Indiana. It is based on a true story but does change some of the truths, as evidenced by the ESPN article. The message I gathered from the film was that anything is possible if you can work hard and accept change. The little town of Hickory was very set in its ways and uncooperative of the new basketball coach. Once the town and players learned to accept something different, the team flourished. The argument the film presents is to never count someone out. No matter how small a school or town is, hard work can trump talent and compete with the big boys. The message of acceptance resonates with the viewer and is most likely why Hoosiers is so highly regarded as a sports movie. The historical period that Hoosiers is set in is 1952 rural Indiana. In this time period, people are more centralized around common goals and the entire town knows when someone moves in. There are no televisions and people have to work hard for everything they have. The theme of week 13 was sport and race. In Hoosiers, the only non-white people in the entire film are the players on the opposing team in the state title game. This is most likely indicative of how it might have been in 1950’s Indiana, as there were not as many black players in the rural areas. The time period created a very over the top sense of pride for local sports teams. This was evident in Hoosiers as the entire town lived and breathed with every game Hickory played. By 1952, the time of Hoosiers, Jackie Robinson had already broken the color barrier in baseball (Riess Pg. 384). So although there were not many black people in Hoosiers, it was not odd to see an integrated team in the state title game. Sports seemed simpler than today in week 13’s material. There is no twitter or ESPN to constantly feed information through. The newspaper and radio were the primary source of information, as evidenced in Hoosiers and the reading. Despite this, the sports seemed more intense and important to everybody involved. The period demanded players be respectful and do things the right way, which is far from the truth in modern sports. The amount of courage it must have taken Jackie Robinson not to punch the Phillies manager is beyond me (Riess Pg. 389). In Hoosiers, one of the player’s father is an alcoholic who constantly interrupts the games. The coach attempts to help him by offering him an assistant position with the team. I could not see that happening in 2014, as values are less important to people than they were back then. Roberto Clemente was one of the best baseball players of his era and had everything he wanted, but never forgot his roots. He died in a plain crash trying to help deliver aid to Nicaragua (Riess Pg. 387). This story is very indicative of the historical period that Hoosiers is set in because I could see the people of Hickory doing something for the greater good. The period seemed like it was full of people who cared about making a difference, no matter how much it would cost them. Coach Dale gave everything he had to the town of Hickory and ultimately helped them become champions. The content from Hoosiers contrasts from the week 13 material in some aspects. Racial tension was not very evident in Hoosiers, even though the book material suggests it would have been at that time period. As I stated earlier, the only time Hickory plays black