Hoosiers at AC

American Center film screening during the month of June will focus on the theme of 'Sports and Health'. 'Hoosiers' a 1986 Academy Award nominated movie about a small-town Indiana high school basketball team that wins the state championship screening on Tuesday June 3 at 6.00pm is the first movie to be screened under this theme.

The film is set during 1951, when all high schools in Indiana, regardless of school size, competed in one state championship tournament. Directed by David Anspaugh and produced by Angelo Pizzo, the film stars Gene Hackman as a new coach with a spotty past, Barbara Hershey, Sheb Wooley, and Dennis Hopper as the basketball-loving town drunkard, a performance that brought Hopper an Oscar nomination. The movie was written by Angelo Pizzo, who would go on to co-produce the underdog sports movie Rudy, and directed by David Anspaugh, who directed Rudy. The score was composed by Jerry Goldsmith, who was also nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Score.

Hoosiers stars Gene Hackman as Norman Dale, a former successful college coach with a checkered past, who takes a last chance job coaching small Hickory High in 1951. Despite being located in basketball-crazed Indiana, the Huskers only have six players and they're missing their star, Jimmy Chitwood, a troubled boy who doesn't say much. His soft shooting touch does all of the talking.

Dale doesn't endear himself to the locals, dismissing the team's interim coach and a player in about two minutes during his first practice. He closes off practices, odd affairs in which the kids run and run and run, but never take a shot. After the team suffers a losing streak, the folks are on the verge of sending Dale home, until Jimmy steps in. He decides it's time to play, but on one condition: the coach stays. Then the winning begins, and it doesn't stop.