Midweek Mention... Hoosiers

Hoosiers

Dan: Who? Howser's? Doogie Howser. iers.

Sidey: a substitute for Talladega Nights.

Cris: Yes. A late one as well.

Dan: Did you watch that?

Cris: Night? No.

Sidey: And partly because Gene Hackman died?

Dan: Gene therapy. Yes. He sadly did pass away and I thought it'd be fitting if we could

Cris: Sorry, is that the one, the actor that died with the wife and the dog?

Sidey: Yes.

Cris: I've se I've seen that. Yes.

Dan: Yeah, it was very,

Cris: very, the news, sorry. I've seen the news. Yeah.

Sidey: of ghoulish fascination with what happened there, isn't there? But anyway this is what we Yeah. I mean, he was 95.

Reegs: think it's 25. Well, I

Dan: I think that must be the way he wanted it. That people weren't around he could have had 24 hour cameras and 24 hour care.

I'm sure

Sidey: He left 80 million in his will apparently, but none of it to his kids. They weren't mentioned in his will at all. Anyhow we watched Hoosiers.

It's possibly the start of basketball week? Yeah! Because this

the main feature, both basketball centric, but also bang week. Basket bang. Basket

Dan: basket bang we'll see if it's a slam dunk

Sidey: yeah. Starts off with Gene. He's playing a character called Norman Dale and he's on route to somewhere out in the sticks, it looks like.

Dan: It doesn't take long before you realize this is set in 1950s.

Sidey: he's driving an old, old timey

mobile. Yeah. It's just sort of like the Midwest, and then he rocks up and it does flash up on the screen, this is 1951.

Dan: is old timey. And yeah, he arrives in rural Hickory, Indiana.

Sidey: yeah, and he knows there's someone obviously there at the school.

It's a high school team who's recruited him? And he rocks up to the school and someone is instantly like fucking rude and horrible to this woman just like she just Like out of the gate. He's a complete bitch to him. It's

Dan: to him. It's just like, yeah, just like part of the game is a complete mixture.

Obviously,

it's been cared for. There's history within the school.

Sidey: Well, they they have They're super into their schools, and especially their sports teams, their high school and their collegiate teams, which then feeds into the pros. And towns like this, they, you know, they will all go and watch the games. That's what they do. You know, there's fuck all else there, and especially in the 50s, they would all turn up for the

Dan: Massively passionate Everybody has an opinion.

Sidey: There's like a town hall summit where he's brought into, I think it's in the barbershop and all the, all the blokes from the town are there and they're grilling him about like what his qualifications are, what are you going to do? There's some guy that's been like running drills with the team in the interim.

And he's like, well, I'll just carry on and you can come in and watch how we do it. And I'll be a little bit of a transition. And Gene's like, no, mate, you can, you can fucking do one. And I'll run the

Dan: I'll be doing it my way. And his, his friend is the high school principal, Cletus.

And yeah he's hired him as the history teacher as well as the head teacher.

So, they're all pretty disappointed in the town of Hickory that Jimmy Chitwood had left the team and Jimmy just

can't

Sidey: can't miss.

Dan: before

Sidey: Norman

Dan: That's right, yeah.

Sidey: he's already out of the equation. And the woman that's been a bitch to him as he as Gene Hackman as he's turned up is his guardian.

Dan: Yeah, Myra Fleener.

His

Sidey: dad has passed away and his mother's not well. And so she's looking after him and she's like, look, don't fucking hassle him about basketball is more important. And she's got real beer in her bonnet about These kids they just play a game in basketball and then they get older and all they do is they talk about the glory Days of when they were 17 and they played a game.

I want more than that for him and he's like, okay, but You know like why else is there and she still goes to all the games and this Jimmy still goes to all the games like Well,

it's obviously still

Dan: all the games, and this Jimmy still goes to all the games, like, well

Sidey: looks like autistic about basketball. He's just obsessed. Yeah.

Dan: The school's only got seven players at the first practice. And he gets rid of one of them, gene Norman.

Sidey: Well, he's given a chat to, he's giving his like, credentials, this is what I'm about. We're gonna do this, we're gonna do that.

And one of them just starts chatting to his mate and laughing and like fucking about, and he is like. If you've got something you want to say, it's like, I just want to know when we're going to start, and it's like, you either shut up, And toe the line, we get out of my gym and the guy's like, going to fuck off then and he kind of bullies his mate into joining him.

And he, so they're, so they're left with five players. One of them, they, they sort of all as a group bully this little kid cause he's really short and they're like, well, really it's four and a half players cause he's a midget. So he's like, well, if that's what we've got, that's what we're going to do.

And he just fucking ruthlessly makes them just run up and down side to side, drill, drill, drill. But he's like, Whatever ability you've got, you are going to be one of the fittest teams. We'll always have that.

Reegs: you know you'll be able to run, run, run, run, run.

Dan: run, run, run, run, run. And he gets him, you know, As I say, just fit and

Sidey: of those guys

Dan: those guys comes back and apologizes

Sidey: Yeah, he's one of the few sane ones in town it seems that

Dan: Yeah, he's one of the few sane ones in the town. It seems that says, look, this guy's been hired. He barely got a foot in the door. Just get behind him before we start slagging him off. But yeah, they were He's got this rule where he insists they pass it four times before they take a shot, even if they're right under the basket.

So, but that's the rule of his game. That's how

Reegs: he likes to play. Four

Dan: pa pass four

Sidey: He's like Brian Clough, Mourinho, like, this is how

Dan: total basketball

Sidey: deviate.

Reegs: pass, pass,

Sidey: then leads into something bizarre at the end, but he's also been in, he's been away in the Merchant Navy for 12 years. Some people have got to be in the bonnet about that, and because they start losing a few games, they get the right arse, and you know, this is all the fucking town has.

So they're, they start a petition to get rid of him. So right, this guy doesn't fit in especially the guy who was running the drills and wanted to do this interim arrangement. He's the kind of ringleader, you'd recognize him, I forget the guy's name.

Dan: Forget the guy's

Sidey: So stuff happens in this film and there is the writing is so poor.

It's just like. Well, we'll just have them do that, but there's no, like, motivation or understanding of why that character would do that thing. So Jimmy, he goes to see him Gene Happ goes to see him, and he is just standing in his backyard throwing hoops. And he goes, listen, if you don't want to play, that's fine.

And he just, that's it, that's the, like, extent of their conversation, and he fucks off. And then they have this town hall meeting where they've done this petition, and they've had a vote with all the town, and they've decided to get rid of him. And Jimmy walks in, busts in, and he goes, I've got something I want to say.

And they're like, okay, he goes, I want to play ball. And they're like, yeah! He goes, but only if you keep the coach. What, that you've had, like, one interaction with, where he told you he didn't care if you played or not? You know, I, what the fuck, I just don't understand.

Dan: had, like one interaction where he told you didn't care if you played or not. Yeah, but what the fuck is that? I don't understand. said to save his job, you've got to play for me. You've got to do it.

Like, where he just goes, you know,

Sidey: Well, I don't know, because she's found out some dirt on him that he battered a, a player

Dan: Yeah, he, he, that's why he's in this two bit town because, and not in the NBA in the bigs

Sidey: He's, he's got an attitude.

He's

Dan: Yeah, he's Gene Hattman. He's Gene motherfucking Hattman. And he's,

Reegs: He sounds like he's assaulted someone in

Sidey: He battered someone, yeah. On court.

Dan: On the court,

Reegs: the court

Cris: That's also on point with this week.

Reegs: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Sidey: yeah.

Dan: And yeah, I mean, he's got a real stubborn streak at one point. He'd rather play four men on the court than bring in the sub because

Reegs: Yeah. of

Dan: the disrespect he's shown him in not passing four times in one.

Sidey: one scene

Reegs: Well, he's not just teaching them about basketball, Dan, he's teaching them about

Sidey: They, they, they are teaching him as well. It's, it's amazing. And at one point he's in a diner with Cletus and their chatting fucking shit about basketball and the school and whatever, and some drunk guy appears and you're like. Hang on a minute, that's fucking Dennis Hopper!

Dan: Dennis Helper, who got an academy award for his

performance in

Sidey: must have been a really fucking barren year.

Because he's, I don't know, I don't think he was that great. But he's a drunk, and his son plays for the team. But he's got some sort of encyclopedic knowledge about high school basketball. And what I should say is these kids are playing high school basketball but they're about 35.

Reegs: Yeah.

Dan: Eh, Cletus.

Cris: kids.

Reegs: Yeah.

Dan: Cletus gets ill, and

Reegs: so are they all white? Yeah.

Dan: this

Sidey: So this is, this is in the fifties, so there's no three point line. And the players, until they go to the big city when they, 'cause they go on a run, they're, they're all white.

Reegs: Yeah.

Dan: Yeah, and Cletus is one man in his corner is laid up in hospital.

And that's when he asks Hopper shooter which is one of the players, alcoholic father, who's really

Sidey: keeps humiliating him. He keeps turning up and he's just an absolute state.

Dan: like, he knows his stuff, but then he just, you know, it gets much later than he just can't

Sidey: So he says to him, right, you know, you obviously know your stuff. I like you, I like what you bring to it, but you can, you can come and sit on the bench to be an assistant coach, but you've got to wear a suit. You've got to do this. And he's like, okay, and you've got to be sober. And he's like, oh, fucking hell.

Immediately sober.

Reegs: Alright,

that's pretty, that was easy.

Dan: Yeah, well

Cris: Well, it's notoriously simple to

Reegs: to

Sidey: So he

Cris: clean up straight away.

Sidey: still like, he's a bit of a wreck. He's got the shakes.

and

he's a bit on edge, and a couple of times Gene Hackman gets ejected because he's volatile, he argues with the ref, and then it culminates with one where he's been told, look, you need to fucking wind it in and we need you on the bench, and they're winning, or there's about a minute to go in one game.

And he goes, I know what I'll do. This is really clever. I'll get myself ejected. So he says, there's a call, which he actually agrees with, and he sort of fake argues with the umpire,

Reegs: to get himself

Sidey: and says, right, I need you to fucking eject me. And the guy goes, right, that's what you want? You're out of here! And then it's left to Shooter, and he walks off with a smirk.

He's like teaching life lessons here. And he proves

Reegs: himself.

Dan: himself. He

Sidey: he runs this play and they win the game.

Dan: the game. It forces Shooter to, to think of the plan that gets his respect of his son.

Sidey: Yeah, and now his son loves him again.

Till the next game when he turns up pissed and he walks on the court and

causes an

Dan: he relapses, he,

Sidey: but there's no writing or, like, anything in the plot

Reegs: the plot.

It just

Sidey: just, he just appears and you're like, oh, that's happened. Yeah,

Dan: But there's a,

there's a few unsung players that all contribute for them going on the best run of the schools.

Like history.

Reegs: history. Because

Dan: Because they're, they're fit. They've got this slow defensive style that is suddenly paying off. Jimmy's come back and

Sidey: Jimmy's

the one that scores all the points and then they're, they're good on defence and blah, blah,

Dan: Jimmy can't

Reegs: it's a classic Marino.

Sidey: it is

Cris: a Marino masterclass.

Reegs: it's a part, the bus, it

Sidey: by a team from Milan. Not Italy Milan, but you know rural town that did go on and do this. So there is a you know It is inspired by a true

Cris: stories I thoughts of inter Milan from the fifties.

Yeah. But.

Sidey: yeah and because they they show various different players like When they humiliate, well they don't humiliate, but they keep poking fun at the kid for being small.

You know he's going to have his moment.

Reegs: of course.

Sidey: And he does. He I think it's, it's not the very, very championship game. It's the one, it's

Dan: semi final.

state

championship

Sidey: before the national, whatever it is. And he, he gets the two free throws at the end, which he does underarm. I'm like, what the fuck? And he makes them and he goes through.

But before that, there's been the real, they're all, they're all God fearing people, but there's one who's a real devout, like, proper Christian, and he prays before he's about to go on the court, and,

Dan: when they're all on the court playing, he's still kind of down there on a knee and they're going, come on, you

Sidey: And he

Reegs: not that helpful.

Sidey: he has his moment, and the strength from the Lord has given him the power to make some

Dan: It's all touching stuff. Well, so Hickory reached the championship game in Indianapolis and before the game, he brings out a tape

Reegs: is that Hickory's the name of the team? Is it? So where does Who town and what, whos is the team? Is it?

Sidey: they're never called that. they're the

they're the

something else.

Dan: Indianapolis Hoosiers or something,

Sidey: anyway, they,

Dan: montages.

Sidey: been, if you like montages, there's a training montage when they first start out and then there's the we need to cut like half the season out.

Reegs: Yeah. Yeah. I, I like that montage. That's a good one. In

Sidey: slow motion. And there's a good bit where, because apparently Jean Hagman was a prized. dickhead on this set,

Reegs: Oh

Sidey: real asshole.

Reegs: for that bit, wouldn't he?

Sidey: and there's a bit they show in the montage where Dennis Hopper and him on the bench and they see they, you see them speaking to each other and Hopper starts laughing and apparently it was

Reegs: What, as in he's a broken character,

Sidey: No, it's all silent, it's just music and they're doing, but you're just seeing them chuckling and it was, it was Gene Hackman said to him that we're both gonna have to, like, forget about this one, it's an

Reegs: one, it's an absolute fuck up.

Sidey: But yeah, he was trying to get the director sacked every week and just being a total bellend saying this is gonna be a flop and all this, like,

Reegs: a flop and all this.

Sidey: Yeah,

Dan: He got, he got a, he got a nod. So they're gonna they, they face like a, a team That's amazing. Got taller, more athletic

Sidey: This is the first time we've seen any black players and they are way more athletic than

Reegs: than

Dan: they're kind of

Sidey: No dunks. Slap dunking. But they're,

Dan: laying up underneath the ring and it's just a, you know, you can see that it's going to be a tough match for them.

Reegs: just before college. Yeah, I

Sidey: just before college. Yeah.

Dan: yeah, I mean, Jimmy looks like he's been through the mill, doesn't he, for that age? And he has actually, because he, he did

kind

Reegs: alcoholic dad.

Sidey: The teacher who's Jimmy's like, mentor, guardian. They, him and her and Gene Hackman just kiss. Like,

Dan: have a little wonder in

Sidey: And this is, this is like the real woman I'm watching going, Where's that come from?

Like, there's been no build up, there's been no, like, relationship build, no

Dan: the woman that had to go at him straight from the

Reegs: Oh, I

Sidey: You've only ever see her Been a dick to him, and he's like, I've thought about kissing you for the moment. I saw you. I'm like, really? She was a fucking dick! Anyway.

Dan: complicated. They, you wouldn't believe this, but they, they go behind early on, early doors

Sidey: show the other team score about a million baskets and then the scoreboard there about five points

Dan: but they fight their way back, tie the game, a few seconds left.

And and Hackman Norman, he calls a timeout.

Sidey: This is the most inexplicable bit for me out of all of it, right? Because we've seen him, anyone who crosses him is like, No, it's fucking my way, if you don't like it, get out. So he calls this play at the end where he says and this is a lot like Champions as well, where he says, right, they're going to be expecting Jimmy, because he's basically scored every single point they've ever

Reegs: ever scored.

And there's

Sidey: five seconds left, they're going, right, we need to inbound it, get it to Jimmy, and that's what they'll expect, but no, you're going to be the decoy, and we're going to give it to fucking Joe Bloggs, and he will take the shot and win the game. And they all just like look baffled and like nervous, and he goes, what's wrong? Hmm, they don't even speak. And, and Jimmy just goes, I can make the shot. He goes, okay, fine. Everything I've ever said about following my instructions is out the window. Would you just do what you want? Which they do. And he scores,

Dan: he scores before the buzzer sound securing the victory. The smallest school ever to do

Reegs: What, the guy who we thought would definitely score if he was given the ball

Sidey: did, does score. Yeah. Does score. Yeah.

Dan: even with even they know that You know, they just can't stop him.

of nature. And then a little bit into the future, it kind of pans out with a kid bouncing a ball and,

Reegs: but he's on a space station.

Dan: a, a

Sidey: No, it's like, The Shining. There's a picture of them on the wall. Like, like Jack

Dan: It was a bit like The Shining

Sidey: like The Shining. It just, it just, like, camera just gets closer and closer. And you're like, are they all dead?

Reegs: Yeah.

Dan: So yeah, it was inspired by a true story because rather than

Reegs: what lessons did he learn then?

Sidey: then? He learned about, I think, trusting them and stuff. And they learned about discipline and being a team and

Cris: Being fit,

Sidey: each other and being, being 35 and still in high school. It's so basic.

Reegs: It sounds pretty cliche

Cris: Well, it's from, it's a film from 18, 1986, right?

Sidey: 86, it's it's full of cliché, it's a classic underdog story, I still really enjoyed it.

Reegs: it.

Did you? Yeah.

So

Dan: it's classic cliche, but there's been so many after that. You've got to remember this was one of the ones to do it this way, but it was one of the earlier ones to do it this way.

And I think whenever you've got a know, that formula underdog, just the high school team, you've got the

Sidey: I like a small town like America story

Dan: really good, um, casting and with, because they all looked like perfectly normal characters from the

Sidey: It's when basketball was really, really biff and just played by white people and there was, you know, dancing around and jumping. It's shy. It was lovely to see and

Dan: and, and settings and all that was, was really good. I mean, even the, that first bit they go in, it just. You wouldn't have to see anything else, but you could set the scene. Even the leaves looked from the 1950s, didn't it? And the trees and

Sidey: Lovely to see Gene Hackman again. I didn't find out about him being a prick till after I'd seen it, so I was still like, able to enjoy it without thinking He's good. Yeah, yeah.

Dan: Yeah I like you. I don't know how Dennis Hopper has got an Academy Award nod

Sidey: I mean, this is not his strongest work, let's just say that. But

Dan: But yeah, it

Sidey: that, that is Mario Brothers. It was terrible. The movie.

Dan: It might be his strongest work. I don't know, but it's

Sidey: Easy Rider, probably higher

Dan: must have been a weak year. But I still, I still like this. Yeah, I've got a soft spot for these kind of films I had seen this before a long, long time ago,

Sidey: called Coach Carter.

Dan: Yeah

And at least they win, you know,

Sidey: Yeah, you hate,

like,

Dan: Lights,

Sidey: really grind

Dan: way and you're like, what the f

Reegs: Alright, Well, does that mean you Oh! Controversial! Maybe Dan hates this week's other movie?

Dan: No,

let's, let's find out.

Sidey: It's a strong recommend from me.

Dan: Yeah, go for it. Who's