Hoosiers

“They needed a second chance to finish first.”

In 1950s Indiana, Norman Dale (Gene Hackman) takes a job coaching a high school team in a town so small the whole place turns out for its games. His assistant is Shooter (Dennis Hopper), the town drunk, and his star player, Jimmy Chitwood (Maris Valainis), has quit the squad to focus on his studies. David Anspaugh, in his first feature, keeps the camera close on the gym and the faces in the bleachers.