Product Description

Nominated* for two Oscars(r) and hailed by Sports Illustrated and ESPN as one of the best sports movies of all time, this triumphant tale of a high school basketball team's long-shot attempt to win the state championship is filled with edge-of-your-seat suspense and breathless excitement! Featuring "fast-break cinematography that catches the pace of the game.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10155 in DVD
• Brand: TCFHE/MGM
• Published on: 2005-03-01
• Released on: 2005-03-01
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Collector's Edition, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Dubbed in: French, Spanish
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 114 minutes

Amazon.com
One of the most rousingly enjoyable sports movies ever made, this small-town drama tells the story of the Hickory Huskers, an underdog basketball team from a tiny Indiana high school that makes it all the way to the state championship tournament. It's a familiar story, but sensitive direction and a splendid screenplay helped make this one of the best films of 1986, highlighted by the superb performances of Gene Hackman as the Huskers' coach, and Oscar nominee Dennis Hopper as the alcoholic father of one of the team's key players. As the drama unfolds we come to realize that many of the characters (including Barbara Hershey as a schoolteacher with whom Hackman falls in love) are recovering from disappointing setbacks, and this depth of character is what makes the otherwise conventional basketball story so richly rewarding. Like Rocky, Rudy, and Breaking Away, this is a quintessentially American movie about beating the odds and rising above one's own limitations. Just try to watch it without cheering! --Jeff Shannon

DVD features
The colors of an Indiana autumn look ever better with this remastered print. The second disc of extras delivers a lot of the facts behind the 1954 Milan basketball victory including the complete grainy game footage with audio. It makes for interesting watching and shows a game of perimeter shooting and slow-down offense. Film partners Angelo Pizzo and David Anspaugh put a lot of care into these extras, including a lively commentary track and introductions of 13 deleted scenes. These scenes flesh out the Gene Hackman-Barbara Hershey relationship, plug plot holes, and include a what-might-have-been memorable harvest scene. A topnotch, 30-minute featurette has most of the main talents reminiscing about the film along with a few real-life counterparts and deliver some curious facts (this was almost a Jack Nicholson film!). History hounds will not like how many facts were changed as the Milan story became the town of Hickory, but this film is about nailing the milieu, not the specifics in creating a fan-favorite. --Doug Thomas