Some sports movies work even if you don’t like the sport. You don’t have to be a boxing fan to like Rocky, and you certainly don’t have to like basketball to love “Hoosiers.”
“Hoosiers” is a sport movie that really isn’t about sports, or even about basketball specifically. The same type of movie could’ve been about baseball, hockey, football or soccer.
If there was a time when the world was turning upside down, it was the 60s and 70s. The turmoil from Vietnam to Watergate made many question the things Americans relied on for decades. That anti-establishment arc found its way into many films. Sometimes it was overt, like in films like “Dirty Harry” and “Death Wish.” Charles Bronson could do what the entire police force couldn’t – confront crime and defeat it. Clint Eastwood had to defy police orders to get the bad guy, and he threw his badge into the river to put an exclamation point on it.