Hoosiers

Fall officially kicked off last night when I stumbled onto Hoosiers on tv, and Filmvetter has its review of the film here. In and of itself, Hoosiers is a great movie, but the older I get the more annoyed I get by the fact that it actually has little to do with the 1954 Milan team it's based on. Which sucks because the true story is even more incredble than the gotdam movie, for fuck's sake!

As much as I'd jump in front of a bus for Hoosiers, and you know this, the liberties taken when in fact the true story was even better in the first place drives me bananas.

To wit:

Besides the squeamish Disneyfication, as you already know nothing drives me crazier than when sports films alter history when doing so is not only unnecessary, but is actually LESS interesting than the historical truth - as much as I love Hoosiers, the truth is not only was Milan a great team that had almost gone all the way the year before, but what on Earth could be more exciting than Bobby Plump holding the ball on his hip for three and a half minutes while an entire state lost it's fucking mind? Why would Hollywood eschew this? How awkward does "eschew" feel there? Also, while we wanna believe that the state final was the first time the Huskers had ever seen black players, the real Milan team had kicked Oscar Robertson's Crispus Attucks team by 13 points.

Why has there been no feature length documentary made for HBO or ESPN about this fucking team? Hell, they have footage of the actual game!!!

Grrrrr.