‘Hoosiers’ writer sees movie’s new version: ‘It’s better’
KNIGHTSTOWN, Ind. – Angelo Pizzo sat in the front row of the Hoosier Gym eating popcorn a few seats down from Buddy (actor Brad Long). And the “Hoosiers” writer watched his movie as it had never been seen before.
All the deleted scenes from the 1986 film, the original director’s cut, added back in.
The crowd of nearly 800, who traveled from across the country to Knightstown on Nov. 13, cheered and clapped as they learned how Buddy got back on the team.
They smiled and cried as Myra Fleener and coach Norman Dale’s romance developed in a way unknown before.
Those were the scenes that hurt the most to cut, Pizzo said, when he and director David Anspaugh had to remove them from the original movie due to a demand from Hollywood that the run time be less than two hours long.
“It was really, really, really painful for us to cut this last 30 minutes that you’re going to see tonight,” Pizzo said before the showing, “for all the obvious reasons.”
Pizzo went on to explain how the scenes were removed and how he and Anspaugh weren’t sure if the movie – often ranked one of the top sports films of all time – would be a success when it was released.
“We reluctantly turned over a 1:57 minute cut and we thought it wasn’t going to work,” he said. “Well, luckily it did work.
“But we don’t think it worked as well as the director’s cut or the final cut, the cut we wanted.”
And so, Pizzo told the crowd, he hopes to release a new, Hollywood version of the movie shown Nov. 13 so all the world can see “Hoosiers” as it was originally meant to be seen.
“That’s my goal to actually do it,” he told the crowd.
“We’re going to do it at some point.”
The gym erupted in cheers. ‘When can I see it?’
The idea for a director’s cut of “Hoosiers” emerged 15 years ago, Pizzo said.
On the 20th anniversary of the release of the film, MGM asked Anspaugh and Pizzo to create a director’s cut. “And we were very enthusiastic and very excited about that,” he said.
But when they went to find the original film, they hit a roadblock, reels of old scratched negatives of the film.
To cut them back into the movie would have cost another $100,000 at the time, Pizzo said. And that wasn’t feasible. The scenes needed to be color corrected. They needed to be scored, adding Jerry Goldsmith’s music behind them.
Instead, for the 20th anniversary, the deleted scenes were pulled out and put on a second DVD, not woven into the movie.
Pizzo said he never really thought again about a director’s cut of “Hoosiers” until Bob Garner, events coordinator at the gym, called him to propose the idea. Pizzo was too busy at the time to be part of it but thought it was a good idea.
“I said, ‘You know, go take a whack at it,’ ” Pizzo said. “If you can do it on whatever computer and kind of put it all together?”
The gym’s assistant events coordinator Zoey Hunsinger went to work, splicing and editing the movie. Anspaugh was not involved in the venture so the version shown Saturday is not an official director’s cut.
While the version was mostly seamless, the deleted scenes are darker and grainy.
“Because of copyright issues with MGM, they’re not going to give permission for something like this to come out,” Pizzo said, “which is kind of an experiment stitched together kind of thing.”
But because technology has advanced since he and Anspaugh tried to do it two decades ago, the cost to re-create the film in post production would be much less, Pizzo said. And his goal is to do just that. “I want to, but it’s not my control,” he said. “MGM owns the rights to do it and they would have to give permission. That might be complicated. I don’t know what hoops we’d have to jump through but, you know, I’ll try.”
Pizzo said he has received many calls from people who heard about Saturday’s showing. They wanted to see it.
“When can I see it? How can I see it?” he said. “And I just say, ‘You can’t.’ ”
At least for now.
“That may be down the road but that’s something I personally want to pursue,” he said. “Because I think the movie’s better. I really do.”
And so did the people who came to see it, for two reasons – romance and Buddy.
The big additions
As Coach Dale sits by a window looking out on a farm field, reading a book, Buddy walks in.
At this point in the movie,
Buddy, who was kicked off the team for being disrespectful to coach, has transferred to rival basketball school Terhune.
But when Buddy approaches Dale, he tells the coach that when he went to put on the Terhune uniform and go play for the team, he couldn’t do it. He’d been playing basketball for Hickory since he was a little boy, he says.
“It didn’t feel right,” Buddy tells Dale, to play for a school that Hickory had always wanted to beat.
“I couldn’t do it,” he said. And Buddy said he was wondering, he trails off. Dale then tells him if principal Cletus Summers says it’s OK, then it’s OK with him for Buddy to rejoin the team.
The new version also adds multiple scenes with Coach Dale and Myra, showing their relationship develop.
“I think it gives real meaning and dimensions and another kind of emotional layer to (their) relationship,” Pizzo said. “I was actually kind of moved by them, by their relationship, and I never was moved by it in the last 35 years watching this movie.”
Bob Brown, who is from California, came to Knightstown to see the new version of the film.
“Oh, it was much better,” he said. “Other than you learn how Buddy gets back on the team, the love story thing was good.”
Brad Groninger agreed. “I loved it,” he said. “Well, I’m thinking the best part was the relationship. They had three or four parts in there where they tied it all together.”
Speaking of relationships, Eddie Hager and Sheri Harmon were both extras in the movie when they were a couple in high school in 1986. They came to see the viewing, now back together again as a couple after decades of being apart. “It was really good,” Hager said.
“Oh, I loved it,” said Harmon.