Deleted ‘Hoosiers’ scenes in new cut
KNIGHTSTOWN, Ind. – When Buddy Walker is kicked out of his first practice with new Hickory basketball coach Norman Dale – for being disrespectful as Dale talks to the team – that’s the last “Hoosiers” movie viewers see of Buddy.
Until ... mysteriously, somehow he is back on the Hickory bench, playing for the Huskers.
“Oh yeah, oh yeah. The biggest question we get from visitors is, ‘How’d Buddy get back on the team?’ ” said Bob Garner, events coordinator at the Hoosier Gym in Knightstown, Indiana, where the 1986 movie starring Gene Hackman was filmed.
When Coach Dale and seeminglyaloof Hickory teacher Myra Fleener go from bickering coworkers to kissing on a grassy path, it’s not exactly clear how they got there.
“The relationship between Myra and coach, it feels very flat and surface level in the actual movie,” said Zoey Hunsinger, assistant events coordinator at the gym. “But with the deleted scenes? You actually understand how they got together and then the kissing makes sense.”
The deleted scenes.
Those are three key words that have 800 “Hoosiers” fanatics traveling from across the country – from Oregon and California, Florida and Texas and everywhere in between – to the Hoosier Gym on Saturday night to watch a never-before-seen version of the movie.
It is the director’s cut, with all the original scenes written by Angelo Pizzo added back in. IndyStar got a sneak peek of the new version this week.
“There are so many things that are filled in (with) the missing scenes,” said Garner. “You are going to be amazed.”
There is a gas station scene between Coach Dale and the rival Terhune coach. There is a classroom scene where Coach Dale asks Myra to an Alan Ladd movie. There is a Buddy scene where he makes his plea to Coach Dale to return to Hickory. There is a state finals sendoff scene, a haircut scene, a dinner scene, a harvest scene ...
And now, finally, “Hoosiers” makes complete sense.
How it all happened
Six copies exist in the world. Six copies of the new “Hoosiers” movie. Three DVD copies, one on a flash drive and a copy on Hunsinger’s and Garner’s computers.
As the movie’s 35th anniversary approached, Garner got the idea to re-create the movie as it was originally intended. He went to Hunsinger, a 21-year-old creative writing major at IUPUI and the youngest member to serve on the gym’s board.
“Here’s what I did. ‘Zoey can you do this? Before we spend a lot of money on somebody, can you do this?’ ” Garner said. “And she did it. Amazing.”
Hunsinger spent more than 30 hours, converting and exporting files. Editing and cutting. Converting files back so the DVD player would recognize them. More cutting and splicing.
She focused on music in the background, making sure it carried over. She focused on transitions. She studied the movie over and over to see if black was used to transition or if scenes faded out.
Garner and Hunsinger verified things with Pizzo, to be sure the movie would accurately portray his original intentions.
“I really focused to make it feel like you’re watching ‘Hoosiers,’ ” Hunsinger said. “Not just someone throwing something in the middle of the movie.”
The only clue that a deleted scene has been added is a slightly diminished, grainier quality. The original film of those deleted scenes was thrown away so Hunsinger had to use second-generation copies of them that exist on DVD.
This week, Garner and Hunsinger watched the new version at the gym.
“I feel a lot more connected to it now. When we put it up on the big screen last night, it was surreal,” Hunsinger said. “I feel like I’m a part of it now.”
Garner said he is in awe of the quality of Hunsinger’s work.
“I cannot explain how magnificent of a job she did,” he said. “We’re talking about someone taking a major motion picture’s missing scenes, putting them back in and when you watch it, I mean it’s as smooth as if you’re seeing it in the theater for the first time.”
After they watched it, Garner called Pizzo: “‘Hoosiers’ was good,” he told him. “But now I’m telling you this movie is great.
“And Pizzo said, ‘Bob, I know. I wrote it.’ ”
Spoiler alert: Details of movie, which now makes sense, revealed
Hollywood wanted the movie to be less than two hours long. The original version is 1 hour and 58 minutes. The new “Hoosiers” is 2 hours and 17 minutes.
And a lot is revealed. While IndyStar doesn’t want to give everything away to those going, here are a few key revelations in the director’s cut version.
• Viewers learn not only how Buddy got back on the team but about his girlfriend, Loetta. She appears frequently in the new version but has no scenes in the Hollywood cut.
• During a harvest scene as the community is gathered to farm, the conflict between Jimmy Chitwood and Coach Dale seems to resolve, making it more clear why Jimmy joins the team. “Coach is turning and he’s looking through the corn and you see Jimmy’s face there and Jimmy is looking at coach,” Garner said, “and I think that’s the first time they made a connection.”
• The opening scene of the movie now happens at a gas station where the Terhune coach is the attendant. When coach Dale stops to get gas on his way into Hickory, he tells the attendant he is the new basketball coach. “Where’d (Hickory principal) Cletus (Summers) reel you in from?” the Terhune coach says to Dale. “I heard they were in trouble down there. I didn’t know they were desperate.”
• Viewers learn that Coach Dale is divorced, once married in his 20s. “I’m still looking,” he tells Loetta in a dinner scene.
• The Hickory coach before Dale had been at the school 22 years, revealing why townspeople were so reluctant to accept Dale. “I reckon most folks are sorry anybody’s taking his place,” Cletus’ wife tells Dale at the dinner table. “I’m the anybody they got,” Dale says.
• In one scene, Dale walks furiously into Cletus’ office after learning Buddy transferred to Terhune. “I don’t understand it. What the hell is going on here?” he says. “How in the hell could somebody transfer two months into the school term to play basketball at another school, huh? What kind of hillbilly rule is that?”
• As Myra’s mom gives Coach Dale a haircut, she makes a comment that reveals Myra may have a thing for Dale. The kissing scene follows shortly after.
• Before the state finals, as the town is sending the team off, Coach Dale and Myra kiss in public. “You never answered my question,” Myra says to Dale. “Are you coming back next year?”
“See? You never knew any of that?” Hunsinger said. “There is just so much that was left out.”