Indiana University on the Silver Screen: A Cinematic Journey Through Hoosier Territory
Indiana University (IU), though geographically distant from Hollywood, has played a significant role in the world of cinema. From serving as a backdrop for heartwarming stories to inspiring iconic sports dramas, IU and its surrounding locales have made their mark on the silver screen. This article explores the various films and productions that have been filmed at or inspired by Indiana University, showcasing the university's surprising connection to the world of entertainment.
Breaking Away: The Quintessential Bloomington Film
Perhaps the most prominent on-screen depiction of IU, "Breaking Away" (1979) is a coming-of-age film set and filmed in Bloomington. This movie captures the essence of the town and its people, focusing on a group of local "Cutters" who compete in the Indiana University Little 500 bicycle race.
Shot across Bloomington and IU’s campus, the film turned the Little 500 into a national phenomenon and captured the local class divide between townies and students. Many Bloomington and campus locations appear, such as Rooftop Quarry, the Monroe County Courthouse, the restaurant that is now Siam House, Dunn’s Woods, Rose Well House and the Indiana Memorial Union. The film showcases the Cutters’ training rides on Bloomington’s backroads and features scenes from the Little 500 at Bill Armstrong Stadium, along with glimpses of downtown Bloomington storefronts from the late '70s.
Kinsey: Exploring a Famous IU Legacy
"Kinsey" (2004), starring Academy Award-winner Liam Neeson, tells the story of Alfred Kinsey, the groundbreaking Indiana University professor who forever changed how we study human sexuality. Parts of "Kinsey" were filmed on the IU campus, giving the film an authentic feel as it tells the story of the Kinsey Institute’s controversial research. The movie also stars Laura Linney and Peter Sarsgaard. The film features exterior shots of campus buildings that inspired Kinsey's real-life studies and includes subtle nods to Bloomington’s academic culture.
Hoosiers: A Basketball Classic with Bloomington Roots
While most of "Hoosiers" (1986) was filmed in smaller Indiana towns, a few cast and crew members were spotted staying in Bloomington during production. The film, starring Gene Hackman, tells the story of a small-town basketball team’s improbable run to the state championship.
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Bloomington gets an honorable mention because IU basketball legend Bobby Knight’s influence-and the town’s basketball fever-was part of the cultural backdrop that inspired the movie. The film subtly echoes the IU basketball culture through its storyline, with crew and cast sightings in local Bloomington hangouts during filming.
"Hoosiers" (released in some countries as "Best Shot") is a 1986 American sports drama film written by Angelo Pizzo and directed by David Anspaugh in his feature directorial debut. It tells the story of a small-town Indiana high school basketball team and its journey to the state championship finals. Gene Hackman stars as Norman Dale, a new coach with a spotty past. The film co-stars Barbara Hershey and Dennis Hopper, whose role as the basketball-loving town drunk earned him an Academy Award nomination. Jerry Goldsmith was also nominated for an Academy Award for his score.
In 1951, Norman Dale arrives in rural Hickory, Indiana. The townspeople, passionate about basketball, are disappointed that Hickory's best player, Jimmy Chitwood, has left the team following the death of the previous coach, who had been a surrogate father to Jimmy. At a meet-and-greet, Norman tells the townspeople he used to coach college basketball. The next day, fellow teacher Myra Fleener warns Norman not to recruit Jimmy. The small school has only seven players. At the first practice, Norman dismisses Buddy Walker for rudeness, causing another player, Whit Butcher, to walk out in protest. Norman begins drilling the others (Rade Butcher, Merle Webb, Everett Flatch, Strap Purl, and equipment manager Ollie McLellan) with fundamentals and conditioning but no scrimmages or shooting, much to the Huskers' dismay.
Norman instructs the Huskers to pass four times before shooting. During the season opener, Rade disobeys and repeatedly makes baskets without passing first. The coach benches him for the rest of the game, even when Merle fouls out, leaving only four Huskers on the floor. In a subsequent game, when a rival player jabs Norman in the chest during an on-court argument, Rade jumps to his defense and hits the player. During the altercation, Cletus, acting as assistant coach, suffers a mild heart attack. Norman further erodes community support by employing a slow, defensive style that does not immediately produce results.
With Cletus laid up, Norman asks former Husker Wilbur "Shooter" Flatch, Everett's alcoholic father, to be his assistant coach, with the requirement that Shooter be sober during all games and practices. Shooter agrees, on the condition that Norman not get ejected from any more games. Mid-season, disgruntled townspeople decide to vote on dismissing Norman. Before the meeting, Myra, sensing something amiss regarding Norman's past, uncovers years-old information about his hitting a player and being banned from coaching. At the meeting, Myra goes up to the lectern, intending to read aloud the article she found, but she changes her mind and instead asks the townspeople to give Norman another chance. Nevertheless, they vote to fire the coach. Then Jimmy Chitwood arrives and announces he will rejoin the team, but only if Norman remains as coach.
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After Jimmy's return, the reinvigorated Huskers rack up a series of wins. To prove to the townspeople (and to Shooter himself) Shooter's value to the team, Norman intentionally gets ejected from a game. This forces Shooter to devise a play that helps Hickory win on a last-second shot. Despite a setback when Shooter relapses, the team advances through the state tournament with Jimmy's strong performance. Unsung players, such as short Ollie and devoutly religious Strap, also contribute. Hickory reaches the championship game in Indianapolis. At Butler Fieldhouse, and before the largest crowd they have ever seen, the Huskers face long odds to defeat the heavily favored South Bend Central Bears, who have taller and more athletic players. After falling behind, Hickory fights their way back and ties the game with just a few seconds left. Norman calls a timeout and sets up a play where Jimmy will be a decoy for Merle, who will take the last shot. The Huskers look uncomfortable, and when Norman demands to know what's wrong, Jimmy simply says, "I'll make it." Norman nods in approval and sets up a new play for Jimmy. Sometime in the future, a boy shoots baskets in Hickory's home gym.
The film is inspired in part by the story of the 1954 Indiana state champions, Milan High School. In most states, high school athletic teams are divided into different classes, usually based on the number of enrolled students, with separate state championship tournaments held for each classification. In 1954, Indiana conducted a single state basketball tournament for all its high schools. Some plot points are similar to Milan's real story. Like the film's fictional Hickory High School, Milan was a very small high school in a rural, southern Indiana town. Both schools had undersized teams. Both Hickory and Milan won the state finals by 2 points: Hickory won 42-40, and Milan won 32-30. The last seconds of the Hoosiers state final are fairly close to the details of Milan's 1954 final; the last basket in the film was made from virtually the same spot on the floor as Bobby Plump's actual game-winner. Unlike the film's plot, the 1954 Milan Indians came into the season as heavy favorites and finished the '53-'54 regular season at 19-2.
During filming in the autumn of 1985, on location at Hinkle Fieldhouse, directors were unable to secure enough extras for shooting the final scenes even after casting calls through the Indianapolis media. To help fill the stands, they invited two local high schools to move a game to the Fieldhouse. Broad Ripple and Chatard, the alma mater of Maris Valainis who played the role of Jimmy Chitwood, obliged, and crowd shots were filmed during their actual game. Fans of both schools came out in period costumes to serve as extras and to supplement the hundreds of locals who had answered the call. The film's producers chose New Richmond, Indiana to serve as the fictional town of Hickory and recorded most of the film's location shots in and around the community. Signs on the roads into New Richmond still recall its role in the film. Pizzo and Anspaugh shopped the script for two years before they finally found investment for the project. Despite this seeming approval, the financiers approved a production budget of only $6 million, forcing the crew to hire most of the cast playing the Hickory basketball team and many of the extras from the local community around New Richmond. Shortly after the film's release, five of the actors who portrayed basketball players in the film were suspended by the NCAA from their real-life college basketball teams for three games.
The music to "Hoosiers" was written by veteran composer Jerry Goldsmith. Goldsmith used a hybrid of orchestral and electronic elements in juxtaposition to the 1950s setting to score the film. The score gained Goldsmith an Oscar nomination for Best Original Score, though he ultimately lost to Herbie Hancock for "Round Midnight." Until 2012, the soundtrack was primarily available under the European title "Best Shot," with several of the film's cues not included on the album.
On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 90% based on 49 reviews. Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert praised the film, writing: "What makes Hoosiers special is not its story but its details and its characters. Angelo Pizzo, who wrote the original screenplay, knows small-town sports. He knows all about high school politics and how the school board and the parents' groups always think they know more about basketball than the coach does. He knows about gossip, scandal and vengeance. And he knows a lot about human nature. All of his knowledge, however, would be pointless without Hackman's great performance at the center of this movie. Hackman is gifted at combining likability with complexity - two qualities that usually don't go together in the movies. He projects all of the single-mindedness of any good coach, but then he contains other dimensions, and we learn about the scandal in his past that led him to this one-horse town."
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Washington Post critics Rita Kempley and Paul Attanasio both enjoyed the film, despite its perceived sentimentalism and lack of originality. Kempley wrote, "Even though we've seen it all before, Hoosiers scores big by staying small." Attanasio pointed out some problems with the film: "[It contains] some klutzy glitches in continuity, and a love story (between Hackman and a sterile, one-note Barbara Hershey) that goes nowhere. The action photography flattens the visual excitement of basketball (you can imagine what a Scorsese would do with it);" but he noted the film's "enormous craftsmanship accumulates till you're actually seduced into believing all its Pepperidge Farm buncombe." Pat Graham of the Chicago Reader was a rare dissenter, writing of the film that Director David Anspaugh seems only marginally concerned with basketball thematics: what matters most is feeding white-bread fantasies (the film is set in the slow-footed 50s, when blacks are only a rumor and nobody's ever heard of slam 'n' jam) and laying on the inspirational corn…."
"Hoosiers" was ranked number 13 by the American Film Institute on its 100 Years… 100 Cheers list of most inspirational films. The film was the choice of the readers of USA Today as the best sports movie of all time. In June 2008, AFI revealed its "Ten Top Ten" - the best ten films in ten classic American film genres - after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. In 2015, MGM partnered with the Indiana Pacers to create Hickory uniforms inspired by the film.
The Good Catholic: A Modern Indie Filmed in Bloomington
"The Good Catholic" (2017) is an indie romantic comedy-drama starring Zachary Spicer and Wrenn Schmidt that tells the story of a young priest grappling with his faith and unexpected love. "The Good Catholic" was filmed entirely in Bloomington, featuring local churches, coffee shops, and streets. It also stars Danny Glover and John C. McGinley. The film showcases St. Paul’s Catholic Center on campus and downtown Bloomington, including local cafes like The Pourhouse Café.
Bloomington: A Cult Favorite in LGBTQ+ Cinema
"Bloomington" (2010) is an indie drama that follows a former child star attending college at a fictional university clearly modeled after IU. Though it never explicitly names Bloomington, the film was shot around town and remains a cult favorite in LGBTQ+ film circles. The film features quiet campus corners and scenic outdoor spots and captures the blend of college-town charm and personal discovery.
Other Films with Indiana Connections
Several other films have connections to Indiana, even if they weren't primarily filmed at IU or in Bloomington:
- Some Came Running: Set in fictional Parkman, Indiana, this Vincente Minnelli classic was filmed for three weeks in the state’s historic town of Madison. Frank Sinatra plays an ex-GI who winds up back in his hometown, while Shirley MacLaine was nominated for an Oscar for her portrayal of the fragile woman who has fallen for Sinatra despite his love for schoolteacher Martha Hyer. The third lead is a gambler terrifically depicted by Dean Martin.
- Presenting Lily Mars: Based on the novel by Indiana author Booth Tarkington, this musical comedy stars Judy Garland as a young woman desperate to become an actress.
- Three Little Words: This underrated romantic comedy is only in Indiana for about five minutes, but it revolves around a young woman (Jane Wyman) leaving the state to become a stewardess and explore the world.
- On Moonlight Bay and By the Light of the Silvery Moon: Although these two films are set in the Hoosier state, everything is just vague enough that it really could be located anywhere in the Midwest. Still, these films are the definition of “feel-good movies.”
- Remember the Night: When assistant D.A. MacMurray postpones the trial of shoplifter Stanwyck until after the Christmas season, he feels guilty and has her bailed out. Upon discovering that she is a fellow Hoosier and has nowhere to go for the holidays, MacMurray offers to have her tag along on his trip to Indiana.
Beyond Movies: TV Shows and Music Videos
IU's presence extends beyond films. "Parks and Recreation," while not filmed at IU, features references to the university. In Season 1, Ron Swanson, the show’s curmudgeonly boss, has a portrait of former IU basketball coach Bob Knight in his office. In the series finale, protagonist Leslie Knope gives a commencement speech to IU graduates during a flash forward, and the university announces they are naming the library after her.
The music video for Avicii’s hit “The Nights” was directed by and stars Rory Kramer, an Indiana native. Multiple locations around campus appear in the video, including during Kramer’s cliff jump at Rooftop Quarry and in a photo in front of Sample Gates. Hoosier and Bloomington resident John Mellencamp is spotted often around town, but his connection to IU was put to screen in his 2009 music video for “A Ride Back Home” featuring Karen Fairchild of Little Big Town.
Documentaries and Student Films
IU has also been the subject and location for various documentaries and student films, showcasing the university's academic and cultural life. "Jacobs School of Music String Academy" documents the extraordinary journey of talented young violinists from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music String Academy. "Trouble No More: The Making of a John Mellencamp Album" is an hour-long video produced by students at Indiana University that documents the making of Mellencamp's first covers album, "Trouble No More." "Filmed principally on the campus of Indiana University, this film depicts the activities of various organizations and classes as they contribute to the war effort."
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