Hoosiers

Although inspired by the true-life underdog triumph of the 1954 Milan, IN, high school basketball team, Jerry Goldsmith's score to the cult classic Hoosiers forgoes period instrumentation and Americana arrangements in favor of overbearing synthesizers that date the film's production squarely to the mid-'80s. The music certainly has its strengths: Goldsmith's oft-repeated but triumphant main theme boasts the structural invention and lyricism that are the composer's hallmarks, and he accurately evokes the rhythms and intensity of the hardwood game. Still, the sheer melodic repetition grows tiresome, and the incongruous electronics have aged as poorly as the short shorts worn by the players onscreen. ~ Jason Ankeny