Hoop Dreams

Hoop Dreams (1994)

98% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 44 reviews)

Runtime: 171 minutes

Directed by: Steve James

Starring: William Gates, Arthur Agee

From: Kartemquin Films

Here is a movie that’s different from what I’ve been reviewing as of late. It’s a famous documentary that literally changed the Academy Awards when for stupid reasons it wasn’t nominated for Best Documentary. But, the movie is pretty great and it’s more than just about basketball. Rather, it’s about inner-city life, the stress of going to school if you’re in a lower income family, drug abuse, family drama, and many other things. It’s great drama and much more engrossing than most dramatic movies made by Hollywood.

In short, if you have no knowledge of the film, it is about a pair of young talented inner-city Chicago basketball players, Arthur Agee and William Gates, who get a lot of attention for their great skills and they get picked to go to a private school that is vastly different from their old schools. Their families are hoping that they make it big and earn a lot of money in pro basketball, but things become complicated and I won’t give much away as it’d ruin the surprise. If you have seen the movie, though, you can go here to read about how the two now adult males are doing. To paraphrase for everyone else, Gates is now a pastor and Agee travels across the country and teaches students about the importance of education; both are trying to help others and that is always a good thing to hear.

I mean, it’s certainly better to hear than all the stories about pro athletes in recent years. Sure, many of them are fine and cause no problems, as least that the general public gets to hear about. Many of them also do nice things for their communities and help others. Yet, you have many cases of greedy players holding out for more money (as if the millions of dollars they get per year isn’t enough), troubles with the law, them loafing and not playing to the best of their ability, being attention whores, etc. Just look at what happened in the NBA this summer with free agency and some of the biggest stars in the game acting rather horribly and being the worst type of role models for young children who wish to be NBA stars like they are. That whole dog and pony show with LeBron… simply pitiful and one of a million reasons why I loathe ESPN with a passion; hell, they encourage this kind of disgraceful behavior from athletes! It’s rather disappointing and it almost makes me not want to watch sports in general if these actions are actually supported by so many and it makes me shake my head as it’s incomprehensible to me.

Anyhow… I’ll say that Agee and Gates ended up being fine and in fact are better off than if they had made it into the NBA. If you haven’t seen this movie you’ve done yourself a great disservice; it is as great as everyone says it is.

I'll be back Friday night with a new review.