Hoop Dreams [VHS]
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VHS Movie Reviews of Hoop Dreams [VHS]
Movie Review: An item to be treasured
Summary: 5 Stars
I have owned this fantastic documentary for a few years on VHS and have been watching for it to come out on DVD. When I saw it available on Amazon, I immediately ordered it. One, I was hoping for some additional material, which there is some on the DVD. Also, I can now loan out my VHS copy without living in fear that it may not be returned.
Hoop Dreams is surely one of my five favorite films ever. I am a big sports fan and would certainly recommend it to other fans, especially those fond of high school sports. However, it is so much more a movie about kids and families trying to make it in tough situations. As Roger Ebert stated in his praise of the film, it is one of the great movies ever about American life.
For those who have seen the movie already, the DVD bonus material includes the entire film with William's and Arthur's comments and thoughts over the top of it. It has the numerous reviews from Siskel and Ebert. Also included is a booklet with good information about the project and what has happened to the people involved since.
My DVD collection is much more complete with the addition of Hoop Dreams.
Movie Review: Perhaps the Best Documentary Ever?
Summary: 5 Stars
As much as I love the Academy Awards, a lot of mistakes are made every year when they hand out those little coveted golden statues. No Best Director Oscar to Hitchcock? No Best Director Oscar to Scorcese for "Raging Bull" or "Goodfellas"? Both travesties. And there are a number of Best Picture Oscar Winners which are only remembered today because they won the Best Picture Oscar. Many of the films nominated the same year are still in the public consciousness because they are great, memorable, outstanding films. Some of the biggest mistakes perpetrated on the public by the Academy Awards have been in the Best Documentary category. "The Thin Blue Line", the groundbreaking documentary by Errol Morris, "Roger and Me", the wildly popular film by Michael Moore and "Hoop Dreams" were all passed up. "Hoop Dreams" was not the best documentary of 1994 but "Maya Lin" is?
Anyone who knows me knows I hate sports. I have never liked to play them or watch them. I am a sports atheist. So, my love of "Hoop Dreams" may come as a surprise to many people.
I think I am drawn to the film so much because, much like the more recent "Murderball", "Dreams" isn't about a sport so much as it is about two kids who love to play the sport. Basketball is a big factor in the lives of William Gates and Arthur Agee, two poor kids from the Chicago projects; they live, eat, dream about becoming professional basketball players, but the film covers their lives and how basketball impacts them as they grow up.
Steve James, Frederick Marx and Peter Gilbert, the filmmakers, worked on this project for eight years. Eight years! How many films have such a dedicated crew? During that time, they followed the lives of William, Arthur and their respective families from their freshman year of high school through their freshman year of college. Because of the access afforded to the filmmakers and the length of time they followed the two kids, the film presents a remarkably in-depth look at their lives. We follow William and Arthur for five years of their lives watching them grow up before our eyes. Both kids are good and want to make something of their lives, but various influences impact how their dreams will play out.
Arthur's idol is Isiah Thomas, a former student at St. Joseph's, a private, predominately white Catholic high school in the suburbs. A talent scout spots William and Arthur playing and takes them to meet Gene Pingatore, Thomas' famous former coach. Pingatore places Arthur on the Freshman team and decides William is good enough to play Varsity. Through a series of incidents, Arthur is forced to return to his neighborhood high school where he joins the basketball team.
As each of the kids begins to follow a different road, various influences and circumstances change each of their lives. William's brother, Curtis, a former basketball player in college, dropped out and now struggles to find even a minimum wage job. Yet, at every game, he knows what William should do to become a great basketball player. Arthur's mother, Sheila, throws her husband, Bo, out after he gets involved in drugs. Later, Bo returns to the family after drug rehab and a short stay in prison.
The film also presents the positive moments in each person's life, balancing out the negative. Both are great basketball players; William receives a lot of notice from college scouts and gets a lot of write ups in the newspapers and Arthur gets some notice later from Junior College scouts.
As the film covers the big moments in each year of their lives, their circumstances keep changing. It is amazing how dedicated each is to their sport, because they see it as the only way out of the projects. William has a living, breathing image of what could happen to him standing next to him at almost every turn, his bitter brother. When William finally receives an offer from Marquette University, Curtis denigrates it because he turned them down to attend a university in Florida. William's family life is the most stable, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't have his share of problems. At one point, he goes to Coach Pingatore for some advice on how to deal with these. The coach's response: "Write them off". Thankfully, Williams seems to realize the stupidity of this statement.
Arthur's family life is a mess. His father is in and out of the picture, both financially and to provide guidance and emotional stability. His mother struggles to raise her family on welfare. Later in the film, Sheila attends an educational program to become a nurse's assistant. She learns that she received the highest grades in her class, providing a rare moment of unadulterated happiness in her life. As Arthur is forced out of Saint Joe's and has to return to the neighborhood high school, his spirit seems to go with him. At one point, he returns to Saint Joe's, for a visit, and seems to wish they would take him back.
As the film comes to a close, the heart wrenching finale almost makes you cry. Both kids have such great talent and large dreams which will probably never be realized.
This is an amazing documentary giving us great insight and depth into the lives of these two young men. It is an abomination that the film was not even nominated for Best Documentary at the 1995 Academy Awards.
The Criterion Collection has released the film on DVD. The disc contains two audio commentaries, one with the filmmakers and another with William and Arthur which was recorded this year. There is also a collection of clips from "Siskel and Ebert" highlighting their efforts to champion the film from initial release, through the Academy Awards debacle and finally to Roger Ebert naming it his "Favorite Film of the 90s". Strangely enough, Ebert was sitting across from director Martin Scorcese (who was filling in for the recently departed Gene Siskel) when he named "Hoop Dreams" the best film of the 90s, a decade in which Scorcese released "Goodfellas".
This is a film that everyone should see. Own it. Rent it. Whatever. Just watch it.
Movie Review: An excellent edition of this important documentary
Summary: 5 Stars
For every Allen Iverson or Shaquille O'Neal that makes it to fame and fortune in the NBA, there are hundreds who don't. Hoop Dreams is a documentary that follows two Chicago inner-city boys from their freshman year in high school to their freshman year in college as they try to make it into the NBA. The film not only focuses on the pursuit of their dreams but how it affects their families.
For a documentary that is almost three hours it doesn't take long to get sucked into the absorbing story of these two boys. We watch them grow up both physically and emotionally, struggling to realize their dreams and this makes for truly compelling drama. This is a fascinating look at two boys and their families: their triumphs and their failures with an unflinching eye. Hoop Dreams cuts through the gloss and sheen of the NBA propaganda to show the harsh realities of what it truly takes to make it and how easy it is to fall short.
There is an audio commentary by filmmakers Peter Gilbert, Frederick Mark and Steve James. This is a good, inside look on the filmmaking process, how it came together and the challenges they faced over the five years of filming.
There is also an audio commentary by Arthur Agee and William Gates. It is great to hear the two main subjects of this documentary talk about their impressions of the movie and their experiences after all these years. We get real insight into how they viewed the filmmakers intruding on their lives. They both speak very candidly and eloquently about their lives and the film.
"Siskel and Ebert." The famous film critics were very taken with this documentary and championed it on their show whenever they could.
Also included is a music video for the film's theme song, directed by Peter Gilbert and performed by Tony M. This was created to promote the soundtrack CD and rarely seen. It is pretty standard stuff with clips from the documentary mixed with Tony M. rapping.
Finally, there are two trailers.
Movie Review: The Criterion Collection edition of the powerful documentary
Summary: 5 Stars
I thought that "Hoop Dreams" would be about a couple of inner city kids in Chicago dreaming about being the next Michael Jordan in the N.B.A. But actually the role model is Isaiah Thomas for the simple fact that he was a graduate of St. Joseph's High School, where William Gates and Arthur Agee are recruited to play basketball. Neither William or Arthur are going to be the next Air Jordan, but if they can measure up to what Isaiah did in high school that can translate into a college scholarship. If there is anything that dates this 1994 documentary it might be that the boys are not dreaming of jumping immediately to the N.B.A. after high school. Getting to college is still a necessary evil for getting to the pros, and there is the more immediate goal of "going downstate" to play in the Illinois High School State Basketball Tournament at Assembly Hall on the campus of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (or Champaign-Urbana if you live outside of Illinois).
When we first meet William and Arthur they are in the eighth grade, and come by different paths to make the 90-minute commute to St. Joseph's to play basketball. Gates lives in the Cabrini Green project while Agee's family lives on the South Side of Chicago, and the film is as much about what it is like for young Africa-Americans to grow up in those neighborhoods as it is about the dream of playing professional basketball. But the belief that playing hoops is a way out of the inner city is so carved in stone for these kids that it never seems to occur to them that their might be another way out. This is underscore by one of the best moments in the film where we suddenly learn that a family member of one of the boys has been going to school and is graduating at the top of their class. Then we get back to the boys playing basketball.
Steve James, Frederick Marx and Peter Gilbert shot 250 hours worth of film over six years to tell these two stories and they probably could not have scripted anything better than what Fate gave them. By the end of their freshman year at St. Joseph's one of the boys has to drop out because his parents cannot pay their part of the tuition and apparently he is not playing well enough for the school to come up with a sponsor. Before their junior year the other boy has a serious knee injury that threatens everything he and has family have dreamt about. Meanwhile at their homes the parents are becoming unemployed or suddenly leave while the children are already having children. Then there are the college recruiters and the qualifying tournaments for state.
At 165-minutes long "Hoop Dreams" is a lot closer to being too short than too long, although certainly it could benefit from some different editing choices in a few places. Maybe my perspective is skewed because I have become use to reality series on television that are obviously a whole lot longer (but usually not as engaging). The more you know about the place of basketball in the inner city and at perennial powerhouse programs like St. Joseph's the less you will find watching this documentary to be an eye-opening experience. Most of us know that most coaches care about winning more than they do about the players and that this is a system out to exploit kids who are begging to be exploited because there is a chance that one day they will strike it rich and buy their moms a house.
For the most part the drama is off the court, although towards the end of the documentary this changes because since we are watching real life we cannot take for granted such things as making critical free throws or winning the big game like we can in movies like "Hoosiers." The fact that we know that today neither William Gates nor Arthur Agee are N.B.A. superstars does not detract from this engrossing documentary, because the moral of the story is discovered by one of the boys who has finally come to realize the flip side of the dream. Pointing out that people are always telling him not to forget them when they get to the N.B.A., he wonders if they will not forget him if he does not make it to the pros. The final great irony is that because of "Hoop Dreams" he will not be forgotten but that there are not any million dollar salaries or shoe contracts with this particular brand of fame.
This Criterion Collection DVD offers two audio commentary tracks, the first with Arthur Agee and William Gates and the second with filmmakers Peter Gilbert, Steve James and Frederick Marx. There is also a series of segments from "Siskel and Ebert" in which the two Chicago film critics push "Hoop Dreams" as their choice for top film of the year and attack the Documentary division of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for ignoring the film, and a music video for the film. You will also find a booklet with essays by cultural historian John Edgar Wideman and "Sports Illustrated" senior writer Alexander Wolff, along with Michael Wise's "Looking Back at Broken Dreams" article that ran in the "Washington Post."
Movie Review: Hopes and Desires in Brilliant Documentary...
Summary: 5 Stars
After each time Hoop Dreams has been shown to me, I have gotten a little closer to the story, as the story provided an opportunity to ponder the notion of dreams and hopes. The first time I saw this amazing film was in the winter of 1995 at the Gothenburg Film Festival in Sweden. At that time I learned more about the cultural differences between being a poor teen in Chicago compared to being a teen in Sweden. The second time I viewed the film was in 1997, as I attended a university here in the United States. This time the film had a more profound affect on me, as I could relate to the emotional journey that sports have on a person, as I also was heavily involved in college athletics. Now more than a decade later since the first viewing of Hoop Dreams I have moved to Chicago where I am also a part of the educational system in the city of Chicago. This time I can not only relate, but recognize the many obstacles that these two teens went through during the filming of this absolutely brilliant film.
The opening shot of the film shows the West Loop area and the downtown loop area of Chicago with the Sears Tower in the background, as the Blue Line L train moves toward the underground part of the L system and the Eisenhower Expressway. Today, the West Loop area is an up and coming area with newly built condos and ever increasing property tax, as is much of the area around the immediate downtown area. However, ten years ago much of this area had high poverty rates where many kids dreamed of playing themselves away from poverty through basketball. In Hoop Dreams the audience gets to follow two teens William Gates and Arthur Agee through five years of struggle where they try to achieve the dream of getting away from the poverty and violence in their neighborhood.
William and Arthur were scouted for private schools located in the suburban area of Chicago, a very different world compared to the Cabrini Green Housing Project where they grew up, as both of them were excepted to St. Joseph High School. Through the first year the audience learns that William starts on varsity team as a freshman and many compares his talent with former St. Joe's player and former NBA star Isiah Thomas. For Arthur things are not going so well, but he makes the freshman team where he has some success. When the freshman year comes to an end both William and Arthur face some financial difficulty. William gets help from some of St. Joe's booster club members while Arthur who does not have the same talent as William finds himself being forced to leave St. Joe's, as he cannot pay for the tuition increase.
Basketball is everything to William and Arthur, but the story also offers an intricate view of the socioeconomic environment and how this affects psychodynamics of their families and neighborhood. It offers several opportunities for the viewers to experience how Arthur's family is cooping with the difficulties of losing their jobs, separation between the parents, and Arthur beginning in a new school. It is a tough journey that Arthur must go through, but he has no choice as poverty keeps him from returning to St. Joe's. Besides Arthur's difficulties William faces other hurdles, such as an injured knee and having a child. This story goes into great lengths on illustrating how this injury affects his whole persona and how he is involved with his newborn baby.
Hoop Dreams brings a vision of what these two young men, Arthur and William, desire, but it also shows the struggle they had to encounter due to lack of opportunities as middle school and elementary school students. These missed opportunities originate in poverty, which consequently leads to a number of missed functions in life such as structure, parental guidance, and safety. This was not because the mother's in the film did not care, because they did. However, there was a consistently missing male role model for both teens. Thus, Arthur and William had to tread a much longer path in order to achieve the same goal, as they must quickly learn how to become young adults without proper guidance. It is a hard and long journey that they both had to venture, and as a viewer of Hoop Dreams I am ever so grateful for having the opportunity to watch both Arthur and William together with their families go through ups and downs in life, which offers a greater appreciation of life.