Review of Hoop Dreams (1994) by Austin M — 23 Jan 2011
A landmark documentary, spanning five years in the lives of two inner-city Chicago kids who dream of playing in NBA, "Hoop Dreams" is a hopeful meditation on the struggle for the American Dream.
Filmmakers Steve James, Frederick Marx and Peter Gilbert set out to make a documentary short but ended up with over 250 hours of footage that they edited into a three hour feature. This is a cinema verite style documentary in the manner of Robert Flaherty but it has a strong narrative drive common in fiction films.
During the course of the movie we follow the progress of two young black basketball stars, William Gates and Arthur Agee, who enroll at a mostly white prep school where legend Isiah Thomas played. We see how their dreams affect the families of these kids whose financial future may depend on their success or failure.
Of course life is unpredictable and so there are moments of personal struggles, injuries, and triumphs that are unexpected. There are astonishing sequences of great poignancy: the celebration of Agee turning 18 when so many kids in the neighborhood die before that age; the Agee family having their power turned off because they couldn't pay the bill; the joyful reaction of Arthur's mother, Sheila Agee, upon learning she passed her nursing schooling; Gates's brother confessing that he won't amount to nothing and that he now lives his dreams through his brother; Agee's father relapsing into drugs then searching for forgiveness in a welcoming church.
More than just a basketball expose, "Hoop Dreams" expands its scope to show us one of the most honest, revealing portraits of lower-class, urban black life in modern America that we've ever seen.
This is an unflinching social critique of race, class, and education and how these institutions exploit and ultimately fail so many families with their promise of easy success and wealth. Ultimately, the greatest discovery of this movie may be that although the hoped for dream may not happen, these kids appear to have a bright future.
Selected for preservation by the National Film Registry.
This review of Hoop Dreams (1994) was written by Austin M on 23 Jan 2011.
Hoop Dreams has generally received very positive reviews.
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