Film Analysis: Hoop Dreams
The exceptionally engaging film, Hoop Dreams goes deep into the life that surrounds basketball. To make it, a player has to be something more then just a good player. They need to be belligerent, well trained, surpass academically, and unaware of anything that doesn't include basketball. The highly thought out, and heartrending film closely records the lives of two Chicago teenagers as we watch their struggle of basketball, to become the best.
For five years, Steve James, Frederick Marx, and Peter Gilbert record both the private moments, and communal encounters of William Gates and Arthur Agee. The product is both a kindhearted portrayal of two people and a spectacular interpretation of the method that develops student athletes.
The film
starts in 1986, when a talent scout comes across Arthur and William. Attracted by the "hoop dreams" of being in the NBA, both boys accept athletic scholarships to St. Joseph High School, leading to the conflict of the movie. As two young black men commute between their marginalized families, and a wealthy, overall white prep school in the suburbs. The film follows the achievements and failures of the four seasons of High School basketball, and the four years of individual progress, dissatisfaction, and humiliation.
One interesting side of Hoop Dreams is the way it all unwinds, the viewer never really has a sense of what will happen next. The director, Steve James, takes us into the lives of two young basketball players, William and Arthur, from home, to school, and on the basketball court. The filmmakers have chosen to follow two players who have potential to make it, but no one knows for sure.
Arthur attends St. Josephs High School on a partial scholarship, a school that can give him a better future to develop as a basketball player. Soon after getting into St. Josephs, Arthur's family can no longer afford to pay the partial payments, and Arthur is sent back to his neighborhood High School. At this moment, the viewer probably makes a ethical knowledge about schools that tease the lives of athletes. This event, however becomes blurred due to problems, concerning Arthur's family. His father leaves, and not until later on do we find out that he has established a drug addiction, which in time, explains the decrease of funds for St. Josephs. This comes as a suprise because Arthur's father seems to be comprehensible, and understands the distress of his sons achievable success. This layering of meanings bursts anything prejudice.
While Williams family situation seems to be more together, it's anything but easy. From his father, a car dealer who has left the family, strives to refurbish his relationship with William in the wake of his success. To his older brother, with the dream, and potential to become the best basketball player, has taken the "fatherly" role upon himself. Basketball, his one hope to go beyond his aspiring element, as left him thoughtfully scarred, and he now sees himself designated to live a life filled with secluded jobs. William seems to continuously underachieve, due to the tension from those surrounding him, possibly afraid of putting everything at stake, failing, or becoming a dublicate of his brother.
Hoop Dreams lasts for three hours, but it is problematic that the viewer will ever notcie the length. After getting to know, and live, the lifes of Arthur and William, viewers probably find themselves yearning to follow both men into adulthood. That doesn't always mean the viewer appreciates or enjoys everything that happens in the film. The viewer wants both, Arthur and William to prevail, but their social burden and ruthless approach of improving, color the dream with faint shadows. Hoop Dreams is a complicated film that severely explores the hopes and washouts of urban life, leaving the viewer with a number of bothered questions about tons of people's future, and dreams they once wanted, just like William and Arthur.
For five years, Steve James, Frederick Marx, and Peter Gilbert record both the private moments, and communal encounters of William Gates and Arthur Agee. The product is both a kindhearted portrayal of two people and a spectacular interpretation of the method that develops student athletes.
The film
starts in 1986, when a talent scout comes across Arthur and William. Attracted by the "hoop dreams" of being in the NBA, both boys accept athletic scholarships to St. Joseph High School, leading to the conflict of the movie. As two young black men commute between their marginalized families, and a wealthy, overall white prep school in the suburbs. The film follows the achievements and failures of the four seasons of High School basketball, and the four years of individual progress, dissatisfaction, and humiliation.
One interesting side of Hoop Dreams is the way it all unwinds, the viewer never really has a sense of what will happen next. The director, Steve James, takes us into the lives of two young basketball players, William and Arthur, from home, to school, and on the basketball court. The filmmakers have chosen to follow two players who have potential to make it, but no one knows for sure.
Arthur attends St. Josephs High School on a partial scholarship, a school that can give him a better future to develop as a basketball player. Soon after getting into St. Josephs, Arthur's family can no longer afford to pay the partial payments, and Arthur is sent back to his neighborhood High School. At this moment, the viewer probably makes a ethical knowledge about schools that tease the lives of athletes. This event, however becomes blurred due to problems, concerning Arthur's family. His father leaves, and not until later on do we find out that he has established a drug addiction, which in time, explains the decrease of funds for St. Josephs. This comes as a suprise because Arthur's father seems to be comprehensible, and understands the distress of his sons achievable success. This layering of meanings bursts anything prejudice.
While Williams family situation seems to be more together, it's anything but easy. From his father, a car dealer who has left the family, strives to refurbish his relationship with William in the wake of his success. To his older brother, with the dream, and potential to become the best basketball player, has taken the "fatherly" role upon himself. Basketball, his one hope to go beyond his aspiring element, as left him thoughtfully scarred, and he now sees himself designated to live a life filled with secluded jobs. William seems to continuously underachieve, due to the tension from those surrounding him, possibly afraid of putting everything at stake, failing, or becoming a dublicate of his brother.
Hoop Dreams lasts for three hours, but it is problematic that the viewer will ever notcie the length. After getting to know, and live, the lifes of Arthur and William, viewers probably find themselves yearning to follow both men into adulthood. That doesn't always mean the viewer appreciates or enjoys everything that happens in the film. The viewer wants both, Arthur and William to prevail, but their social burden and ruthless approach of improving, color the dream with faint shadows. Hoop Dreams is a complicated film that severely explores the hopes and washouts of urban life, leaving the viewer with a number of bothered questions about tons of people's future, and dreams they once wanted, just like William and Arthur.