Now that I have embarked on doing my best films of this past decade I take a look at the film Roger Ebert called the best film of the 90's Hoop Dreams (1994). The best film! In a decade that included Goodfellas, Magnolia, Three Kings, The Matrix, Schindlers List, Pulp Fiction and these are just the movies I came up with off the top of my head (not to bad). There is no way I could justify putting Hoop Dreams number one on that list, but on the same token I would have a hard time in arguing against Ebert. This is one amazing documentary.
Hoop Dreams is a film where the camera follows two inner city basketball players from the summer before 9th grade all the way through High School as they try and achieve there biggest dream which is to make the NBA. If this were a scripted drama, the film would end one of two ways, the characters would either achieve there goals, or learn a great life lesson about the power of sports and teamwork that would make the journey worth while. Those overly cliched topics are the reason I don't like scripted sports movies and also why this film shows us the true potential of the relationship between sports and the individuals pursuing them.
I don't know how much I want to say about the specifics of what happens in this film. The movie unfolds like a Shakespearean drama, the depth this movie explores is amazing. It is about basketball, it is about dreams, its about expectations, its about inner city society, its about money, family, loss, love and it just goes on, and its all wrapped up in a plot that if scripted would have won an Oscar. Sometimes I felt myself wanting to yell at the screen "It's just Basketball", and I am a sports enthusiast that has played all my life. But I got so caught up in the lives of these young men that I almost felt protective of them. I felt the weight of all parts of society coming at them, all wanting different things. What keeps everything together is that ultimate goal of the NBA, and this film shows you that skills alone are not enough to make it to the pro's there is so much more that has to go right.
This film is so expansive in both its themes and having taken place over so many years that when things like having unexpected children happen, fathers leaving and reappearing, we as an audience just go with it without the filmmakers having to try and manipulate those moments. The movie has an amazing ability to not overemphasis those points one would think to be monumental, but keeps its eye on the bigger picture.
I guess this film could be considered long at almost 3 hours. I kept looking at how much time was left, not because I wanted it too end, but to see how much story was still to be told, hoping it wouldn't keep going on. Despite the films nearly perfect structure and dramatic threads William Gates and Arthur Angee are not characters, they are not larger than life. In this film they were two young men with dreams and goals and flaws all of which we can relate too.
The timing of this review is interesting because it comes on the eve of the release of the fictional film The Blind Side, about the true story of Michael Oher going from high school to making the NFL with the help of MILF Sandra Bullock. The previews of this movie make me puke a little in my mouth, how about everyone skips The Blind Side and rents Hoop Dreams instead, trust me you won't regret it.
This film may not be my number 1 movie of the 90's but it certainly would be on my top 10. This is a great, great film. And deserving of my second 5 star review.
*****
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