Hoop Dreams (1994)

Smith’s Verdict: ****

Reviewed by Tanner Smith

Following your dreams is not an easy road to take. That’s the overall message of the three-hour documentary “Hoop Dreams.” This film chronicles five years in the lives of two teenage boys (from their freshman year of high school to their freshman year of college) as they pursue a dream that proves to be more difficult than they imagined; that dream is to play professional basketball. At the beginning of the film, they are 14 years old, they’re high school basketball players, and they each have the confidence that they will make it to the NBA in the future. And by the end, they have learned the hardships of inner-city life and it’s never easy to blend your fantasy with reality.

The boys are Chicago youths named William Gates and Arthur Agee. We get to know on and off the court. We meet their families and learn just how hard it is balance basketball with academics and family crises. We learn what great games will mean to each of them. We learn what one injury can mean to a player who needs to keep playing to maintain success. We even see the struggles their families go through to just to survive at home. Through the five years registered on film, we as an audience are caught along a documentary journey that plays like narrative fiction. We get to know these people and hope for the best for them,

And we feel sorry for them when it seems they won’t make it the way they thought they would. Sure, they’re stars on their high-school basketball teams, but that doesn’t mean they’re automatically going to be moved over to the NBA. And we see how hard they have to be pushed in order to be greater than they are in their talent on the court—William, constantly pushed by Coach Pingatore at St. Joseph High School and even suffers a series of knee injuries, even states at one point, “It became more of a job than a sport to play.”

There’s a reason “Hoop Dreams” has gone on to its beloved status as one of the best documentaries of all time (even championed by the late Chicago film critics Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel as the best film of 1994; and Ebert went on to call it the best film of the decade). Its real drama is captivating, and anyone & everyone can identify with these people because we all have dreams and hopes, and sometimes we need rude awakenings, not unlike what William and Arthur go through. We have ambitions and goals, but life gets in the way sometimes and our dreams can get harder to accomplish. To see this film is to feel the poignancy of these characters because you realize these aren’t merely “characters” thought up by a screenwriter—they’re real people being captured on camera by filmmakers like director Steve James to tell an important story about the difficulties of following dreams.

You could see “Hoop Dreams” as a sports movie or a feel-good drama, but “Hoop Dreams” is really a film about the struggles of life. It’s involving, compelling, and made me think more about my own dreams and what it truly means in the attempt to accomplish them. It’s one of the best documentaries I’ve ever seen; one that deserves to be treasured.