"Hoop Dreams" is one of the finest films I ever seen. It is easily the best documentary subject ever put on celluloid and it is a blueprint to all film-makers (especially those trying to break into the industry). It is late-1980s inner-city Chicago and two youngsters (Arthur Agee and William Gates) are preparing for their high school careers. Neither know one another, but they soon become linked in the fact that they are both recruited to go to the prep school that then-NBA superstar Isiah Thomas (a hero to both) attended. We then follow the two over a course of five years as they try to make their dreams of basketball super-stardom come true. "Hoop Dreams" is a definitive example of a true documentary (something that most never do understand the concept of). It is a film that took years and years to make. It told a story that most of mainstream America did not understand or even know about. It relied on lots of planning and lots of luck to all come together. This was a labor of love and desire for the film-makers involved (most notably director/co-writer/co-editor Steve James). "Hoop Dreams" is the cinema in its rawest and most untamed form. It is not a film that was developed for profit, awards or recognition from others in the entertainment community. It is a film that was made to educate people and tell a story that could not have been conveyed by any other form of mass communication. An Oscar-nominee for its mind-numbingly difficult editing in 1994. 5 stars out of 5.
Review of Hoop Dreams
