THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, February 13, 1995 TAG: 9502130216
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie Review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines
``HOOP DREAMS'' is much more than just a basketball movie. It deals, in straightforward and compassionate manner, with the American Dream itself. Is it still attainable or a myth of the past?
Directed by Steve James, a 39-year-old Hampton native, it has become the Cinderella movie of the year - a documentary with unlikely commercial chances that could become the first documentary film ever to receive an Oscar nomination in the best picture category.
It chronicles almost five years in the lives of two black, inner-city boys who aspire to become NBA players. Basketball is their one hope to get out of the inner city and achieve ``the good life.'' Hope turns to desperation in a win-or-else world in which recruiters and coaches obviously see them as nothing more than win possibilities. If they fade on the basketball court, they will be kicked back into the ghetto, with no education and no further chance.
The filmmakers are white, yet this is the best movie in years to chronicle the turmoils that both isolate and destroy the lives of inner-city youths. This is a film that can bring people together through understanding. James, a graduate of James Madison University, and filmmakers Frederick Marx and Peter Gilbert followed young William Gates and Arthur Agee for nearly five years. The high school years and the first year of college are covered with a camera that becomes virtually invisible.
One boy looks promising; the other falters academically and is kicked out of the predominantly white, Roman Catholic high school that he was allowed to attend because of his basketball possibilities. The inevitable injury almost ruins one career. The private high school refuses to transfer grades because the family owes tuition funds.
A cast of supporting characters to rival any fictional entry slowly develops. Curtis Gates, William's older brother, once also dreamed of a basketball career but failed and now has a low-paying job with no future. Arthur's father fights drug addiction and deserts his family, only to return. He claims, in a poignant scene, ``I can't even think about him failing.''
Both mothers are loyal and striving. Slowly, the tension builds as we realize that the hopes of not just the two boys but their entire families depend on those hoop shots.
Then there are the talent scouts and coaches - most of whom are more consumed by success, wins, and dollars than any personal concern for the boys. The boys worship Isiah Thomas, the one who made it. Other celebrities who make appearances are Bobby Knight, Dick Vitale and Spike Lee.
This is not the Hollywood dream factory. In the course of the film's almost-three-hour running time, we learn that the dream is perhaps far-fetched. We get to know these people in a way seldom even suggested by other films up until now.
When Academy Award nominations are announced Tuesday, ``Hoop Dreams'' should be a sure bet in the documentary category. Remarkably, it also stands a chance, albeit a slim one, in the best picture category.
As a postscript to the film, both boys are now college seniors - William at Marquette University and Arthur at Arizona State. In order to preserve their amateur standing, neither boy nor their families can receive any money from the film. In other developments, St. Joseph High School, the school with the basketball program that first started their hopes, has filed a civil suit for defamation of character against the filmmakers.
The drama of ``Hoop Dreams'' continues. It is a real life drama that ultimately asks if the American Dream itself is still within reach. ILLUSTRATION: MOVIE REVIEW
"HOOP DREAMS"
CAST: Arthur Agee, William Gates and their families, coaches, and
recruiters
MPAA rating: PG-13 (presence of drugs, some language)
Mal's rating: ***1/2
Locations: Naro Expanded Cinema, Norfolk
by CNB