Are the critics crazy, or am I??

That was pointless


"I spit the truth and only the truth"

The critics are sane. You are crazy.

To the original poster, I agree with SOME of your comments regarding the people in Hoop Dreams, but i think u've got to realize that the stupidity and bad decisions of people represent what it's like living in the inner-city ghetto. This movie is a prime example of two kids trying to make it, but have all these problems in front of them. In Hoop Dreams you get a glimpse of what it's like living in these poor conditions and you see why these people do the things that they do. I think the producers hit it dead on and accomplished exactly what they wanted to do with this movie.

I still need to see this.

The best I can offer as per an explanation (I loved the film ftr. Grew up less than 15 miles away from their neighborhood) is that Gates' and Agee's actions come from the culture of poverty, which is rampant and quite evident throughout the movie.

One of the scenes I found most powerful was when Arthur greets William after St. Joe's early exit from the state tournament, marking William's final high school game. They basically just cloister themselves away from the noise for a moment and embrace, tell one another they love each other, and quickly, and seemingly unsentimentally part ways. I thought that scene transcended even the issues of race and poverty in the movie. It was two young men who had, for years, nurtured a singular focus, and one has just had the mission come to an untimely end, while the other goes on, but, surely, not for long. I thought that scene was about the frustration of failing when there is only one acceptable goal. That is the kind of failure that feels complete. That was a scene of a young man who was growing up and away from his singular goal, and facing the prospect of a life that will require of him various things beyond the single skill that everything around him has pushed him to hone. I don't think it really matters if it's a basketball player in the city, or an eccentric mathematician trying to function, I think we can all understand that picture of utter frustration, and the need for a shoulder.

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All these republicans coming on this board and criticizing the critics with remarks that really show their stupidity should just go back to watching boring biopics of rags-to-riches industrialists/celebrities. This film is real. It shows two inner-city black kids and all the social problems around them just hoping to succeed in their dreams to become pro-basketball players. It is amazingly heartening to watch their progress through the years with all that exists around them. I don't think the film tries to explain certain events because it treats them as the "normal goings on" in their environment. If they wanted to, they could make a whole movie about drugs, unemployment, teenage pregnancy, etc. in the ghetto to satiate your apparent complaints.

Trust me, collecting welfare doesn't make you a stupid, lazy, useless individual in society. You see the mother going through nursing school, supporting her sister and kid and her son's best friend for some time (in addition to her own 3 kids), with something like $370/month of welfare money. Even back in the early nineties, that aint much man. You have the balls to call this woman stupid and lazy and cheating the gov't of $370/month?????? Don't forget Arthur and William both get a summer job when they have the time from their team, school, etc. in the summer -- I don't know if you know but you can't really work most places when ur under 16. And you can't blame them for using some of it for themselves -- they're teenagers. William is amazingly matured for his age with all he goes through -- he's got all the pressure of the successes and failure of the team on him, he's got a kid at home to deal with, he's got a brother who is putting all his hope and dreams into him, he's got a father who only starts seeing him for his potential fame, he's got college recruiters coming at him from all angles to recuit him, his grades at skool. With all that, and his academic shortcomings (which have A LOT to do with his upbringing and his grammar school education in some poor schools), he is able to persevere and get to where no one in his family has managed to go.

Just these blatantly moronic thoughts about how these people are stupid and useless people in society makes me shocked at how many people are so ignorant about the culture of poverty. These are probably the same people that don't feel like their natural-born status had anything to do with how intelligent or wealthy they are today. These kids don't exactly have encyclopedias in their house to read from. And their peers around them arent exactly going to law school and corporate jobs after they graduate. They're lucky to be alive at the age of 18, 19 with kids on the street getting killed or on drugs or in jail.

You don't have to accept the harsh realities of the film telling it like it is about poor people -- maybe you just dont want to accept that america (like every other industrialized nation) has inequality in rich and poor which are built into the economic system making it much more difficult to move up when you're in that state. But you can't argue these two kids are good kids using their talents wisely to try and make their lives better -- and their families supporting them as much as possible in their endeavors. It's amazing humanity through and through which you can't get from a normal fictional film or even hard-nosed documentary. The story is brilliantly told by the camera.