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Hoop Dreams Movie Analysis - Edited

The documentary Hoop Dreams follows the lives of two black American teenagers, William and Arthur, as they pursue their dreams of playing basketball professionally. The film highlights the challenges they face due to poverty, racism, and other distractions. While both are recruited to play basketball in high school, their dreams of the NBA are put in conflict with the realities they experience. Throughout the film, various characters and obstacles work to block the teens' dreams, from lack of tuition money to coaches who make the game unbearable. The documentary aims to shed light on these issues and how the main characters work to overcome barriers while pursuing their goals.

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Leornard Mukuru
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51 views4 pages

Hoop Dreams Movie Analysis - Edited

The documentary Hoop Dreams follows the lives of two black American teenagers, William and Arthur, as they pursue their dreams of playing basketball professionally. The film highlights the challenges they face due to poverty, racism, and other distractions. While both are recruited to play basketball in high school, their dreams of the NBA are put in conflict with the realities they experience. Throughout the film, various characters and obstacles work to block the teens' dreams, from lack of tuition money to coaches who make the game unbearable. The documentary aims to shed light on these issues and how the main characters work to overcome barriers while pursuing their goals.

Uploaded by

Leornard Mukuru
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Running Head: Hoop Dreams movie analysis 1

Student’s Name:

Instructor affiliation:

Date:
Hoop Dreams movie analysis 2

Introduction

I chose to analyze the film Hoop Dreams, a 1994 documentary which follows the lives of two

black American teenagers who enjoy playing basketball. The movie starts from the point where

William and Arthur are recruited into several primary schools to play basketball and follows

their progress until they join college.

The goal of the film is to highlight the challenges faced by young black Americans while

pursuing their life careers. These challenges can slow, demoralize or even hinder blacks in

pursuing their professions. The movie makes this goal clear to the audience by showing

examples of such problems. For example, poverty, racisms, drug and substance abuse, peer

pressure, among other distracters, are seen in the movie. For instance, Arthur’s parent struggling

to pay his tuition fee (Cole & King, n.d., p. 229).

Central conflict witnessed in the movie is about the distraction of individuals from their life

goals. The two young black Americans have a great desire of joining the NBA in their basketball

career, but this does not come to pass. However, their skills in the games lead them into better

colleges. This, therefore, conflicts with the young men's dreams of becoming competent

basketball players. The audience can witness how Arthur and William are struggling with their

poor backgrounds and racism to see their dream come true. Therefore, the gap seen between the

teen dream and the reality contributes significantly to the plot, structure and flow of the film.

For example, several characters in the movie play a role in blocking these young me's dream.

The coach makes their gaming unbearable, poverty from their background and lack of tuition fee

compel on the boys to drop out of school for a short time, father abandons his family, and several

friends of the boys ought to become drug dealers. All these distracters are meant to develop the
Hoop Dreams movie analysis 3

conflict witnessed in the movie. It allows the main characters to overcome them while attempting

to fulfil their dreams.

The movie is addressing several cultural and sociological issues such as poor parental care, abuse

of drug and subspaces, and poverty. Irresponsibility on the paternal side is seen when the father

decides to abandon his family. Family members have to live without fatherly love, care and

guidance. Raising money to pay for Arthur’s tuition also indicates the poverty level experienced

by his parent. Similarly, some of the boys’ friends decide to smuggle and abuse drugs for their

reasons (Thangaraj, Arnaldo, & Chin, 2016, p. 34).

The film was made effective through several technical applications such as the use of music and

audio. Dramatic moments in the video are introduced by fast and tense soundtracks. This enables

the audience to predict the possible outcome of certain events. It also creates anxiety in an

individual in demanding to know what follows afterwards. The movie is also made interesting by

the use of repetitive dramatic background music.

Another technique that is adequately employed in the movie is editing. Several color

combinations are used to show variations in time and locations. This develops the overall

empathy mood witnessed by watching it. For example, in several events, the movie indicates

stock evening where darkens id falling on a blue evening sky. Similar, the editor decides to use

soundtracks and cuts them immediately characters start conversations.

The movie has stimulated me to think about real life and the possibility of such events occurring.

This is because there is a higher chance that a particular kid is facing similar challenges out

there. Therefore, this comes as an eye and mind opener on how I should be treating individuals

irrespective of their financial and racial backgrounds. Every individual deserves a fair deal.
Hoop Dreams movie analysis 4

References

Cole, C., & King, S. (n.d.). Documenting America: Racism, Realism, and Hoop

Dreams. Multiculturalism in the United States: Current Issues, Contemporary Voices,

229-244.

Thangaraj, S. I., Arnaldo, C., & Chin, C. B. (2016). Asian American Sporting Cultures. New

York, NY: NYU Press.

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