Hoop Dreams is a documentary about two African-American young people, William Gates and Arthur Agee, who both aspire to become NBA players and fulfill the dream of their lives. The documentary is based around their years in school and college, and is aimed at depicting how a child from a financially struggling family and poor neighborhood can “make it” in the world of big sports. The filmmakers remarked in an interview in 2012 that they were learning as the shooting progressed and the tapes kept piling up (Shwiff), which can be perceived as the film itself maturing together with the boys. It does not present the idea of the boys from a troubled neighborhood succeed in professional basketball in plain and simple manner; instead it aims to depict the obstacles and hardships one has to overcome in order to get a tiny bit closer to the dream. William’s and Arthur’s stories are far from being a walk in the park, and film director Steve James does not try to hide it from the audience. In fact, it seems that he has made a conscious decision to concentrate on making the point that a person’s life is an intertwined set of circumstances, decisions and their consequences an individual is entangled in; and that although many things in life depend on personal decisions, some events are just happen the way they do and it cannot be changed, and all a person can do in such situation is adapt and persevere. The biggest challenge for William and Arthur was their origin and social status, which were generally perceived as having no prospect of success in the US society at the time the events in the film take place.
Hoop Dreams follows the stories of two promising basketball players, but at the same time, there is a story on a much more global scale behind these two personal narratives. When perceived metaphorically, the two stories actually develop into a unified tale about following a dream and facing the harsh reality of failing and getting up on the way to it. Each missed shot, each lost game is a metaphor for the failures that inevitably happen to everyone at some point in life. The film’s main idea revolves around the spirit William and Arthur had towards their goals and how it had been tested both in the basketball games and in their lives.
The narrative in the film does not seek to impose a certain attitude towards the events and the people it depicts, letting the audience make its own judgments. It is a right strategy for the goal the film aims to achieve, which is trying to depict life in all its complexity and uncertainty. If it exercised any sort of analysis or reflection, there would not be a place for the viewer to comfortably fit their own perception without having a second thought about how it aligns with the film’s narrative. The strategy of laying out the facts from the lives of William, Arthur and their families suggests the viewers to form their own opinions about everything, which inevitably generates diversity. This supports the thesis stated in the beginning of this paper in a way that everyone’s judgment is largely based on the set of their personal lessons and experiences, just like the life is a unique combination of both plus many other things.
On the way to their dream William and Arthur encounter different challenges and the Hoop Dreams is more about these challenges than it is about actually becoming an NBA star. Sadly, both boys did not make it all the way up in the end (Baumgaertner), but even this fact does not put a shadow over their stories. Becoming an All-Star player was highly romanticized in the circles Arthur and William used to contact with, but few people were actually able to make any significant progress towards this goal. Why is it so? Why so many dream of success, but so few actually get a taste of it? What is it that some seem to have and others do not? These all are the questions that hardly have a single, objective and truthful answer.
Suppose a key to success is many hours of hard work, and stripping one’s life to bare necessities in order to be able to devote all the time to the important goal. Indeed, it is true that when a person puts a lot of work and effort into something, a positive outcome of it would eventually present itself in some form or another. Both William and Arthur spent most of their free time playing ball and continuously training. It occurred naturally to them, so they were not forcing themselves to do it in any way, because playing basketball brought joy and happiness into their lives. Anybody who is in love with their work would tell that when a certain occupation makes a person feel satisfied and happy with what they do, it provides a tremendous increase in motivation to push further. It is undeniable that both Arthur and William had put a lot of pain and sweat on the altar of their dreams, and still they did not manage to achieve them.
It is often said that when a person does not have a strong belief in what they dream to achieve, they are not entitled enough to deserve that dream. In case with William and Arthur, a dream of becoming professional basketball players was a part of their lives from the very early years, and they often said themselves that they could not see any other way of succeeding. It is hardly fair to question their motivation on this, and, even if anyone tried, they would, most likely, fail. Still, at the end of the day, strong will does not seem to be helping the boys.
The main point of this argument is to state that a person’s life is largely dependent on the circumstances one finds himself in, and it is often not possible for a single person to change something that has been established in a certain way for a long time. In case with William and Arthur it is their origin. Being black males from the poor neighborhood, they see basketball as the only way out of poverty and crime they are forced to keep up with every day of their lives (Jones 8). The situation with Arthur being put out of the St. Joseph High School because of his poor academic progress reveals another layer of motivation behind it: the coach was not satisfied with Arthur’s performance in the game and did not believe that he could become a valuable asset for the team. Most of the schools actually exploited recruits under the guise of securing them a better future on the scholarship, throwing out kids that did not meet their initial expectations. “What Hoop Dreams exposes is big-time professional sports' lure and promise and exploitation of young, inner-city black males.” (Jones 8)
It is sobering to observe how dreams slip away from William and Arthur at certain points in their lives. Despite all their efforts, there are circumstances they sometimes are not able to control, like with the knee injury in William’s case and Arthur having to leave St. Joseph High School. Eventually William recovers and Arthur starts playing for another school, but what if that was their only chance to get it right and they missed it without even acknowledging that the possibility of success has got away? If this is the case, then all the further efforts they put in would go in vain, but they would be able to understand this in hindsight, when the only thing that connects them to the dream is regret.
Works Cited
Baumgaertner, Gabriel. "Hoop Dreams: Where Are The Main Figures Now?". the Guardian. N.p., 2015. Web. 24 Apr. 2016.
Jones, Lee. "Hoop Dreams Hoop Realities". Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media 40 (1996): 8-14. Print.
Shwiff, Kathy. "What Ever Happened To The Stars Of ‘Hoop Dreams’?". WSJ. N.p., 2012. Web. 24 Apr. 2016.
