Subjects:
The Movie “Hoop Dreams” Deals with the lives of two boys who are trying to acquire the American Dream through their skills in basketball. This documentary depicts the struggle of these African American children born into ghettos during the late twentieth century with their only venue out of the ghetto through their ability in basketball. The documentary also shows the racially and economically motivated treatment by a predominantly white school to these above average basketball players. This racially and economically based action, on part of the school, seems to be exemplified by the documentary style. One of the ways that this is achieved is through the comparisons of the two children.
There are many juxtaposing incidents in the two boys’ lives, which creates great comparisons between the two boys’ lives. One of the main incidents is the scholarship money given to both William Gates as well as Arthur Agee. There is a full scholarship given to William Gates while Arthur Agee is only given half. The full money goes to the better player rather than that of the worse, which makes sense but the interesting thing is that at the end of the movie one can see that the m
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This juxtaposition shows that we, the audience, should not expect anything out of Arthur as a basketball player or in any arena of life due to his socio-economic and educational background.
Author Agee, also coming from a low-income household, did not get the full scholarship. In all actuality Arthur kept and acquired his dream of becoming a basketball player while William lost his dream due to a knee injury. Therefore the treatment of the private school towards both players was unjustified. He never attained the dreams he had as well as the dreams that his family had for him. That is how they are both compared and how the documentarial styling of the director deceives the audience. College where he gets his academics in order; he also goes to Indiana where he becomes a great asset to the team. This bastardized documentary filming by incorporating his biases. In the documentary William Gates receives the full tuition grant by the Britannica Corporation, which was motivated by the private school. It shows that he had, at a younger age, more athletic ability than Arthur did. This too is exemplified through the editorial process of the documenters by placing their films of class periods side by side.
Coming from a low-income household William Gates is not able to pay the full amount of money to attend the high school. It also shows that William should be expected to not only be great at basketball but also to rise above any opposition that he may be playing, on the court or in life, due to the financial backing that school gives him. This Documentary also portrays to the audience that William is the person to “put your money on” to become a great player in the future solely on his performance on the court. He went out to make a documentary and came back, after editing, with glorified irony.
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