"Hoop Dreams" follows two Chicago teens, Arthur Agee and William Gates, for 5 years. Both hope to eventually make it to the NBA to play basketball but their more immediate goals are to receive scholarships to top basketball colleges.

In the history of documentaries, "Hoop Dreams" is super-important and it helped usher in a newer style and scope of documentaries (such as the many excellent films by ESPN). I do appreciate that. However, after I watched it, I found myself underwhelmed. After all, the film has a current score of 8.3--and that is incredibly high. So, I think I found my expectations were just too high. Additionally, and I know this will perhaps sound mean, but I really didn't find myself that connected with the characters. I was hoping they'd get to live their dreams...but why should I pull for them as opposed to any other young wannabes?

I was about halfway through this film when I realized that these people were looking into the lens of a camera . I know that there was a little mugging at times and little signs of embarrassment that gave one the sense that the camera was there, but for the nearly three hours (there must have been so much more footage) these young people led their lives for us to see. This is the story of two young men who have grown up in the projects on the South Side of Chicago. Each is quite a basketball star and they have the dream of someday playing in the NBA. Their families are poor and in some cases, unstable. The kids are stars in their own high schools, but do have some issues with attitude and commitment. Having come off the playground and then getting all this attention does work against them. They are both sent to a school, St. Joseph's, in suburban Chicago, that produced Isiah Thomas. It is a school that has been incredibly successful, with an incredibly intense Coach who looks a little like a cross between Joe Paternor and Alfred Molina. He rants and intimidates and doesn't seem to individualize much. One of the young men doesn't have the financial wherewithal or the more observable talent and has to leave, returning to his old school. It is implied that The second is a more mature player but when a knee injury enters the picture, he begins to lose his confidence and doesn't reach the level of performance that he had hoped. This is a cutthroat business which is made obvious. St. Joseph won't even release the boy's transcripts until he pays up. His parents have to get on a payment plan and then it takes time. This is important because in order to get any kind of a scholarship or to even enter another school, he needs these to graduate. Basketball is everything. I won't go into all the details. Those before me have done that. I want to compliment the effort and time that went into this presentation. We see so much of the humanity of a culture so different from most of ours. The filmmakers and the participants have put their hearts and souls for us to see. It's not always pretty, but they were willing to give that much of themselves. See this. It took me over twenty years to check it out. I am in awe.

At three hours, this is a long but interesting documentary about two Chicago-area high school basketball stars, William Gates and Arthur Agee, who try to make something from their basketball talents.

Both athletes, of course, dream of becoming pro players some day. There are hundreds of similar tales each season - of great players, mostly black - who don't make it through college or even to college despite their enormous talents and one can get idea of some of the obstacles by watching these two guys.

Gates is recruited by St. Joe's, a powerhouse Catholic School which claims Isaiah Thmas as it most famous cage alumnus. There, Gates plays for a typically gung-ho coach and has a lot of ups and downs, both on and off the court. However, he's a lot more mature than the other subject of the documentary: Agee.

Agee also is recruited by the private school but can't pay the tuition and is kicked out in his sophomore year. He then returns to his neighborhood public school and eventually becomes a star.

Gates graduates and goes on to Marquette while Agee attends a junior college. From that point, a summary at the end of the film brings you up-to-date on what happened to the kids.

Thus, almost all of the three hours is devoted to these kids form junior high through high school. The families and friends of these athletes are interesting and the film really documents the different lifestyles between blacks and whites in the USA.

It's a fascinating picture for people of any race. For non-blacks, it shows them a window into a whole different world. This film is obviously not just to highlight basketball players but to show life as it exists with a lot of poor black families: the good and the bad, the achievements and the big mistakes. I enjoyed it just as much the second time as the first. It's one of the better documentaries I've ever seen, so don't let the length of it discourage you.