AJC > Sports > Highschools > Blog > Archives > 2007 > January > 17 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USTake Ten: Best HS hoops films
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
After we cobbled together our list of the 10 best high school football movies a few months ago, our heads quickly began spinning at the prospect of turning our attention toward basketball. Sure, we caught some flack for sticking a documentary no one has ever heard of [Go Tigers!] at the top, but flack we’re used to. And once January rolled around, we were ready for this list. So what makes a great high school basketball movie? Pretty much the same as a great high school basketball team, minus most of the passing, shooting and defense. Unless it’s another documentary no one’s heard of. Then it might have all three. But the most common question we’ve heard about this list? Same as with football. The answer: Yes, there actually are 10 of them.
10: That Championship Season (1982)
In the first of two Martin Sheen pictures on this list, Sheen plays one of a group of four friends who played together on a high school basketball team several years earlier. They reunite with their coach for a friendly meeting, but it gets interesting as they begin to reveal more about themselves than they at first expected. It’s a bit of a dark comedy with several moments that could make some people uncomfortable, but the writing and acting make this worth seeing.
9: Coach Carter (2005)
If I see one more movie in which a tough but fair teacher steps in to straighten out struggling, combative students at an inner-city school, I’m going to have Hollywood shut down. This movie is essentially a two-hour lecture from Samuel L. Jackson on what it takes to be successful in life, but it at least works relatively well in the end. The finish may be telegraphed, but the film worked better because they didn’t take the easiest way out.
8: Teen Wolf (1985)
What child of the 80s didn’t see this movie — and probably the sequel, TV show, etc., that it spawned. Michael J. Fox had a good couple of months in 1985, releasing this hit movie about six weeks after “Back to the Future” hit theatres. In it, Fox plays a high school student and average basketball player before he begins turning into a wolf. When he does, he becomes popular, gets the girl he wants and becomes a star basketball player. High school students everywhere immediately stopped shaving.
7: Heart of the Game (2006)
This documentary was an entry at the 2006 Atlanta Film Festival, and it follows a Seattle-area high school girls team called the Roosevelt Roughriders, its eccentric coach and one player’s fight to become eligible to play. As a work of fiction, it would have seemed far-fetched. But as a documentary, it works very well, showing an insider’s perspective to this team and what it went through during an improbable season.
6: O (2001)
If nothing else, it has an impressive cast. Martin Sheen, Julia Stiles, Mekhi Phifer and Josh Hartnett make up a nice ensemble. It’s not just a bunch of familiar faces, though. It’s actually a rather disturbing, engrossing film that fashions itself as a modern retelling of Shakespeare’s “Othello.” Phifer and Hartnett’s character’s play on Sheen’s basketball team, but jealousy makes all these characters do crazy things. Stiles gets caught in the middle, and no punches are pulled here.
5: He Got Game (1998)
Everybody knew Spike Lee would eventually do a basketball movie, and this was it. Denzel Washington played an imprisoned man who could reduce his sentence if he could convince his son — the nation’s top-ranked high school basketball player — to accept a scholarship to play at Big State. Washington is an excellent actor when he decides to take a role that’s not a cop, and he’s done some of the best work of his career with Lee. NBA star Ray Allen actually does an impressive job as the son who doesn’t know how to take his father’s interest.
4: Finding Forrester (2000)
Rob Brown was just 16 when he was cast as Jamal Wallace, a very good high school basketball player whose true passion was writing. He doesn’t know what to do with his gift until he finds a mentor in reclusive writer William Forrester (Sean Connery), who agrees to help Jamal with his writing as long as he doesn’t tell anyone about him. The relationship is believable, and Brown is fantastic in his feature-film debut. This was director Gus Van Sant’s first original film since “Good Will Hunting,” and it’s probably his best.
3: The Basketball Diaries (1995)
Not exactly a feel-good movie, Leonardo DiCaprio is 21 but looks about 16 as Jim Carroll, a star basketball player at his boys’ prep school. Along with his friends, Jim dives into a world of drugs, drinking and crime, eventually going through a spiral of addiction. DiCaprio gives a wrenching portrayal of drug-using and withdrawals, along with everything else his character is going through during this film. It’s a hard movie to watch, but it’s worth the effort.
2: Hoop Dreams (1994)
Yes, this is another documentary. Yes, it belongs on the list. Yes, it’s one of the best movies of the 1990s. It follows William Gates and Arthur Agee, both talented high school players living in the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago and trying to earn a basketball scholarship. The filmmakers received extraordinary access to the families and created a poignant portrayal of the players’ experiences in trying to live up to expectations and make a better life for themselves.
1: Hoosiers (1986)
OK, this was a no-brainer. Maybe the best sports movie ever made. You’ve seen it. I don’t need to tell you what happened. Small-school high school basketball team in Indiana makes a miracle run to the state title, based upon a true story. Having Gene Hackman and Dennis Hopper didn’t hurt an already well-done film, as they made a movie not so much about basketball as about second chances in life. You don’t have to know a pick and roll from a dinner roll to love this movie.
Go on. Take Ten. Critique our critic’s Top 10 all-time best HS hoops movies. Pick your faves. Or pan ours.
Permalink | Comments (15) | Post your comment | Categories: Take Ten
Services »
Comments
By Big Man
January 17, 2007 01:13 PM | Link to this
Soul In The Hole is not on this list. Problem. I prefer Hoop Dreams and Soul In The Hole because they are documentaries. Hoosiers is right behind those and Above The Rim. Teen Wolf should be higher too. And where is White Men Can’t jump? Sunset Park?
By GaSouthAlum
January 17, 2007 01:28 PM | Link to this
Big Man, I will give you Sunset Park and Above the Rim, but White Men Can’t Jump has nothing to do with HIGH SCHOOL basketball.
Jeff, Teen Wolf? Really? That’s like saying Porky’s is a good high school basketball movie. Your top three are golden, though.
“Don’t get caught watching the paint dry!”
By Big Man
January 17, 2007 02:31 PM | Link to this
My bad on the White Men Can’t Jump. I was just thinking hoop movies in general. And in my opinion I think “O” is a terrible movie and I love just about any movie with some basketball in it. Teen Wolf was the junk back in the 80’s. “Shoot it fatboy”
By Big Man
January 17, 2007 02:33 PM | Link to this
Hey I too am a Ga Southern Alum. C/O 03. How do you feel about Van Gorder leaving? Think we need someone to vring the triple option back?
By GaSouthAlum
January 17, 2007 03:09 PM | Link to this
Not shedding any tears as Van Gorder exits stage left. Bring back Rusty Russell with Tracy Ham as the OC and Raymond Gross as the QB coach. The problem may lie with AD Sam Baker who seems ready to separate himself from the Russell legacy.
By SSU_Tigers
January 17, 2007 03:41 PM | Link to this
Love and Basketball had highschool competition in it but if that won’t fall as a choice i guess i will have to go with either Coach Carter or He Got Game.
By TechMan
January 17, 2007 06:12 PM | Link to this
What about the ‘Fish that saved Pittsburgh’
By GT YellowJacket
January 17, 2007 09:56 PM | Link to this
Fish that saved Pittsburgh was not a high school movie, but you score points for even knowing about it. Teen Wolf, Finding Forrester and The Basketball Diaries should be pulled for Above the Rim, Sunset Park, and Love and Basketball.
Basically, any basketball movie that has more basketball content than storyline. Those other movies have way too much storyline, not even 50/50.
Shame on anyone who forgets about Sunset Park! Honorable mention: Pistol , The Birth of a Legend (Pistol Pete)
Good thing that “Rebound” was left OFF of the list!
By Jeff Haws
January 17, 2007 10:40 PM | Link to this
I had no interest in favoring movies with move basketball content than storyline. I was going for good movies, not movies that were more basketball-oriented. Didn’t like Love & Basketball much, though you could certainly make an argument for it being in the top 10. I thought Above the Rim was awful and Sunset Park is much, much, much worse. Honestly … Carla from ‘Cheers’ is the coach of an inner-city boys h.s. basketball team? Was Cliff Claven an assistant? Maybe Woody could be the student assistant. And Sam Malone would make a great “tough but fair” principal who tries to tell Carla how to coach and what to serve them after a win. Frasier could be the team psychologist who keeps them in the right frame of mind to win the big games.
By sharon
January 18, 2007 07:23 AM | Link to this
Hoop Dreams is my all time favorite with Coach Carter coming in at a close second. Coach Carter was a “been there, done that,” kind of movie but it was still good. No movie could touch the raw emotions of Hoop Dreams.
By snookie
January 18, 2007 08:28 AM | Link to this
Hoosiers is my all-time favorite, but my number 2 is “Pistol: The Birth of a Legend” - the story of Pistol Pete Maravich. I’m surprised that movie isn’t on the list.
By cw
January 18, 2007 08:49 AM | Link to this
What about Love and Basketball or Space Jam…. Don’t they get any props…
By cw
January 18, 2007 08:50 AM | Link to this
Scratch Space Jam.. My bad, but Love and Basketball should be on there… And Teen Wolf was great…
By cw
January 18, 2007 08:51 AM | Link to this
Finding Forrester should be in the top 3…
By Big Man
January 19, 2007 06:05 PM | Link to this
Hey GaSouthAlum did you see the new hire? I like that offense, but I don’t like it at GSU. We need to be running and hitting people. I don’t think i’ll follow the program too much anymore.