Cultures of Basketball Course Syllabus Appendix 4: Elective Moving Image Review Assignment Schedule (Basketball on the Screen)
Not only are film and televion among the most popular forms of storytelling throughout almost the entire period covered by our course, but the visual nature of film and television presents particular advantages and disadvantages as a means of representing and reflecting on the emotion, physical dynamism, and social dimensions of the game.
For each unit, you are to choose one fiction or documentary film, or a representative episode of a television show corresponding to the period covered by that unit. Then you are to write a 2 page, double-spaced, typed review of the film you’ve chosen. Your review can cover any aspect of the film you’ve seen, but it should explore the question: What (if anything) does this film contribute to the cultures of basketball and our understanding of them? You must turn in your review in class on the first day of the unit following the unit in question. For example, if you choose to watch the documentary “Hoop Dreams” during Unit 5, your review will be due in class on the first day of Unit 6, which is April 5.
In the table below, I’ve provided a list of the films and TV programs from which you can choose for each unit. Films and television programs can be important ways to understand both the period that they represent and the period in which they were made. For that reason, some films (like “Hoosiers”) are listed under more than one period. Some of the films here may seem superficial or silly, some have nothing to do with basketball other than a player acts in them. I strongly encourage you to do to a little research before choosing the film you want to see for each unit. See also pp. 152-153 of FreeDarko’s history for a different take on many of the films below. You are responsible for obtaining a copy of and viewing whatever film you choose. I am open to you choosing other films. Just check with me ahead of time for approval.
F = Fiction film; D = Documentary film; TV = Television Program
UNIT | FILM (CHOOSE 1 TO VIEW DURING EACH UNIT) |
1 | •“Campus Confessions” (1938) [F: This comical campus romance showcases the fancy footwork of All-American basketball player Hank Luisetti while it tells the story of a dean's son who does his very best to become a good student. When he fails, he turns to playing basketball and befriends Luisetti, which makes him quite popular. This doesn't sit well with the dean, who wants academics to be more important than sports.] •“The Prowler” (1951) [F: Former Indiana high school player turns cop turns sociopath] •“The Basketball Fix” (1951) [F: A college basketball star collaborates with organized crime and becomes involved in 'point shaving.' A sportswriter tries to get him back on the right track.] •“Go, Man, Go!” (1954) [F: The story of Abe Saperstein and the creation of the Harlem Globetrotters.] •“Something to Cheer About” (2002) [D: In 1955, the Crispus Attucks Tigers of Indiana, starring Oscar Robertson, became the first all-black high school basketball team to win a state championship. Includes footage of the real game on which “Hoosiers” was based.] •“Hoosiers” (1986) [F: A coach with a checkered past and a local drunk train a small town high school basketball team to become a top contender for the championship.] |
2 | •“Tall Story” (1960) [F: Love puts a college basketball star into a tailspin.] •“Bill Russell: My Life, My Way” (2000) [D: Bill Russell: My Life, My Way explores Russell's life and career as both an athlete and an activist.] •“The Absent-Minded Professor” (1961) [F: A college professor invents an anti-gravity substance which a corrupt businessman wants for himself.] •“Glory Road” (2006) [F: In 1966, Texas Western coach Don Haskins led the first all-black starting line-up for a college basketball team to the NCAA national championship.] |
3 | •“Drive, He Said” (1971) [F: Hector is a star college basketball player. His girlfriend, Olive, doesn't know whether to stay with him or leave him. And his friend, Gabriel, who may have dropped out from school and become a protestor, wants desperately not to get drafted for Vietnam] •“One on One” (1977) [F: Henry Steele is a basketball phenom at his small town high school, who is overwhelmed by the high-stakes college game and his his semi-illiteracy. Things look bleak for Henry when Janet Hays, a pretty graduate student, is assigned as Henry's tutor.] •“Fast Break” (1979) [F: David Greene is a New York basketball enthusiast, who wants to coach. He is then offered the coaching job at a small Nevada college. He brings along some players, who are a bit odd but good.] •“The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh” (1979) [F: The Pittsburgh basketball team is hopeless. Maybe with the aid of an astrologer, and some new astrologically compatible players, they can become winners. Stars Julius Erving and Meadowlark Lemon] •“Semi-Pro” (2008) [F: Jackie Moon, the owner-coach-player of the American Basketball Association's Flint Michigan Tropics, rallies his teammates to make their NBA dreams come true.] •“The White Shadow” (1978-1981) [TV: Ken Reeves, a white professional basketball player who retires from the NBA after a severe knee injury. Upon his retirement, Reeves takes a job as a basketball coach at Carver High School, a mostly black and Hispanic urban high school in South Central LA.] |
4 | •“Conan the Destroyer” (1984) [F: Conan leads a ragtag group of adventurers on a quest for a princess. Stars Wilt Chamberlain and Arnold Schwarzenegger] •“Teen Wolf” (1985) [F: A highschooler discovers that he is a werewolf. Features mid-game transformation.] •“Hoosiers” (1986) [F: see synopsis in Unit 1 above] •“Love and Basketball” (2000) [F: Follows the evolving relationship nd basketall careers of a boy and girl from age 11 in 1981 LA up through their pro careers] •“Once Brothers” (2010) [D: Very moving tale of Drazen Petrovic and Vlade Divac, close friends who lifted the Yugoslavian National team to great heights, then.became the first two foreign players to attain NBA stardom. But when war broke out between Petrovic's Croatia and Divac's Serbia, these two men continued to face each other on the basketball courts of the NBA, but completely stopped talking to each other. Then Petrovic was killed in a car crash in 1993.] |
5 | •“Above the Rim” (1994) [F: Story of a promising high school basketball star and his relationships with two brothers, one a drug dealer and the other a former basketball star fallen on hard times and now employed as a security guard. Stars Tupac.] •“The Air Up There” (1994) [F: College basketball coach goes to Africa to land a recruit, cultural conflict ensues.] •“Blue Chips” (1994) [F: A college basketball coach is forced to break the rules in order to get the players he needs to stay competitive. Stars a young Shaq and Penny Hardaway, with Bob Cousy] •“Hoop Dreams” (1994) [D: A film following the lives of two African American boys who struggle to become college basketball players on the road to going professional. THE basketball film. **] •“The Basketball Diaries” (1995) [F: Film adaptation of street tough and ball player Jim Carroll's epistle about his kaleidoscopic free fall into the harrowing world of drug addiction.] •“Forget Paris” (1995) [F: Mickey Gordon is a basketball referee who travels to France to bury his father. Ellen Andrews is an American living in Paris who works for the airline he flies on. They meet and fall in love, but their relationship goes through many difficult patches. The story is told in flashback by their friends at a restaurant waiting for them to arrive. ] •“Slam Dunk Ernest” (1995) [F: Ernest P. Worrell becomes a basketball star after an angel bearing an uncanny resemblance to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar gives him a pair of magic sneakers.] •“Eddie” (1996) [F: Eddie is a New York limo driver and a fanatical follower of the New York Knicks professional basketball team. The team is struggling with a mediocre record when, in mid-season, "Wild Bill" Burgess, the new owner, as a public relations gimmick, stages an 'honorary coach' contest, which Eddie wins. What happens next?] •“Celtic Pride” (1996) [F: Two over-loyal Celtic fans kidnap their opponent's star player in order to guarantee their team the championship.] “Kazaam” (1996) [F: Being a lone young boy in the 'hood" is dangerous and unpleasant, until he releases Kazaam, a genie played by Shaq] T •“Space Jam” (1996) [F: Michael Jordan agrees to help the Looney Toons play a basketball game vs. alien slavers to determine their freedom.] •“Soul in the Hole” (1997) [D: This is a relatively unknown film that follows one New York summer team around the city for the summer. “Kenny’s Kings” hail from Bedford-Stuyvesant and are anchored by a kid named Ed “Booger” Smith.] •“Steel” (1997) [F: John Henry Irons designs weapons for the military. When his project to create weapons that harmlessly neutralize soldiers is sabotaged, he leaves in disgust. When he sees gangs are using his weapons on the street, he uses his brains and his Uncle Joe's junkyard know-how to fight back, becoming a real man of "steel." Stars Shaq.] •“He Got Game” (1998) [F: A basketball player's father must try to convince him to go to a college so he can get a shorter sentence. Spike Lee directs, Denzel Washington and Ray Allen star.] •“Like Mike” (2002) [F: A 14-year-old orphan becomes an NBA superstar after trying on a pair of sneakers with the faded initials "M.J." inside.] •“Sunset Park” (1996) [F: A white school teacher takes over a talented, but undisciplined black high school basketball team and turns them into a winning team.] •“The Sixth Man” (1997) [F: Antoine and Kenny Tyler are NCAA college basketball players, and Antoine is the star. Suddenly Antoine dies of heart attack and Kenny has to fill his shoes as leader of team. Some time later, Antoine returns as a ghost and helps Kenny in game and in life, but Kenny changes in the process and doesn't quite like it.] •“Air Bud” (1997) [F: A young boy and a talented stray dog with an amazing basketball playing ability become instant friends.] •“Double Team” (1997) [F: Counter-terrorist Jack Quinn misses his target, Stavros, on the eve of his final mission. From there, he is sent to "The Colony", a rebirth for presumed-dead assassins. He breaks free from there, and seeks the aid of Yaz, a weapons dealer, for his final battle with Stavros. Stars Dennis Rodman.] •“Big and Hairy” (1998) [F: A boy moves into a new town and has difficulty making friends, so he joins the basketball team. Initially experiencing little success, his popularity increases when he convinces a Sasquatch to join the team. P.S. I really hope someone chooses this film.] •“My Giant” (1998) [F: Billy Crystal plays a Hollywood agent who stumbles upon Max, a giant living in Romania, and tries to get him into the movies. Stars 7-6 Euro Georghe Muresan.] •“Simon Sez” (1999) [F: A tattooed Interpol agent helps an old classmate find the kidnapped daughter of a computer software tycoon. Stars Dennis Rodman.] •“Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. the New York Knicks” (2010) [D: Reggie Miller single-handedly crushed the hearts of Knick fans multiple times. But it was the 1995 Eastern Conference Semifinals that solidified Miller as Public Enemy #1 in New York City.] |
6 | •“One Tree Hill” (2003- ) [TV: This series follows the lives of some high-school kids in Tree Hill, a small but not too quiet town in North Carolina, where the greatest source of pride is the high school basketball team, the Ravens, since living memory coached by old Whitey Durham.] •“Finding Forrester” (2000) [F: An afro-american teen writing prodigy finds a mentor in a reclusive author.] •“Love and Basketball” (2000) [F: See synopsis in Unit 4 above] •“Harvard Man” (2000) [F: A basketball player strikes a deal with the mob to fix a basketball game.] •“O” (2001) [F: An update of Shakespeare's 'Othello' with a young cast, set in a high school and centered around basketball player Odin.] •“The Luck of the Irish” (2001) [F: A teenager must battle for a gold charm to keep his family from being controlled by an evil leprechaun.] •“Like Mike” (2002) [F: See synopsis in Unit 5 above] •“Crossover” (2002) [D: Crossover takes you on a fast-breaking journey into the 70-year old phenomenon of the Japanese American basketball leagues. Established in the 1930s when opportunities to play competitive sports were limited, today the leagues are stonger than ever.] •“Juwanna Mann” (2002) [F: A basketball star is booted out of the NBA when his on-court antics go too far, so he poses as a woman and joins the WUBA.] •“The Cookout” (2004) [F: When Todd Anderson signs a $30 million deal with his hometown team, the New Jersey Nets, he knows that his life is set for a big change. To keep things real, he decides to throw a barbeque at his place -- just like the ones his family used to have. But when you have new and old friends, family, agents, and product reps in the same house, things are bound to get crazy.] •“Hooked: The Story of Demetrius ‘Hook’ Mitchell” (2004) [D: Traces the life of Demetrius Mitchell, who, at 5-feet-9, built his legendary playground status by several public exhibits of his extraordinary talent, such as jumping over the top of a Volkswagen car and slam dunking a basketball. He is considered by several NBA All-Stars to be the greatest player to never reach the NBA.] •“Coach Carter” (2005) [F: Controversy surrounds high school basketball coach Ken Carter after he benches his entire team for their breaking their academic contract with him.] •”The Heart of the Game” (2005) [D: Follows Seattle HS girls team.] •“Glory Road” (2006) [F: See synopsis in Unit 2 above] •“Home of the Giants” (2007) [F: Gar is a high school journalist who covers the basketball team as it heads toward a state championship; when his best friend Matt, the team's star, is asked by a drug dealer to throw the big game, Gar inevitably gets caught in the middle.] •“Semi-Pro” (2008) [F: See synopsis in Unit 3 above] •“More than a Game” (2008) [D: This documentary follows NBA superstar LeBron James and four of his talented teammates through the trials and tribulations of high school basketball in Ohio and James' journey to fame.] •“Just Wright” (2010) [F: A physical therapist falls for the basketball player she is helping recover from a career-threatening injury. Cameos from Dwyane Wade and Dwight Howard.] •“No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson” (2010) [D: Director of “Hoop Dreams” takes on Iverson’s trial during his senior year in h.s.] •“Once Brothers” (2010) [D: see synopsis in Unit 4 above] •“Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. the New York Knicks” (2010) [D: see synopsis in Unit 5 above] |
