Basketball Diaries
"Culture is the complex whole which includes all habits acquired by man as a member of society," said Ruth Benedict in Patterns of Culture. I can think of no movie that proves that more than Director Scott Kalvert's 1995 film, The Basketball Diaries. Based on the autobiography of rocker and former heroin addict Jimmy Caroll, the movie describes in horrific detail how the author passed in a few short months from being a Catholic high school basketball star to being a strung-out heroin addict who fantasizes about walking into school and blowing students and teachers away with a shot gun. The Basketball Diaries contains incredibly dark and vulgar imagery, which could possibly lead an impressionable youth into moral and value modification and dangerous decision-making skills. Teen violence, particularly in schools, and drug usage became widespread across the news in the 1990's. The Basketball Diaries seems to be an indication if not contributor to this statistic. People weren't fully aware of the growth rate of teen violence until we had teen idol Leonardo DiCaprio in a long, black trench coat surrealistically blowing away classmates in The Basketball Diaries, and two students in black trench coats walking into their school and kill
When Jimmy and his friends become desperate for a cocaine fix, they begin to rob stores and mug women on the streets. There is one particular scene in which Mickey and Jimmy steal an older woman's purse. Jimmy grabs the purse and runs, while Mickey begins to brutally beat the woman. His heroin addiction has become so overbearing that he responds to everything with violence. Young people do have a capacity for violence, and for some, drugs are all it takes for that capacity to turn into violent behavior. The Basketball Diaries is full of examples that don't exactly portray the 90's culture in its best light. The coach of the basketball team, named Swifty, is a closet homosexual who spends great effort making passes at Jimmy, taking advantage of his position as an authority figure. Attacks on religion and Christianity are also displayed in the movie. The "loony lady" that lives across from Jimmy is often heard using the most foul words repeatedly in the same paragraph with speaking of the salvation of Jesus. The Catholic school and one of the fathers are portrayed as sadistic and uncaring. Together, these influences can certainly give the wrong impression of Christianity and religion, not to mention the 90's culture. This class of entertainment is exactly why some people talk and act the way they do. It may partially be the answer to why Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold assaulted Columbine High School in a frenzy of homemade bombs and guns. But their double suicide following the massacre has not stopped others from trying to figure out what triggered their dark sides. Should blame fall on what some call America's culture of violence; morbid computer games, music about death and drugs, and movies about kids who solve their problems with cruel mind games and murder? When the group pops a bunch of pills before a school-sponsored basketball game, they
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Approximate Word count = 1256
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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