Product Details

• Actors: Leonardo DiCaprio, Lorraine Bracco, Marilyn Sokol, James Madio, Patrick McGaw
• Directors: Scott Kalvert
• Writers: Bryan Goluboff, Jim Carroll
• Producers: Chris Blackwell, Dan Genetti, John Bard Manulis, Kathie Hersch, Liz Heller
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Palm Pictures / Umvd
• DVD Release Date: October 19, 2004
• Run Time: 102 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (112 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00049QQHI
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #5,415 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
The pre-Titanic Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Jim Carroll, the poet and musician who spent much of his adolescence addicted to heroin and shooting hoops with fellow Catholic high school kids. As a biography, the film doesn't amount to more than the sum of its gritty scenes of smack use, violence, perversions (poor Bruno Kirby plays a lecherous coach who comes on to young Jim), and the usual scream-and-puke dramas that go along with a cold-turkey session. Director Scott Kalvert doesn't seem to realize that most people don't know who Carroll is and therefore can't possibly understand why they should care about his gutterball youth. DiCaprio, having nowhere to go with his performance but maintain Carroll's tailspin, is boring and redundant. Some kind of allusion to the literary and rock & roll life that follows the mess we're watching might have been helpful. --Tom Keogh

Product Description
Film adaptation of street tough Jim Carroll's epistle about his kaleidoscopic free fall into the harrowing world of drug addiction. As a member of a seemingly unbeatable high school basketball squad, Jim's life centers around the basketball court and the court becomes a metaphor for the world in his mind. A best friend who is dying of leukemia, a coach ("Swifty") who takes unacceptable liberties with the boys on his team, teenage sexual angst, and an unhealthy appetite for heroin -- all of these begin to encroach on young Jim's dream of becoming a basketball star. Soon, the dark streets of New York become a refuge from his mother's mounting concern for her son. He can't go home and his only escape from the reality of the streets is heroin for which he steals, robs and prostitutes himself. Only with the help of Reggie, an older neighborhood friend with whom Jim "picked up a game" now and then, is he able to begin the long journey back to sanity.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hardhitting Film Based on a True Life Story, January 31, 2000

By	frisky2000 "frisky2000" (smallville) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Basketball Diaries [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Director Scott Kalvert creates a moving and realistic recount of the true story of Jim Carroll, played superbly by Leonardo DiCaprio, a New York City teen who at the height of his high school basketball career, falls victim to drugs and violence in the rough streets.

Look for the real-life Jim Carroll who makes a cameo appearance as a crack addict in the scene where young Jim sitting in a back alley listening to the addict preach about his "high" while boiling his fix.

Fine supporting performances by the entire cast and a musical score including original songs performed by Jim Carroll's band. Especially memorable is the acid-rock message song: "These Are All the People Who've Died" which is a tribute to Jim's fallen friends throughout his life.

The serious messages in this film SCREAM out at teens, but also are sombering to adults who realize the sometimes hopeless devastation that wracks a family during a drug crisis. Your heart breaks for Jim's mom and his mentor, an African American ex-druggie who cleaned up and wants nothing more than to help Jim out of his living hell before it consumes him.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars How drugs are not cool!, December 21, 2002

A Kid's Review

This review is from: The Basketball Diaries (DVD)

The Basketball Diaries is a good movie, i'm not saying it's a good movie for a young kid like me but it teaches you at the end of the movie that drugs are not so cool! It can get you to jail , it can even get you killed. It also teaches you not to steal or back-talk your mother, or not to get into fights, and to choose the right friends. I think it teaches you every thing you should not do.I mean obviously the guy is trying to say drugs are not cool and they can get you in alot of troule.Because if you get it on dvd you go on this thing I forgot what it is called, but these people are interviewed and there saying that drugs messed up their lives and how they used to think anything whith drugs were cool, but they are not.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tragic, intense, and frightfully scary.. , June 7, 2006

By	Ashlee M "Ash" (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This movie was gripping from the start to finish. I loved how it opened- a bunch of kids who obviously have minds of their own- getting high off of some household cleaner or something, skipping school, ripping off hot dog carts.. and you think this all seems crazy but then ultimately all the hard core drug usage starts and while at first it may seem like nothing but a small enjoyable thing to do- it soon is a huge habit for Jim.

Watching all the struggles Jim has to go through- loosing friends, trying to be clean & then failing, prostitution, begging for money, getting into physical fights.. - it is hard to watch and you physically can't believe that someone can go through so much and come out victorious in the end.

Leonardo plays this role FANTASTICALLY. Especially the part when he is crying at the door begging for some money from his mother. The amount of passion he pours into this character is huge... for that reason alone- go see this movie.