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The Basketball Diaries [DVD] [1995]
 
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The Basketball Diaries [DVD] [1995]

DVD ~ Leonardo DiCaprio
4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)

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The Basketball Diaries [DVD] [1995]
66% buy the item featured on this page:
The Basketball Diaries [DVD] [1995] 4.7 out of 5 stars (14)
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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: Anamorphic, Full Screen, PAL, Widescreen
  • Language English
  • Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats.)
  • Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Classification: 18
  • Studio: First Independent Video
  • DVD Release Date: 4 Dec 2000
  • Run Time: 97 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B00004TXIA
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 21,196 in DVD (See Bestsellers in DVD)

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Reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
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 realise 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. The DVD release offers the choice of a full or widescreen (letterbox) picture, plus interviews. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com

Special Features
4:3 Full Frame
1.85 Wide Screen
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital 5.1 English
Dolby Digital 5.1
Feature Montage
Interview Bites
Miscellaneous B Roll
Theatrical Trailer
TV Spots


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Customer Reviews

14 Reviews
5 star:
 (10)
4 star:
 (4)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.7 out of 5 stars (14 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Leo's and Mark's best performance of their lives, 4 Feb 2002
What a gripping film! Leonardo Di Caprio is excellent as a young basketball hopefull turned street junkie, with him another school dropout who turns to drugs is Mark Whalberg who deliverd another excellent performence, their best yet! really worth buying. All in all a fantastic, hard hitting drama that leaves you amazed.dan-66
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant!!, 5 Dec 2000
By A Customer
This is a great film and shows what drugs can do to you. leo is an excellent actor in it and he makes it all look so real. This film would definately put you off ever taking heroin.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Who's the film about? Who cares... it's not the name that counts!, 3 Feb 2007
I have got to agree with the previous reviewer that this movie is about various aspects of personal decadence and degradation. It's the story of a kid with potential (which is quite obvious from the onset) who spirals down the vortex of smack addiction and cannot come back. It is a story of disenchanted youth, of street harshness, of strayed paths and choices made that lead to very different outcomes, of a life reclaimed from the gutter, of an gruesome experience not only survived but also utilised for further growth.

It turns out that the story is about a poet and musician named Jim Carroll. Even better. I had no idea who Jim Carroll was before I saw the movie but this didn't take away from the movie. The fact that someone, anyone really, went through such experiences and lived to tell the tale was a powerful enough theme to make this movie an apt depiction of the hellride that is known as street junk... and of the boundless potential of human beings, no matter how downtrodden and beaten they are.

Having said that, the movie lacks the sharpness of a script that would place it in the top levels. The whole atmosphere is quite compelling, though, and transmits the arid reality of the urban desert, making up for the textual shortcomings. The four youths come across as a gang of great friends tested in the heat of puerile carelessness, and one cannot help but wonder how their lives would have turned out had their fifth friend not died from cancer, which is what sets off the whole downward spiral in motion ever so inconspicuously.

At the end of the day, people will do anything to feel good again. They will even die for it. Jim Carroll chose to live and tell the tale though. Let the man's story inspire despite the shortcomings of the film. "It's like a finger that points to the moon. Don't look at the finger or you'll miss all the heavenly glory."
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Disturbing bur remarkable!
The basketball diaries stars Leonardo Dicaprio stars as a young,talented basketball player who loses everything to his addiction of heroin. Read more
Published 5 days ago by Mr. A. J. Ralph

5.0 out of 5 stars Top ten film
Leonardo DiCaprio is brilliant as is Lorraine Bracco as his desperate mother. If the scene with them either side of her door with him begging her for money doesn't make you cry... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Jay Zee

5.0 out of 5 stars Do get nostalgic of what Leonardo was !
Leonardo Dicaprio had a tremendous potential when he was still a teenager or so. He had the physique of his age. He had the style of his age. Read more
Published on 30 Jan 2007 by Jacques COULARDEAU

5.0 out of 5 stars Addiction not only a movie theme
The tears roll down his face from his sunken eyes as he begs his mother for a little money just so he can buy some drugs to keep him sane. Read more
Published on 17 Feb 2005 by Mr. J. Claridge

5.0 out of 5 stars Great film!
an absolutely brilliant film. I havent seen it in years but he did an excellent portrayel of a herion addict and after his mum gives up on him a man (cant remember who he is... Read more
Published on 31 Jan 2003 by hellydk

4.0 out of 5 stars dangerous, of the disturbing depths of drugged up communitys
Leo Dicaprio is brilliant, this is without question, the most brilliant portrayed role he has ever challanged, yet sadly has not been appreciated for. Read more
Published on 1 Feb 2001 by mel_susanmellor@excite.co.uk

5.0 out of 5 stars Great storyline, relatable to parts of my own childhood...
I was impressed by the storyline of the film, though there was not much basketball after they got kicked out of school. Read more
Published on 19 Dec 2000

5.0 out of 5 stars Don`t class this as a movie
It`s impossable to class or review this as a movie i don`t think that was the writer or directors either; Movies are for entertainment. Read more
Published on 1 Sep 2000

4.0 out of 5 stars excellent acting
excellent acting from DiCaprio as well as other promising actors that have wasted their talents in USA sickly teen sitcoms. Read more
Published on 20 Jul 2000 by queen keely

4.0 out of 5 stars A rollercoaster ride of a movie
This film based upon the autobiographical work of the same name by Jim Carroll is astounding in places. Read more
Published on 23 Jun 2000

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