Jim Carroll - In den Straßen von New York

For the past few years, "The Basketball Diaries" has been blamed for a rash of disconnected school massacres in the United States. The anti-media zealots who blame school violence on the fantasy sequence, where Jim Carroll(Leonardo DiCaprio) barges into his classroom to kill everyone in sight, starting with his teacher, ignore the facts, as usual.

The reasons that Carroll fantasized about this killing spree were; 1)The teacher got a sick thrill from beating his pupils, and 2)Carroll was high on heroin. Of course, one does not need to become a drug addict, in order to desire revenge against power mad tyrants, who exploit people that they believe themselves to be morally superior to. As for the kids of Columbine High, and other pre-Columbine mass-murderers, most of them were either bullies, or victims of bullies. The fact that they were fans of this movie is irrelevant. If what I'm saying isn't true, then perhaps the opponents of free speech would like to tell me why there weren't a rash of school shootings following the 1968 movie "If..."

Rent, or buy an original copy of this film for the following reasons; 1)The talent of Leonardo DiCaprio, 2)The explanation for that controversial fantasy sequence, and 3)The music video for the song "People Who Died,' by the REAL Jim Carroll, just in case you thought that when he made that song 20 years ago, he was only kidding.

I remember that when the Columbine shootings happened, some people blamed "The Basketball Diaries". When I saw the movie, I couldn't understand the connection at all. True, there's a school shooting scene, but focusing only on that misses the movie's point. The movie is the true story of New York teenager Jim Carroll (Leonardo DiCaprio) and how he descended into the ugly world of drug addiction. If you're squeamish, then I should warn you that there are some pretty nasty scenes of drug addiction and what happens.

Yes, it's ugly what happens, but that's what makes the movie so good: they're not afraid to get down and dirty. Also starring are Lorraine Bracco as Jim's mother, Mark Wahlberg as Jim's friend, Bruno Kirby as the high school coach, Juliette Lewis as an acquaintance, and Ernie Hudson as a man who saves Jim from dying out in the cold.

Like I said, this is not a movie for the fainthearted. But otherwise, I truly recommend it.

This is a very good depressing movie. But, you can't make a good anti-drug movie without making it depressing. DiCaprio is brilliant. Arnie from What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Richard from The Beach, and Jim Carroll from the Basketball Diaries are about Leo's deepest characters. He is an excellent actor. The scenes that get you the most are the withdrawal scenes, and everytime he confronts his mother in the movie. This movie deserves a 10

When you've watched plenty of movies based on some drug-addict life story you can't help compare them... I mean, the story is always the same: a guy begins having drugs for fun, or because he's boring, or just because he's young and wants to try new experiences, then he gets hooked, starts to rob or to prostitute himself, and eventually ends up in prison. That's what we see in Christiane F., El Pico, Trainspotting, Drugstore Cowboy... There may be differences in the form, and in the characters, but the content is always the same.

The dinstictive feature of Basketball Diaries is that the main character actually exists: Jim Carroll, a writer-singer-performer born in NYC in the 50's. And this is supposed to be his autobiography (or the cinema adaptation of some diaries he wrote when he was a teenager, heroin-addicted). Because of that, Basketball D. is more poetic than the rest of the movies I named before, the voice over of DiCaprio's character is present all along the film, telling us about his thoughts (rather nihilistic's) , with a style near to Burroughs or Jack Kerouac, urban poetry, tough and without ornament. Maybe that's the strong point of Basketball Diaries, because movies such as Christiane F. or El Pico recreates much better what it means to be a drug-addict, they're much more explicit, more dirty, much harder...

DiCaprio's performance deserves a new paragraph, 'cause it's simply astonishing. His best performance EVER, plenty of different shades. As he did in Gilbert Grape or This Boy's Life, he shows us how versatile he can be. If only he'd choose better the films he works in.

My rate: 7/10

Leonardo Di Caprio puts in the best performance of his career in this sickening true story of boys growing up in a man's world. Him and his friends(including boogie night's Mark Wahlberg) start a life threatening race of drugs and murder.

Ernie Hudson puts in a small appearance as Reggie, the do gooder who tries to put Leo on the right tracks. Juliette Lewis is smartly placed as the local prostitute, and Bruno Kirby plays the gay basketball coach to perfection.

The most disturbing scene for me was when Reggie tries to get Jimmy(leo) off of drugs by locking him in a room for a long time. Both actors do well with Leo in a polished performance. The Basketball Diaries is disturbing, but at the same time, it tells the truth in a way that keeps the images in your mind. If it had one fault, it was under using Lorraine Bracco and Michael Imporliano(both appeared in Goodfellas and The Sopranos). Rating=3/5