Shortly before he died of a drug overdose River Phoenix was asked what he was going to do next. He took a dog eared copy of The Basketball Diaries out of his pocket and said he wanted to play Jim Carroll. The Basketball Diaries project did get made, except with Leonardo DiCaprio instead of Phoenix. At the risk of being typecast River was set to follow that by playing the poet Arthur Rimbaud in Total Eclipse. DiCaprio picked up that role as well. The Basketball Diaries turned out pretty well for Leo, and was also a good break for Mark Wahlberg. There was however one unintended consequence: the students at Columbine copied not only DeCaprio's black trench coat, but also his violent fantasy of shooting up the school.

Copy cat killers are a large problem for film makers. Oliver Stone tried to make a statement about violence and how it was glorified in movies and the news media with Natural Born Killers. Result: Copy cats. Seems like Stone fell right into his own trap (Juliette Lewis is in Basketball Diaries and Natural Born Killers, by the way). Take Taxi Driver as another example of what can go dreadfully wrong.

I don't have any answers but am just pointing out the pitfalls for an artist who tries to address serious social issues with a very powerful and seductive medium. The Basketball Diaries also had to be careful not to glorify heroin. It kind of did in the first part, but then it tried to make up for it in the second part by showing a lot of puking and screaming--which is good as a cautionary tale, but it doesn't necessarily make for the best feel good movie of the summer.

On the other hand, I also feel that the book that Jim Carroll wrote was misrepresented by the movie. Stephen Lang turned down the part of Swifty the basketball coach that went to Bruno Kirby because he felt the book was misrepresented. But that's Hollywood for ya. They made it into much more of a standard cliche plot, a cautionary tale, more like an after school special.

Still, there was a lot to like about this movie, and the Jim Carroll story is quite a compelling one. Though at a young and tender age he was a petty criminal, heroin addict, and prostituted himself to support his drug habit, he managed to turn it around and become a successful poet, author, and rock musician. Carroll was also a high school basketball star, which can't be easy when your double life is a junkie. He also had a cameo in The Basketball Diaries playing, what else? a junkie. So, add acting to his already impressive resume. Also, though they tinkered with the book somewhat, there is plenty of verbage lifted directly from it, and his prose style always lifts the material above the mundane.

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Jim Carroll: And it's good that there is rain. It clears the month of your sorry rainbow expressions, and it clears the streets of the silent armies... so we can dance.
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The basketball scenes are exhilarating, as are all the early scenes before the negative effects of addiction take hold. Besides a great performance by DiCaprio, Mark Wahlberg also acquits himself well, as do Michael Imperioli and James Madio. Imperioli plays Bobby, a basketball star buddy of Carroll's who is dying of leukemia. Madio plays Pedro, who although too short to play on the basketball team, is nevertheless kind of the team mascot and a member of the gang.

Music plays a vital role in the film, and the song "People Who Died" is especially effective since Carroll wrote and performed it, and some of the people in the lyrics, like Bobby, for instance are the ones in the movie, and Carroll's own real life. Also great are Patti Smith's "Dancing Backwards," "Riders of the Storm" by The Doors, and the musical high point for me, "Down by the Water" by PJ Harvey. Her album, To Bring You My Love, had just come out in 1995, the year the film was released, and though the song didn't yet exist at the time period the movie was supposed to be in, it nevertheless managed to capture the feeling.

The Basketball Diaries

Living at the Movies (Poets, Penguin)

Forced Entries: The Downtown Diaries: 1971-1973

The Book of Nods

Catholic Boy

Natural Born Killers - Oliver Stone Collection

To Bring You My Love

Boogie Nights

What's Eating Gilbert Grape

Total Eclipse

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Jim Carroll: I felt dazed, like I just came out of a 4 hour movie I didn't understand.
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The Basketball Diaries starring Leonardo DiCaprio is a good film about drug abuse but this coming of age drama left me disappointed. DiCaprio is so talented but even his electric performance can't save this dribble. This is a movie you borrow or rent but not buy.

This movie sums up - in a nice little package - how delinquent behavior can manifest itself into crimes. I use it as a teaching tool in my criminology class and highly recommend it to professors and students alike.

THIS FILM WAS SHOWN TO PEOPLE IN EARLY RECOVERY. THEY THOUGHT IT WAS REALISTIC AND GAVE A VERY GOOD SCENARIO OF RESULTS.

The late Jimmy Stewart used to stress time and again that acting should look natural to the viewer. Leo Di Caprio certainly fills the bill in this movie, which should be a mandatory primer for all young actors to view. In a stunning portrayal of James Carroll, DiCaprio leads us down the path of adolescent destruction caused in part by adult abuse, negative peer pressure, a shaky home situation, and one's own self will. This is definitely not your routine jock-sports movie. In fact, the movie's title may actually steer some potential viewers away from purchasing it. No, this is the real thing,scenes of which this reviewer saw too many times in his career.The path to drug self destruction is different for everyone. In Carroll's case, he somehow survived, accompanied by his urine stained notebook/diary. Would a trustworthy adult or counselor have been able to prevent all the mayhem? Possibly. In any event, this is definitely not the type of film that will ever appear in primetime national television. It should! This is the most realistic film with the best acting by one person these eyes have ever seen.