On a day like today, but in the year 1995, “The Basketball Diaries” premiered on the big screen, in which Leonardo DiCaprio shows us the dreams, struggle and perdition in the world of drugs of a New York teenager who He is passionate about playing basketball and writing about his day-to-day life in a personal journal.
“The Basketball Diaries” celebrates 26 years. The facts presented are based on the life story and on the book that would be published by Jim Carroll in 1978, the American film “Diary of a Rebel” (Spain) was born.
According to the synopsis, Jimmy is a born rebel who lives his life to the fullest in the Big Apple. He with him he always keeps a diary to write everything that goes through his mind in a very poetic and sincere way.
The basketball court is his refuge and escape route from everyday problems, accompanied by his three best friends: Pedro (James Madio), Neutron (Patrick McGaw) and Mickey (Mark Wahlberg) there is nothing to stop them in the wonderful stage what they are going through.
Jim’s big dream is to be a professional basketball player, so he puts all his efforts into being the best on the court, winning all the intercollegiate tournaments to one day get a sports scholarship. However, later the young man is caught up in the dark world of drugs at the young age of 13.
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“The Basketball Diaries” managed to raise more than two million 381,087 dollars in the world. Despite the initial negative reception, the filming featured the performance of DiCaprio, who was 21 years old and according to critics, his performance was really good.
The plot is touching. It contains interesting scenes, with a lot of emotional charge and that make the viewer reflect. Beyond crudely showing us the consequences of drug addiction, this film passively delves into various aspects of an explicit reality that still goes unnoticed.
As a curious fact, Mark Wahlberg revealed that he and DiCaprio hated each other when they worked together on “The Basketball Diaries” (1995), according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Another important tidbit accompanying the drama was that River Phoenix was considered for the role of Jim, but died before production began.
