MovieChat Forums > White Men Can't Jump (1992) Discussion > I feel like this movie doesn't get its l...

I feel like this movie doesn't get its lesson right. SPOILERS

posted 4 years ago by GreenGoblinsOck8 (7515)
2 replies | jump to latest

I just watched this last night for the first time. I feel the point of this movie is that Billy and Sidney have gambling problems but at the end Billy's and Sidney's problems are solved by playing a gambled on basketball game. But then again Billy's girlfriend Gloria leaves him because she can't stand that he wants to gamble again. But in the end he is able to pay off those gangsters because of winning at Gambling. Then at the end they both just go back to gambling basketball games.

[–] Ace_Spade (9458) 3 years ago

I think the movie is more about bridging gaps between the races; I don't think it's trying to talk about gambling. The lessons of the film, if there are any, have more to do with brotherhood and friendship.

[–] WandererFromYs (1914) 2 years ago

I think the lesson of the movie was Gloria's "sometimes when you win you actually lose etc etc" comment. Billy and Sidney won, and cemented themselves as legends in the area, and Billy proved that white men can jump in the process. But in order to do those things, he lost Gloria.

I don't think Sidney is a problem gambler. I think he is a hustler that saw an opportunity he could exploit with Billy. But that has a shelf life, since eventually everyone would know about Billy. By the end of the movie his other businesses seem to be taking off, so he probably wouldn't use basketball as his main source of income.