Through the Fire (2005)
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69% of critics liked it
(32 reviews) -
50% of users liked it
(84,077 ratings)
A promising athlete learns firsthand about the realities of the business of professional sports in this documentary. In 2004, Sebastian Telfair was the point guard on his high-school basketball team at Lincoln High in Coney Island, NY, but from the start he was no ordinary player -- he'd been… More A promising athlete learns firsthand about the realities of the business of professional sports in this documentary. In 2004, Sebastian Telfair was the point guard on his high-school basketball team at Lincoln High in Coney Island, NY, but from the start he was no ordinary player -- he'd been groomed as a potential champion since grade school, and by the time he was a senior at Lincoln he was being courted by professional sports agents as well as major college recruiters. Telfair's play on the court was strong enough to attract the attention of noted basketball fans Spike Lee and Jay-Z, but as Telfair pondered the possibility of going pro, he had to consider the story of his brother, another talented basketball player who became a collegiate basketball superstar but went unclaimed in the NBA draft and ending up playing in Greece. After announcing he'd attend college in Louisville, Telfair backtracked and opted to take part in the NBA draft, but as he's groomed as a clean-cut good-guy player with an endorsement deal for Adidas in the works, he has to wait and see where he'll end up and if he'll be able to live up to the hype. Produced in part for the ESPN cable network, Through the Fire: Sebastian Telfair's Defining Year was directed by Jonathan Hock. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Directed By
- Jonathan Hock
- Genres
- Documentary, Sports & Fitness, Special Interest
G,
- In Theaters
- Apr 21, 2005 Wide
- Studio
- Cinema Libre
Critic Reviews
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Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle
An entertaining and compelling account of that year, even though most basketball fans will already know the ending.
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Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel
It doesn't have the pathos of the best sports documentaries, but Through the Fire does what ESPN wanted it to do.
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Susan Walker, Toronto Star
Even if the outcome is already known by those who follow basketball, Through the Fire makes for a suspenseful movie with an emotional climax that exceeds any fictional screen treatment of sports heroism.
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Michael Rechtshaffen, Hollywood Reporter
A highly satisfying documentary.
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Ronnie Scheib, Variety
With a real-life athlete as talented and charismatic as Coney Island hoop prodigy Sebastian Telfair, almost any outcome would probably have made for good drama, but Hock lucked out when life provided a happy ending.
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