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Through the Fire (2005)

tomatometer

69

Average Rating: 6.2/10
Reviews Counted: 32
Fresh: 22 | Rotten: 10

Through the Fire may raise more questions than it answers, but it's no less engrossing for its flaws.

82

Average Rating: 6.8/10
Critic Reviews: 11
Fresh: 9 | Rotten: 2

Through the Fire may raise more questions than it answers, but it's no less engrossing for its flaws.

audience

51

liked it
Average Rating: 2.8/5
User Ratings: 83,173

My Rating

Movie Info

Jonathan Hock's groundbreaking documentary explores the business of professional basketball through the eyes of 18-year-old Sebastian Telfair, a talented teen from the Coney Island projects who pins his family's every hope on his acceptance into the NBA. Banking on a high-paying career to support his mother and siblings, Sebastian shuns a college education for the less certain outcome of making it big. Will his gamble pay off?

Mar 14, 2006

Cinema Libre

All Critics (33) | Top Critics (11) | Fresh (23) | Rotten (10) | DVD (6)

An entertaining and compelling account of that year, even though most basketball fans will already know the ending.

March 31, 2006 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | Comment
San Francisco Chronicle
Top Critic IconTop Critic

It doesn't have the pathos of the best sports documentaries, but Through the Fire does what ESPN wanted it to do.

March 3, 2006 Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel | Comment
Orlando Sentinel
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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.

February 17, 2006 Full Review Source: Toronto Star | Comment
Toronto Star
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A highly satisfying documentary.

February 10, 2006 Comment
Hollywood Reporter
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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.

February 10, 2006 Full Review Source: Variety | Comment
Variety
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Through the Fire fails to show indignation that rich white guys are trying to get even richer at the expense of a naive black kid from the ghetto.

February 10, 2006 Comment
New York Post
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Valuable not because of sebastian Telfair's ultimate triumph, but because of how effectively it contrasts his achievement with the plight of so many other aspiring athletes for whom the fantasy of a pro career ultimately fails to materialize.

May 30, 2007 Full Review Source: Upstage Magazine | Comment
Upstage Magazine

As exciting and involving as any well-made fiction film.

March 1, 2007 Full Review Source: Film Journal International | Comment
Film Journal International

Sebastian has the nice-guy charisma of Derek Luke and he's easy to root for

April 14, 2006 Full Review Source: Movie Habit | Comment
Movie Habit

You know a filmmaker has done his job when his movie appeals even to people who couldn't care less about the subject.

April 2, 2006 Full Review Source: EricDSnider.com | Comment
EricDSnider.com

a side of basketball that often goes unrevealed

March 15, 2006 Full Review Source: 7M Pictures | Comment
7M Pictures

Hock's most illustrative footage is of the dazzling, sophisticated action found on today's high-school courts; the most obscene shows the execution of 18-year-old Telfair's $12 million endorsement deal with Adidas.

March 2, 2006 Full Review Source: Orlando Weekly | Comment
Orlando Weekly

Not just a story of a person but a story of a neighborhood, a city and a plan to escape.

February 24, 2006 Comment
Monsters and Critics

Stylistically, it plays like an ESPN profile more than a serious documentary, but the issues and drama is all real enough -- and so is the big-league money.

February 18, 2006 Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | Comment
Boxoffice Magazine

It's a pleasure to see the articulate, disciplined Telfair succeed where so many other young men have failed, but ultimately his path to success is so smoothly upbeat that there isn't much urgency to it.

February 18, 2006 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | Comment
TV Guide's Movie Guide

It's a must-see proposition for fans of basketball and a fairly riveting bit of social and economic history for everyone else.

February 17, 2006 Full Review Source: Jam! Movies | Comment
Jam! Movies

[Through the Fire] seems willing to beg off the tough questions in exchange for access.

February 16, 2006 Full Review Source: AV Club | Comment
AV Club

Through the Fire is a well-crafted and illuminating documentary.

February 10, 2006 Comment
Reel.com

An up-close, engaging and ultimately moving look at Telfair's family, his final high-school season and his decision to forsake college for the NBA.

February 10, 2006 Full Review Source: Oregonian | Comment
Oregonian
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Through the Fire

documentary following telfair's senior season at Lincoln. overhyped like his cousin marbury, and is on like his 4th nba team

August 14, 2008
pjboyce601
Philip Boyce

Great documentary of Sebastian Telfair. Everything about it was powerful, and Jonathan Hock did an amazing job putting it all together.

May 5, 2007
davyjkurlander
David Koolio

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