Final Shot: The Hank Gathers Story is an American 1992 sports drama biography television film about the life of Loyola Marymount basketball player Eric "Hank" Gathers, written for Tribune Entertainment by Fred Johnson, Don Enright and Ed Fields, and directed by Charles Braverman.
Contents
Synopsis
This film follows the life of basketball legend Eric "Hank" Gathers, from his growing up in the ghettos of Philadelphia to his freshman year at USC through his brief career playing basketball for Loyola Marymount University, where he collapsed during a game and died of a heart ailment.
Partial cast
Victor Love as Hank Gathers
Duane Davis as Bo Kimble
George Kennedy as Father Dave
Nell Carter as Lucille Gathers
Sam Hennings as Coach Spencer
Reynaldo Rey as Red
Whitman Mayo as Nick
Ed Arnold as Himself
Bart Braverman as Tom Talmadge
Dick Baker as Referee
John Mahon as Paul Westhead
Ken Foree as First USC Coach
Milt Kogan as Doctor
Baldwin C. Sykes as Specs
Michael D. Hall as Heat Gates
Cory Curtis as Young Heat Gates
De'Andre Alfred as Noo-Noo Gathers
Donny B. Lord as Young Hank Gathers
Michole White as Taffy
David Netter as Aaron
Production
Casting began in late 1991, with a television debut slated for March 1992. The project was filmed in North Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; as well as in Santa Monica and Los Angeles, California.
Reception
Entertainment Weekly wrote that the film "does a decent job of showing us the person inside the uniform," but felt that the film is overall "too sketchily told to be truly satisfying."
Dallas Morning News felt that the film went beyond disappointing to become "an insult -- not for what it focuses on, but for what it leaves out." The reviewer felt that the film fell "in line with many TV projects based on real-life people by reducing its subject to sterotypes."
The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote that film suffered in its dwelling less on the formative events of Gathers' life to concentrate too much upon his basketball career.
Conversely, San Diego Union-Tribune felt the film was a fitting tribute to Hank Gathers' memory.
Variety wrote that while some of the scenes were awkward, the film "sets a fine example of what a youth under pressure in North Philly can accomplish." They wrote that it is the growing relation of Hank Gathers with his college teammate Bo Kimble as friends and players that holds the viewer's interest, while making note that Gathers' off-court life remains "shadowy and vague".