I was able to see this movie on Netflix streaming movies. It is based on a real person, and a real university in Nashville. But as the end credits state many situations in this movie are fictionalized and many characters are composites of more than one person.
For example, in the movie when she starts a golf team in the 1980s she cannot find but one local golfer, so she goes to the phones and recruited internationally, getting players from all over the world. But here is what she says about her first season, " My first golf team consisted of two injured football players, two other guys and one girl who was permitted to play with us. I started out with that and they were all African-Americans. It continued on and then I started getting other interested players from other ethnic groups. Eventually, it evolved into having some international students."
So in the movie they lump all that into one season, including the eventual national tournament win in 2005, her last year of coaching.
None of that is to knock the movie, just to point out that it isn't really a documentary, rather it is a dramatization of her impact as a trailblazing coach, a female coach of a men's golf team.
The lead is played by one my personal favorites, Taraji P. Henson (of 'Person of Interest') as Dr Catana Starks, and golf coach. Now deceased Michael Clarke Duncan has a good role as a janitor that helps Sparks get the attention the program needed. And Henry Simmons is Kendrick Paulsen Jr., the wealthy former athlete who is now athletic director and gives Starks a hard time, threatening to fire her.
The golf is all amateurish, but it is there to tell a story. It was mostly filmed in and around the New Orleans area, including Dillard University and several golf courses.
Good movie.
For example, in the movie when she starts a golf team in the 1980s she cannot find but one local golfer, so she goes to the phones and recruited internationally, getting players from all over the world. But here is what she says about her first season, " My first golf team consisted of two injured football players, two other guys and one girl who was permitted to play with us. I started out with that and they were all African-Americans. It continued on and then I started getting other interested players from other ethnic groups. Eventually, it evolved into having some international students."
So in the movie they lump all that into one season, including the eventual national tournament win in 2005, her last year of coaching.
None of that is to knock the movie, just to point out that it isn't really a documentary, rather it is a dramatization of her impact as a trailblazing coach, a female coach of a men's golf team.
The lead is played by one my personal favorites, Taraji P. Henson (of 'Person of Interest') as Dr Catana Starks, and golf coach. Now deceased Michael Clarke Duncan has a good role as a janitor that helps Sparks get the attention the program needed. And Henry Simmons is Kendrick Paulsen Jr., the wealthy former athlete who is now athletic director and gives Starks a hard time, threatening to fire her.
The golf is all amateurish, but it is there to tell a story. It was mostly filmed in and around the New Orleans area, including Dillard University and several golf courses.
Good movie.