The Gathering

I've always been a big fan of Christmas and Christmas movies, but this television offering has to be my all time favorite. I still try to watch it every year on either my (fading) VHS copy or, most recently, on the Hallmark channel. Ed Asner is absolutely perfect as the estranged husband and father hoping for a last minute Christmas reunion with his grown children before he succumbs to an un-named disease. Maureen Stapleton matches him scene for scene as his wife. The children are all excellent as well, particularly Lawrence Pressman as the stubborn eldest son and Gail Strickland (one of Hollywood's most underrated character actresses) as his eldest daughter. Bruce Davison is also very good as Asner's put-upon son-in-law. The sequel is inferior (with two unfortunate cast replacements for the children) and Asner's presence in the second film is sorely missed but worthy of a look if you are a fan of this one. Don't miss the Gathering. It'll make you long for an old-fashioned Christmas reunion--your own gathering, whether you're dying or not.

Sentimental but not sugary-sweet, "The Gathering" is a wonderful holiday treat. Ed Asner is perfect as the businessman who lost his way and his family four years earlier to his career. When he finds out he's dying, he tries to reconcile himself to his four grown children and his estranged wife. She helps him plan the gathering of the family, and in the process they tentatively get to know each other again.

Maureen Stapleton so completely lives her role that you wonder if she's been through something like this before in her own life. She is a revelation, and is the rock-hard center the film anchors itself with. Without her it would be half a film. Lawrence Pressman, Gail Strickland, Rebecca Balding and Gregory Harrison are the children who bring their spouses to the ancestral home to celebrate Christmas. They are all capable actors and actresses, and enhance the production immeasurably. The sets are perfect, the music superb, and the snowfall even arrives on time. It doesn't miss a trick, but you don't realize that while you're watching it. Honest emotions and genuine sentiment, along with a great script, make this a holiday film you won't want to miss.

It's available on DVD through Warner Archive as of 2011, which is great news; however, an audio commentary would have been even better news but the Archive doesn't do extras. "The Gathering" is a classic and is now readily available for everyone to enjoy at Christmas.

The Gathering is one of my favorite Christmas movies, and each year I watch the same rough VHS that I taped from the television broadcast when it first appeared back in the 70's. My VHS copy comes complete with all the commercials from the broadcast...a real treat to see what was advertised back then. I would very much like to obtain a clean version of this movie, and am wondering if anyone knows a source for a DVD or VHS copy? I too consider this to be a real Christmas classic, and wish that it were re-released and re-broadcast. I look each year to see if it will be broadcast, but it has not been in years.

I have also searched my library and bookstores for a printed version of the Rudyard Kipling poem that Ed Asner's character recites in the movie. I can quote it by heart, but would love to find it in print. The title is "Christmas in the Workhouse". If anyone can direct me to a publication containing this poem, I would be most appreciative.

Thanks

It was interesting to read the production credits of The Gathering, an extremely well-acted drama, and see the following title - Executive Producer: Joseph Barbera. When Barbera died in 2006, it was a shame that the obits never mentioned his Emmy win for this critically acclaimed TV movie. Barbera, with business partner William Hanna, produced numerous TV cartoon shows and the Tom & Jerry shorts. The Gathering was Hanna-Barbera's few non-animated projects and this Emmy-award winning drama hit the ball right out of the park with its unsentimental view of one family celebrating Christmas for a final time with their long-lost father.

Strong performances by a great ensemble cast including Edward Asner and Maureen Stapleton as the parents, an observant script by James Poe (who co-adapted Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and won an Oscar co-adapting Around the World in Eighty Days) and well-directed by Randal Kleiser (who would direct the movie Grease a year later) made The Gathering one of the better TV-movies from the 1970s.

Update: May 13, 2011

Warner Brothers Archive Collection released The Gathering on DVD in 2009.

It must have been around 1982 when I saw this film on British TV. My recollections are therefore dim of the detail but it moved me very much. A Christmas setting with sad but also happy moments, it shapes a family's trials at a time of year that is sadly not always the happiest for many people.

But do not be put off watching; this is a very good film and makes you think about what happens in families, and what can be made to happen.

Every year I look through the TV listings hoping it will be re-shown. For two years I have been e-mailing the BBC begging them to screen it again. Every month I check the video listings to see if I can buy it. I hope it will come round again.

Shortly after I wrote this several years ago, I managed to get a copy via Marta. Thank you Marta. She now says it's available on DVD via Warner Archive.