I don’t have much to do with sports in real life, but there have been some very powerful movies made with a sports setting. For some reason some of the greatest are set in the world of possibly my least favorite sport: boxing. Maybe it’s the power of the drama of two lone men pitched in battle against each other; very fertile ground for metaphor.
For me the number one greatest sports film is The Setup (1947). The rest are listed in no particular order. What have I missed? Maybe we’ll do a poll after some nominations. (For the purposes of this discussion, I’m omitting documentaries: we can do a separate thread on those.)
The Setup (1949)
Raging Bull (1980)
The Wrestler (2007)
Breaking Away (1976)
The Champ (1931)
National Velvet (1947)
Eight Men Out (1988)
The Bad News Bears (1976)
Body and Soul (1947)
I’ve left off some obvious titles, but I wanted to contribute only my own favorites, rather than anticipate what others would suggest.
One of my favourite movies of all time is Any Given Sunday. You know how when people say such-and-such movie is about “more than football (or whatever the subject happens to be)”? Well, Any Given Sunday is ONLY about football, but covering every aspect it touches on. Oliver Stone likens it to Balzac, and while I understand that I don’t think it necessarily touches on what is great about that movie.
Also, to mention a sport probably no one else will be able to come up with an example for, let me nominate Stick It for gymnastics. A fun movie.
Ditto. The OP is a quality list, but Durham is essential, and I’d also add When We Were Kings and another vote for Slapshot. Not quite in the same league (ha!) but worthy of mention are Chariots of Fire, Miracle, Lagaan (cricket) and Friday Night Lights.
basketball: Hoosiers
baseball: The Natural
football: The Longest Yard
hockey: Slapshot
golf: Tin Cup
boxing: Rocky
martial arts: Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story
horse racing: The Black Stallion
skating: Rollerball
Has there been a movie about dominoes? What about synchronised swimming? I’d love to see a movie about cross-country ski shooting biathlon whatever it’s called.
North Dallas Forty! I hate football with a passion, but I do love that movie. I 3rd(?) Friday Night Lights. Not mentioned yet is A League of Their Own. I tend to like most sports movies I see, even though I don’t follow sports.
A few titles for the list, not that they would be considered great, but I like them:
Invictus (I’m still completely mystified by rugby, but I liked the movie)
Victory (it is a John Houston film, after all. My first exposure to football/soccer)
We Are Marshall (shut up, I cried)
The Final Season (shut up, I have a thing for Sean Astin, I should watch Rudy one of these days)
Pride of the Yankees. Makes me cry every time. Cooper might have been a bit too old, but he still nails the part. Plus, I love how ballsy Hollywood was at the time. Lou Gehrig’s speech is one of the most famous speeches in American sports history and they STILL changed it. It’s like making a movie about Lincoln and changing the Gettysburg Address. Balls.
It is, isn’t it? I’m always surprised how much I enjoy that film.
Costner, I think, can be very appealing when playing an “ordinary guy”. It’s when he feels the need to act the hero (or the villain) that he stumbles, badly