# SI says Bull Durham best sports movie ever...WTF? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 4, 2003, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/si-says-bull-durham-best-sports-movie-ever-wtf/192887 "2003-08-04T13:38:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Neurotik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/91b2a8/32.png) [@Neurotik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neurotik)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2003, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/si-says-bull-durham-best-sports-movie-ever-wtf/192887/1 "2003-08-04T13:38:46Z")
[I was going to post this in Cafe Society but then I couldn’t hurl the invective needed.](http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/features/2003/si_movies/) Sports Illustrated has decided that **Bull Durham** is the greatest sports movie of all time. Of all time. Let me repeat that…of all time. What the flying monkey fuck are they thinking? It’s not even the best _baseball_ move of all time. That title goes to **The Natural**. I’m not even sure if **Bull Durham** is better than **Field of Dreams** , either. They rank **Bull Durham** as better than **Rocky** and **Raging Bull** , for Og’s sake. Are they kidding? Is this a joke? I haven’t been asleep for 8 months and it’s April 1st, is it? Don’t get me wrong. **Bull Durham** is a great film, but to have it be the number one while **The Natural** or **The Longest Yard** don’t even crack the top ten is a crime against humanity. Plus I think I can throw harder than Tim Robbins. Bah. ---
**Author:** ![beagledave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@beagledave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beagledave)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2003, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/si-says-bull-durham-best-sports-movie-ever-wtf/192887/2 "2003-08-04T13:40:15Z")
What, not the **Bad News Bears**? Fucking artsy fartsy snobs. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2003, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/si-says-bull-durham-best-sports-movie-ever-wtf/192887/3 "2003-08-04T13:44:19Z")
**The Natural**??? What a boring piece o’ crap that was! **Rocky**? Ridiculous! **The Longest Yard** was a great film. More a prison film than a sports film, though. I agree that **Bull Durham** is the greatest sports film. **Field of Dreams** _would_ give it a run for it’s money, but that subjective. ---
**Author:** ![Neurotik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/91b2a8/32.png) [@Neurotik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neurotik)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2003, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/si-says-bull-durham-best-sports-movie-ever-wtf/192887/4 "2003-08-04T13:46:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by spooje \* > \*\ ***The Natural**??? > > What a boring piece o’ crap that was! **Rocky**? Ridiculous! > > **The Longest Yard** was a great film. More a prison film than a sports film, though. > > I agree that **Bull Durham** is the greatest sports film. **Field of Dreams** _would_ give it a run for it’s money, but that subjective. \*\* Blasphemer! Report to the re-education center immediately. You obviously are in cahoots with the heretics at SI. ---
**Author:** ![Boo\_Boo\_Foo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@Boo\_Boo\_Foo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boo_Boo_Foo)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2003, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/si-says-bull-durham-best-sports-movie-ever-wtf/192887/5 "2003-08-04T13:50:46Z")
Sports Illustrated probably still believes that “Chariots of Fire” was a film about 1950’s hot rods with leaking fuel lines. What can I say? Sports Illustrated has less than 2% market insertion in any other country outside of the United States. It exemplifies succinctly, more than any other medium or magazine or whatever, how astonishingly insular and conceited the American entertainment industry truly is. There are so many incredible films about sport which have been made outside of the United States - the list is endless. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2003, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/si-says-bull-durham-best-sports-movie-ever-wtf/192887/6 "2003-08-04T13:54:33Z")
Don’t judge Rocky by the sequels… the original was a brilliant piece of film making. Yes, it seems to be old hat now, but when you watch it by itself, it really is a powerful and moving film. I’d put Rocky first on the list, Bull Durham is right up there, but isn’t nearly as strong a film emotionally. FoD is a very emotional film, the father son moment at the end, especially. ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2003, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/si-says-bull-durham-best-sports-movie-ever-wtf/192887/7 "2003-08-04T14:41:02Z")
Damn and I was gonna say Rollerball. 😃 The Natural gets my vote. ---
**Author:** ![Neurotik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/91b2a8/32.png) [@Neurotik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neurotik)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2003, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/si-says-bull-durham-best-sports-movie-ever-wtf/192887/8 "2003-08-04T15:08:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Boo Boo Foo \* > \*\*What can I say? Sports Illustrated has less than 2% market insertion in any other country outside of the United States. It exemplifies succinctly, more than any other medium or magazine or whatever, how astonishingly insular and conceited the American entertainment industry truly is. \*\* Well, duh. It’s an American sports magazine that caters to a mainly American audience. Why would they cover sports their main audience doesn’t care much about? That makes no sense. How much coverage does Inside Sport or Sport First give to MLB, the NFL or the NBA? Not much I’d imagine. > [@](#): > > \*\*There are so many incredible films about sport which have been made outside of the United States - the list is endless. \*\* Undoubtedly. But the focus here is on the travesty of **Bull Durham** being #1, regardless of nationality. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2003, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/si-says-bull-durham-best-sports-movie-ever-wtf/192887/9 "2003-08-04T15:09:55Z")
\*\*The Natural, Rocky, \*\*and most recently **Seabiscuit** are the same type of films - namely, cornball ones. They’re all about the “Big, dramatic, moments” that the entire film builds up to. They slap you over the head with overblown dramatic scenes and lack any sort of subtlety. That is not to say that they are bad films, hell, most Jimmy Stewart movies are cornball, too. Bull Durham is funny, original, and bears some actual resemblance to what the action is really like in the sport. **The Longest Yard** is to football what **Slapshot** is to hockey and **Happy Gilmore** is to golf. ---
**Author:** ![hilltopper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c68b51/32.png) [@hilltopper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hilltopper)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2003, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/si-says-bull-durham-best-sports-movie-ever-wtf/192887/10 "2003-08-04T15:14:50Z")
Can you say CADDIESHACK?!?!?! ---
**Author:** ![Boo\_Boo\_Foo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@Boo\_Boo\_Foo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boo_Boo_Foo)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2003, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/si-says-bull-durham-best-sports-movie-ever-wtf/192887/11 "2003-08-04T15:16:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Neurotik \* > > * * * > > Well, duh. It’s an American sports magazine that caters to a mainly American audience. Why would they cover sports their main audience doesn’t care much about? That makes no sense. How much coverage does Inside Sport or Sport First give to MLB, the NFL or the NBA? Not much I’d imagine. > > Undoubtedly. But the focus here is on the travesty of **Bull Durham** being #1, regardless of nationality. \*\* Mate, I wouldn’t be so disdainful if they’d simply been a bit more honest - and recognised that the greatest sports movie of all time is “Cool Runnings” with John Candy. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2003, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/si-says-bull-durham-best-sports-movie-ever-wtf/192887/12 "2003-08-04T15:19:19Z")
Hey, Neurotik, did you even notice that **The Natural** isn’t even on the list? I can’t really complain about their choice, although it wouldn’t be mine. That would go to **Slap Shot**. BTW, Lamar, when mentioning definitive golf movies, **Caddyshack** rules the roost, not **Happy Gilmore**. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2003, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/si-says-bull-durham-best-sports-movie-ever-wtf/192887/13 "2003-08-04T15:25:39Z")
_Bull Durham_ wins because Americans who live and breathe sports but don’t want to look like slug-brained dolts will always over-intellectualize baseball, casting it as some kind of metaphor for the existential being of the inner self, or some crap like that (try reading some of George Will’s essays on the game - you just _know_ he throws like a girl). The fact that _Bull Durham_ had sex and humour in it gives it a slight edge over _The Natural_. Baseball isn’t really all that exciting a sport (pastime, whatever) and the fact that you don’t get all sweaty playing it seems only to increase its intellectual appeal, for some reason. The other three major sports played in the U.S. (football, basketball and hockey) demand a faster (though irregular) pace than baseball, and how baseball manages to hold onto its appeal remains a mystery to me, but if you want to be a sports fan and seem _smart_ at the same time, you may as well glom onto baseball because the long pauses give you a chance to quote Whitman at length and try to sound intelligent. Personally, my favourite sports movie is Rutger Hauer’s _Blood of Heroes_, which can be likened to _The Bad News Bears_ meets _Road Warrior_. ---
**Author:** ![Neurotik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/91b2a8/32.png) [@Neurotik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neurotik)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2003, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/si-says-bull-durham-best-sports-movie-ever-wtf/192887/14 "2003-08-04T15:25:43Z")
I did indeed, **Gangster**. Read the OP again. Or did you mean they didn’t make the top 50 list. If that’s the case, then I’m immediately organizing a mob to storm their headquarters. ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2003, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/si-says-bull-durham-best-sports-movie-ever-wtf/192887/15 "2003-08-04T15:36:53Z")
There is such a thing as a _ **good** _ sports movie? ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2003, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/si-says-bull-durham-best-sports-movie-ever-wtf/192887/16 "2003-08-04T15:37:02Z")
Although it’s old [_Jim Thorpe, All American_ (1951)](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0043687) starring Burt Lancaster was head and shoulders above any film mentioned in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2003, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/si-says-bull-durham-best-sports-movie-ever-wtf/192887/17 "2003-08-04T15:37:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Neurotik \* > **[It’s not even the best _baseball_ move of all time.** I think the Baseball Hall of Fame disagrees. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Cheatem\_Undhow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/13edae/32.png) [@Dewey\_Cheatem\_Undhow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Cheatem_Undhow)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2003, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/si-says-bull-durham-best-sports-movie-ever-wtf/192887/18 "2003-08-04T15:39:20Z")
SPOILERS AHEAD for _Rocky_, for the three of you out there that haven’t seen it yet. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lamar Mundane \* > \*\*\*\*The Natural, Rocky, **and most recently Seabiscuit are the same type of films - namely, cornball ones. They’re all about the “Big, dramatic, moments” that the entire film builds up to. They slap you over the head with overblown dramatic scenes and lack any sort of subtlety.** I don’t see where you get that about _Rocky_ at all. To me, the defining feature of that film is that you _don’t_ get the overblown cornball scene you would expect of a film in the genre: Rocky loses the fight. What he gains is a moral victory, a redemption of sorts: he’s not just a bum, a guy who lost to another local club fighter at the start of the film. He’s the guy who found it within himself to go the full fifteen with the champ. * * * As for the list: _Hoosiers_ should be higher. Best basketball movie ever, and amazing because it’s a true story. And if billiards is considered a sport, _The Hustler_ should be way, way up there. And where the hell is _Caddyshack_ or _Major League_? 🙂 And _Pride of the Yankees_, _Bang the Drum Slowly_, _The Natural_, _Field of Dreams_ and _Eight Men Out_ were all better baseball movies than _Bull Durham_. Hell, _Major League_ is a better baseball movie than _Bull Durham_. BD’s only redeeming feature is that conference on the mound where they talk about wedding gifts. In fact, in perusing SI’s “[Best Movies By Sport](http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/features/2003/movies/news/2003/03/26/theyre_no1/)” list, I can pick out a baker’s dozen of entries that are better that _Bull Durham_, by a long shot. ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2003, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/si-says-bull-durham-best-sports-movie-ever-wtf/192887/19 "2003-08-04T15:47:57Z")
Aw. And I was set to vote for It Happens Every Spring as the most realistic, best-acted and plausible baseball movie ever. 😃 Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![Lady\_Eboshi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/57b2e6/32.png) [@Lady\_Eboshi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lady_Eboshi)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2003, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/si-says-bull-durham-best-sports-movie-ever-wtf/192887/20 "2003-08-04T15:49:32Z")
What? No votes for _Bend it like Beckham_ ?😛 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/si-says-bull-durham-best-sports-movie-ever-wtf/192887.md?page=2)