Prefontaine, with Jared Leto.
Yet another Costner sports pic, American Flyers.
Mystery Alaska
Cool Runnings
I can’t believe no one has mentioned The Bad News Bears!
They lost at the end didn’t they?
The Natural
yes! there may actually be hope for the genre after all!
but i don’t want to limit sports movies to the scenario i described in the OP - this is just a cliche that seems to be the basis of all sports movies. i mean, two sports movies that i’ve seen recently that both seemed to be trying really hard to be something more than a sports movie, any given sunday and remember the titans both lapsed into the cliche.
so i’m after great movies that are about sports. in the same way that almost famous was a great movie, not just a great rock n roll movie, and sixth sense was a great movie, not just a great thriller.
Lucas is a sports-themed movie that is excellent, and although it does have a “big game”, it doesn’t follow the cliche.
Searching for Bobby Fischer is wonderful. Chess as a sport? Sure. This movie has the form of a sports movie, but has style and substance that go beyond the formula.
The Karate Kid is pure formula, but it’s done about as well as this formula can be done.
Battling Butler and College are Buster Keaton send ups of boxing and pretty much every college sport respectively.
Breaking Away (bicycle racing) is a charmer, and the climactic scenes are better than you would expect.
Fong Sai Yuk is a kung fu movie in which the kung fu master (Jet Li) meets the love of his life when he needs a forth person for his relay team at a track meet. Ok, the sports aspect is pretty dumb, but there’s some great kung fu in it.
Vision Quest: Almost another formula picture, but much better than most.
The Great White Hope: One of the great boxing movies.
How about Diggstown?
Maybe 61*?
Bring It On?
And, while it did follow the cliche, I loved The Replacements as a good comedy about football.
It’s not about sports per se, but more about the athlete, so how about Cobb ?
The tearjerker to end all tearjerkers : the champ. And how about caddyshack, that still makes me laugh.
Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India
You like Cricket? This ones pretty fun. And holy cow can that girl Gracy Singh move! Any although it is cliched and you know the outcome you still laugh it up.
But Gracy, Gracy, Gracy …
Damn, almost everything I was going to say (Brian’s Song, Prefontaine, Rocky) so let me reccommend two movies, that while they have a couple of the cliches you mentioned are still worth seeing.
-
Victory - How can you go wrong with a cast of Michael Caine, Sly Stallone and PELE~!
WWII POWs in a German concentration camp conscripted to play a soccer match against the German National team. Down 4-1 at halftime they have a chance to escape, but come back to finish the game. While not “Good” or “Historically Accurate” in the traditional senses, a purer sports-conquers-all movie you will not find. -
Rudy - In spite of what was said earlier, I liked this film. Sure, it was overly sentimental and you could tell it was trying to get sports guys to cry but still if you can sit through the whole thing and not get choked up at the ending (which, it should be noted, really happened) then you’re barely human.
Movies important for reasons in addition to the sporting element:
Hoop Dreams One of the best documentaries ever made.
The Hustler Great performances, in a story about much more than pool.
The Cup The story of Buddhist monks obsessed with the World Cup. Buddhism is their philosophy. Soccer is their religion.
All worth a look or a relook.
Naw, this was a sports movie. What’s more, I really didn’t want to see it and fully expected to hate it. Turns out I thought it was fantastic. So it goes.
** The Longest Yard **
Sports [football]
Prison [roadgang]
Distruction of a French car[Citroin]
Sorry about the spelling
I’d second the nomination for The Program, and have to add a few of my own.
Any Given Sunday did indeed lapse into the cliche, but (rather surprisingly for an Oliver Stone joint, IMHO) turned out to be a great movie! I thought this movie did the most effective job of using the soundtrack that I’ve seen in a long time.
Tin Cup. As much as I hate Kevin Costner, this was a fun movie. Not sure if non-golfers would enjoy it as much as us duffers. Definitely didn’t go for the happy fuzzy ending, and Cheech Marin was a great addition to the cast.
Blue Chips. A little hackneyed and cliched (and further proof that Shaq sure as hell can’t act), but a good movie nonetheless.
Major League. A comedy movie about baseball rather than a baseball movie itself, still funny as hell and one of my favorite comedy movies of all time.
Is pool a sport? If so, I go for the Hustler and Colour of Money.
Cool Runnings - I’m with you there.
To my knowledge, there are no good rugby movies, but as Living with Lions (the story of the Lions tour) is almost cinematic in itself, I don’t think we need one
Something for Joey was good for a made-for-TV-movie, plus it was based on the real life story of Heisman winner John Cappeletti (spelled w/o confidence).