Escape to Victory (1981) [cast including Michael Caine, Sylvester Stallone, Max von Sydow, Pele and Bobby Moore]
Fever Pitch (1997)
The Match (1999)
ID (1995)
The Cup (2000)
When Saturday Comes (1996)
The Arsenal Stadium Mystery (1939)
…and many, many more. IMDB lists 146 ‘soccer’-related titles.
One of the best films I’ve seen this year is a four-hour Bollywood musical about cricket called **Lagaan**. Absolutely fantastic.
Other sports not mentioned:
Basketball (Hoop Dreams, Hoosiers, He Got Game)
Golf (Tin Cup, Caddyshack)
Boxing (Body and Soul, Champion, Raging Bull)
Ice Skating (Ice Castles)
Auto Racing (Grand Prix, Driven)
Horse Racing (National Velvet, The Black Stallion)
Rugby (This Sporting Life)
Karate (The Karate Kid)
Tennis (Pat and Mike, Strangers on a Train)
Crew (Oxford Blues)
Sailing (Wind)
Competitive Fishing (Man’s Favorite Sport?)
And then there are fictional sports like Rollerball and BASEketball
Hollywood had made a total of 727 feature films with a sports background up to the end of 1987.
The most popular sport as a subject for screen drama is boxing, with just under 25% of the total, followed by horse racing with 16.2% and American Football with 14.2%.
One film about each of the following sports was made between 1920 and 1987:
Angling, Bowling, Cockfighting, Dog Racing, Fencing, Ice Yachting, Volleyball and Weightlifting. The individual films are not listed.
During the same period, a total of 19 films were made which used the Olympic Games as a setting.
falconry in “Kes”
gymnastics in “American Anthem”
hockey in “Youngblood” (with a young Keanu Reeves in goal) and “Slapshot”
Horse Racing in “Let it Ride”
There was chess in Searching for Bobby Fischer and The Seventh Seal, pinball in Tommy, darts in Roxanne, roller skating in Roller Boogie, and table tennis in Forrest Gump.
And let’s not forget Frankie and Annette in all those surfing movies.
auto racing has “the quick and the dead”
hockey- slapshot-- one of my favorites…“that cunt is no good!”
i saw a movie about motorcycle racing featuring this “killer” motorcycle called the “RZ 500” that supposedly would be the death of you cause it was so dangerous. movie sucked but i thought it was funny, cause i had a REAL RZ 500 and it was not too much like it. cant remember the name. went to see this with a prospective girlfried, and she thereafter thought i was nuts…
I can’t remember the title (sorry), but a Japanese movie was released just this year about synchronized swimming. In the spirit of Full Monty and Billy Elliot, it’s about a group of high school boys who decide to start their own team.
The film Satree Lex* is about Thai transvestites and transexuals competing for the Thai berth in Olympic volleyball. This is based on a true story, IIRC they won the competition but the national olympic committee wouldn’t allow them to compete because of the embarassment.
[sub]*English transliteration for Iron Women[/sub]