How about lacrosse? Any Hollywood-type movies about that?
The Creator’s Game (1999).
That, and Three-Cornered Pitney.
Winter biathlon. I’d think that this story would write itself - imagine a terrible “accident” with a rifle happening while two competitors are out in the woods, out of sight of the cameras. Or the Bad Guy secretly damaging the Good Guy’s rifle so that it malfunctions dramatically, sending the Good Guy to the hospital for months until he makes a dramatic comeback in the very last race of the season.
Of course, before Hollywood could make a movie about it, Hollywood would have to know the sport existed. Problem…
badmitten?
Fencing plays a key part in the James Bond film, Die Another Day.
John Huston’s 1975 epic The Man Who Would Be King (based on the Rudyard Kipling short story and starring Sean Connery and Michael Caine) has a scene where the (Afghan) tribesmen are playing a polo variant using the head of a conquered chief, in a clear reference to Buzkachi (which in its usual version employs a decapitated goat carcass).
[sub][The scene occurs once our heroes have gone through the Kyber Pass, and although the tribesmen are not “Afghans” in the film (they are Kafiris, IIRC), it’s clear that Afghan tribes were Kipling’s model.][/sub]
As far as racket sports are concerned, I can think of:[ul]
[li]Squash (2002), a 2004 Academy Award nominee for best short. (Squash also appears in Annie Hall amongst other movies).[/li][li]A Real Tennis (aka Court Tennis in the US, Royal Tennis in Australia, and Jeu de Paume in France) match is shown in The Three Musketeers (1973).[/li][li]Lawn Tennis (the modern game, usually nowadays called just “Tennis”, but not the same game as in the previous paragraph), is shown in many movies, including Wimbledon (2004).[/li][li]Table Tennis, aka Ping-Pong, appears in Forrest Gump (1994).[/li][/ul]
However, as a couple of previous posters have said, there doesn’t appear to be a movie with a major Badminton scene, even though it’s one of the world’s top 5 participant sports. I also can’t think of a movie with a Rackets scene, although that’s probably not too surprising. I would imagine that Racquetball appears somewhere in the world of film, but I can’t offhand think of an example.
There’s got to be a spellbinding jai alai movie just waiting to be made.
I’m still waiting for a really good movie about BASEketball.
And I think most movie versions of “Hamlet” manage to sneak in something, too.
Offhand, the only time I can remember seeing this sport portrayed was the introduction of the main henchman in For Your Eyes Only, played by John Wyman. He’s first seen participating and excelling at a biathlon but manages to fail to kill James Bond anyway.
If you just need a scene, there’s a racquetball scene in the comedy Splash.
The film Crackerjack was set in a lawn bowls club that was facing financial difficulty.
Plot was weak but the whole story was built about the sport. 1971 with Omar Shariff.
Olympic fencing was a pretty important part of Sunshine.
How about extreme ironing?
Darts? Archery? Trap shooting/other marksmanship sports?
The bodyline cricket controversy of the 1930s was covered in Bodyline.
I’ve seen that. Twice. The first time I described it to friends, they didn’t believe me. Who would believe exists a foosball movie staring Leif Garrett and featuring Oingo Boingo?
Luckily, the second time it came on I happened to have a blank tape sitting in the VCR. Showed them.
Oh it’s bad.
Rambo III