Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve had the great good fortune to watch a few sports movies, again. (I’ve seen them all at least twice before, but I hadn’t watched many of them for well over a decade. It was like saying hello to old friends, it was.) Here they are, in no specific order:
Bull Durham — Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins. I know the last two are ‘orrible Commies, but that doesn’t take away from the movie’s excellence. Best part is that it’s pure comedy, unlike the realism of the ones that follow.
Trouble With The Curve — Clint Eastwood, Amy Adams. Somehow, within the overall frame of the movie, Clinty managed to fit in three little sub-plots: his relationship with his daughter, her budding relationship with her admirer, and the eternal struggle between the job you love and the successful career (in this case, also hers). The main plot, that of Clinty struggling to keep his job while persisting in the old ways, is of course brilliant because Eastwood.
Moneyball — Brad Pitt. Like Draft Day, throw in an actual plot with real characters, drop Brad’s excellent take on Billy Beane’s career with Oakland, and you have it all — without the happy happy joy joy denouement for Billy, just as it actually happened.
Thus spurred on by baseball, I turned to (American) football.
Draft Day — Kevin Costner (again). Take a suspenseful plot, sprinkle it with realism (real NFL teams and some actual characters, e.g. Jim Brown and Bernie Kosar), throw in an unforgiving timeline, and you have a lovely sports movie that looks behind the scenes instead of on the field. I have no idea how realistic it was, but that’s not important.
North Dallas Forty — Nick Nolte, Mac Davis. After watching all the above, I dug into my DVD collection to watch this old warhorse again, and surprise surprise! this gritty NFL story was pretty much as relevant today as it was back in the early 70s. (And who would have thought C&W star Mac Davis could turn in such a clever performance?)
Any Given Sunday — Al Pacino. I really love this movie, because even though it’s highly dramatized — it’s a movie, duh — I like the realism of the characters, all of them. And for once, Pacino doesn’t chew up the scenery but is actually quite a sympathetic character.
Rudy — Quite possibly one of the greatest true sports stories ever put on film. Absolutely brilliant, all the way through.
Everybody’s All-American — Dennis Quaid, Jessica Lange. What happens to the college superstar after the spotlight has moved on to the next generation. Quaid is perfect in the role, that shit-eating grin and past glories powering him through life’s disappointments, with the ex-homecoming queen at his side.
The Blind Side — Amy Adams Sandra Bullock. Another true story, only slightly dramatized for the movies. Sandra just steals this movie and takes it home with her. Even better is that it’s all mostly true. Of course, the critics hated it because of all the usual reasons: a gun-toting pretty Christian mom doing the right thing by a poor Black kid, and succeeding.
Of course, this is by no means a comprehensive list — and yes I know there are dozens of others out there. I just happened to hit on this lot, got hooked into watching them all, and enjoyed every single one of them.
You will, too.
I’ve been nosing around looking for an old aussie miniseries ‘Bodyline’ about the Ashes series played in the early 30s featuring some bloke named Bradmon. Saw it while working in Q8 broadcast on Star Sports out of Bombay. Seems to have disappeared.
The Blind Side is Sandra Bullock not the incomparable Amy Adams.
I’d also suggest “The Replacements” with Gene Hackman and Keanu Reeves. It’s kinda lightweight, but is recommended for the very-hot Brooke Langton as Keanu’s cheerleader love interest. You can’t take your eyes off of her.
Thankee for the correction. I frequently mix the two of them up in my mind, and this was one such occasion.
I don’t know how. But if you were expecting Amy Adams to crawl in bed with you, and it turned out to be Sandra Bullock, could one really complain?
Seabiscuit is rather good and it’s a horse racing movie. There aren’t many of those
I haven’t seen Cinderella Man. That’s supposed to be a good flick about boxing. The original Rocky isn’t too bad. I haven’t seen Cool Runnings about the Jamaican bobsled team.
Major League is a wonderful comedy about baseball. I think it stands the test of time rather well.
As someone who’s not into sports, I generally pass on sports movies. But, BUT, the absolute BEST EVER sports movie about baseball has to be The Bad News Bears. The original, with Walther Matthau. Everything else is just a pretender to the throne.
I was going to mention Sandra Bullock, but that’s already been stated. You might also consider ‘Remember the Titans’ with Denzel Washington, also an adaptation from a true story.
I never enjoyed Bull Durham all that much.
Seen most of the others mentioned and generally agree.
One left off that I still love is Hoosiers.
I recommend The Rookie, the true story of a high school chemistry teacher turned major league pitcher.
I was on the air in radio when it was released and interviewed Jim Morris, who was played by Dennis Quaid in the movie. Morris said it was pretty spot on. The only real liberties taken with actual events was its portrayal of coaching his high school team through nail biters in the playoffs. His kids had been taking BP against major league pitching. When they stepped up against their high school peers, it was like swinging at beach balls.
One that I don’t see mentioned much but that I enjoyed is called “Forever Strong.” Rugby’s kind of obscure in the US, so it didn’t really do well in theaters, but it’s got Gary Cole, Neal McDonough, and Sean Astin in it and I thought it was pretty good when I saw it.
I was at Everybody’s All-American filiming when I was an undergrad. LSU had a crappy team and the roar you hear from the stadium was when the other team scored….