Wikipedia defines sports movies as, “a film genre that uses sport as the theme of the film. It is a production in which a sport, sporting event, athlete (and their sport), or follower of sport (and the sport they follow) are prominently featured, and which depend on sport to a significant degree for their plot motivation or resolution.”
Although many sports movies are about more than sports, the point is that the sport has to play a central role in the story.
As with the other posts, I use the term “enjoyable” instead of “best”. I’ll say upfront that although Raging Bull is probably the “best” movie about sports, it isn’t overly enjoyable.
The term sport is tricky here too. Per Wiki again, physical activity and physical skills seem to be involved. This distinction becomes important below.
I’m sticking with fictional movies for this list. They could be based on a true story, or even a biopic about real people/events, but I’m excluding documentaries. They’re just a different animal.
I will aim to include a link to a good scene from each pick. And of course, SPOILERS ahead.
To the list!
Most Honored of Honorable mentions:
Aside from any good sports documentary…I noted above that a sport consists of physical activity and physical skills. So even though it has been on ESPN for a while, poker isn’t a sport, which is too bad because Rounders is an awesome movie. Matt Damon, Edward Norton, and John Malkovich as the cartoonishly fun Russian gangster, Teddy KGB. Definitely a great watch if you haven’t seen it, though I know that my only reader has seen it. Alas, poker isn’t a sport, so I couldn’t include it.
10. He Got Game (1998, directed by Spike Lee)
Jesus Shuttlesworth (Ray Allen) might be the best basketball player in any movie, other than Michael Jordan in Space Jam. Shuttlesworth is the top high school recruit in the country, trying to figure out where he’ll go to school in the next year. At the same time, his incarcerated father (played by Denzel) is given a week’s release to try and get Jesus to commit to Big State University, alma mater of the warden of his prison, in exchange for some time knocked off his sentence. This is particularly tricky because Jesus does not like his father.
The movie is about basketball, but it is a lot more about the life of a top recruit, the decisions he has to make, and the pressures he faces. Shuttlesworth’s primary concern is himself and his younger sister, but everyone is looking for handouts, and then of course, his father comes back into his life.
It isn’t a documentary, so it’s tough to know the full extent of how true it is, but the movie certainly takes on a unique perspective. Blue Chips looks at the more nefarious aspects of college basketball, but that was largely focused on the coach and the university. Spike Lee brings us a seemingly more realistic look at the culture that a lot of top recruits come from.
In terms of movie quality, He Got Game should be closer to the top of the list, but my one complaint is that there aren’t a ton of actual basketball scenes. There are definitely a few, but the “big game” that the movie is building toward isn’t a state championship or anything like that; it’s a 1-on-1 matchup between Jesus and his father. Emotions run high, but, for me, not in the same way as some of the other fictional competitions on this list.
9. Warrior (2011, Gavin O’Connor)
Warrior is an underrated movie. The sport is mixed martial arts. The story is of two estranged brothers competing in an MMA tournament for a $5 million dollar prize. The older brother (Joel Edgerton) is an underdog-type school teacher who needs the money to pay for his daughter’s heart surgery. The younger brother (Tom Hardy) is a Marine who went AWOL and is suffering from PTSD. He plans to give the prize money to the family of one of his fallen brothers in arms. Both are insanely likable.
Joel Edgerton is great as the older brother, and Nick Nolte was nominated for an Oscar for playing their estranged father, a former Marine and recovering alcoholic. However, this is Tom Hardy’s show. He’s in the Maximus zone where basically everything he does is badass.
The buildup and mystique to Hardy’s first fight is really well-done. Even if you correctly guess the outcome, it’s sort of shocking how it happens. The announcers are believable, and do a nice job of communicating the context for each fighter. Hardy’s ring entrance and exit are also badass.
The fight scenes themselves are really well-done. There’s the scene above with the initial fight that takes place before the tournament, and then everything in the tournament is well-choreographed, from punches and kicks to submission moves on the ground. Overall, the scenes definitely jack me up whenever I watch them. The only semi-knock I have is that the trailer kind of spoiled a big part of the movie, which softened its effect. Nevertheless, Warrior is probably the best sports movie that you’ve never watched.
8. Moneyball (2011, Bennett Miller)
Yes, you’re darn right Moneyball is a sports movie! Not just a movie about sports. I may be taking some liberty here, but to me, in the same way that the Oakland Athletics were underdogs against the New York Yankees, their front office was an underdog with one of the lowest payrolls in baseball. This is a classic underdog story. Even though the main characters are in the front office, they’re talking about baseball the entire time, which is what allows this movie to still fit in the sports genre.
In some ways, it’s an even better underdog story than what we typically get in this category because they identify their problem, and they invent a creative solution to help solve their problem. Many sports movies don’t go so deep with strategy, it’s just the underdog trying really really hard, and then that effort is rewarded in the end. It’s no surprise that Moneyball, a movie about making logical, math-driven decisions, provides a logical, math-driven reason for the A’s strong performance.
This is a really enjoyable movie. The only area where it is comparatively “weak” is the sports scenes. There were some scenes with Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill making trades, but that likely isn’t exciting to the masses. There were some baseball scenes, like during the A’s 20 game winning streak, but you’re not really in for the whole game in those situations, which lessens the drama a bit.
The fact is that this movie takes something complicated and esoteric (advanced statistics in baseball), and is able to make it accessible to the majority of viewers. While at the same time, it increases the stakes of the results by getting us to buy in with Brad Pitt, not a hard sell with a movie star, but crucial nonetheless to the ultimate enjoyment of the movie.
Also, as an aside, 2011 was a terrible movie year at the Oscars, yet two of the more enjoyable recent sports movies came in 2011.
7. The Fighter (2010, David O. Russell)
The Fighter makes this list for two reasons, 1) It is a really good movie, generally, and 2) The boxing scenes are really enjoyable.
This movie was an Oscar-winning drama, which gets heavy, and while I believe the family component deserved attention in the story, it can make it difficult to enjoy this movie as pure sports movie entertainment. The family dynamics definitely pull this movie into heavier drama territory. The acting is fantastic, both Melissa Leo and Christian Bale won Oscars for their roles as Micky Ward’s mother and brother, respectively.
The above scene doesn’t show the whole fight, but one awesome element of it is that they utilized the actual broadcast from the real fight! The announcers kept ripping Micky Ward for not attacking and were talking about how boring and unprofessional the fight was. Then he lands a nice left to the body, they change their tune slightly, and then he lands a bomb! In the movie, they cue up “How You Like Me Now” and it just gets me jacked up! I used to watch this scene to motivate me to go to the gym.
There are later scenes as well that feature enjoyable fights. The truth is, maybe I just like how Micky Ward fought. At times, he was a slower starter, usually trying to feel his opponent out and wait for his shots. While this may not be the most entertaining in real life, it sets up a natural comeback storyline in each fight.
Bill Simmons once noted, unfortunately the article was taken down, but he couldn’t believe the movie didn’t touch on the Hall of Fame Trilogy of fights between Micky Ward and Arturo Gatti. It’s worth noting that there is a great documentary on HBO about that Trilogy of fights, and while I would’ve been interested to see it in the movie, it’s possible that it was just better as a documentary.
Also, this movie taught me the importance of body shots in boxing. Granted, that wasn’t a secret, and rather, was due to my own ignorance, but nevertheless, it taught me a bit about the sport. “Head, bawdy, head!”
6. Major League (1989, David S. Ward)
Certainly the lightest of our fare so far. Major League is an outright comedy, in addition to being a sports movie. As you’ve probably gathered from the clip above, the Cleveland Indians are a ragtag group that the owner expects to lose games. A comedic take on an underdog story.
Unlike a lot of other sports movies, Major League introduces us to a few guys on the team, and they’re all enjoyable. We have the washed up veteran catcher, Jake Taylor, who is kind of the charismatic leader. We have the young, overconfident Willie Mays Hays in Centerfield. Rick Vaughn is the young rebellious Closer. Pedro Serrano, the hyper-religious (spiritual?) slugger. It isn’t to say they’re all well-rounded, but it’s nice to have this variety of characters to balance the scenes out, and it’s nice that more people have a role, rather than ten nobodies, and then one star.
As far as getting fired up, the “chill scene”, as Bill Simmons calls it – when they call in Vaughn to close it out. It’s cheesy, but it’s exciting! I’ve always thought that when Closers come in it’s exciting. It’s a similar rule to movie monsters: their entrance is most affecting if it’s either really fast, or really slow. Vaughn just walks out, “Wild Thing” is playing, and the crowd is going nuts. It is actually a nice portrait of local fans showing love for “their guy”, and what I mean by that is, most fans know about All-Stars on each team, but there are guys like “Wild Thing” Vaughn on every team; a fan favorite, with a cool nickname, who isn’t quite an All-Star, but the fans go nuts when he’s in the game and makes a play.
One last point. To put this movie over the top, they got real life baseball announcer Bob Uecker to call the games. He provides much of the comedy with his sarcasm, meaningless statistics, and positivity. He is far and away the best broadcaster in any movie, and he adds a ton of color to the games.
Is Major League in my top 5? “Juuuuust a bit outside.”
5. Rudy (1993, David Anspaugh)
Crazy that this is only my #5. Rudy is the ultimate underdog. As noted in my last post, he’s “5 foot nothing, 100 and nothing (pounds)”, and also dyslexic, and his dream is to get in the University of Notre Dame and to walk onto the football team.
We’re with Rudy from childhood, and we see how much Notre Dame Football means to him, and to his family. We’re with him through the ups and downs of trying to get accepted. The above montage shows his tenacity on the football field, and his unyielding effort. Also, there’s the musical score. I’m certainly not a score expert, but Rudy has one of the most underrated musical scores in movie history. It has an epic crescendo that really builds nicely to align every time Rudy does something that gets the coaches’ attention.
As far as “chill scenes” go, they don’t get much better than this. I didn’t show it at the top because for some reason, I didn’t want to spoil it in case my one reader hasn’t seen it. Suffice it to say these types of things are real. The idea of everyone on a team being behind someone, and being excited for them. There was a kid on my high school lacrosse team, who scored his first and only goal toward the end of a JV game, and we all went nuts! We were all so excited for him. Similarly, by the time of this scene, we’ve been with Rudy the whole way, we know what’s gone into this moment, and we’re ecstatic for him.
My one knock, it’s Notre Dame. For some reason, I’ve always disliked Notre Dame, Ohio State, and Florida State. This would’ve been better at a different school.
4. Remember The Titans (2000, Boaz Yakin)
Another movie that is lower on my list than I would’ve guessed. Yes, it is a white-washed, Disney explanation of blacks and whites on a football team overcoming racism and coming together to play football. As I think about it now, would the movie really have been better with a more nuanced look at the characters and racism? My guess is…probably not. Racism is a horrible thing, and though the team’s journey is oversimplified, the fact is that recognizing that we’re the same as the other side, is kind of the key to overcoming it all, even if it still hasn’t happened in real life.
I like the psychological aspects to the unification of the team. Coach Boone (Denzel, his second movie on the list) is a hard-ass, but he’s the same hard-ass with everyone on the team. That is important for two reasons, 1) It preaches the message that everyone is treated the same because they are the same, and 2) It gives all of the players a common annoyance/enemy, and has them share some difficult experiences, which is a great way to unite people. This reinforces that blacks and whites are two sides of the same coin. Oversimplified? Sure, but it makes logical sense, and we can see how it would realistically bond the team.
Another thing in Titans favor is the football scenes. I’m not calling them perfect, but I think this movie did a lot better with actual football than most movies. Part of that is due to the times, teams were more rushing-oriented, which is easier to coordinate and film. Similar to Rudy, we get a lot of practice scenes, which are easier to shoot than game scenes, just fewer live participants, and a smaller scope. But Titans has some enjoyable action, whether it’s the defense laying the smackdown or Rev leading the triple option.
Let’s not forget an awesome period soundtrack, featuring great songs by the likes of The Rolling Stones, The Supremes, Norman Greenbaum, etc. The players start to bond over the music too, and the songs are just a perfect selection for the scenes in the movie.
Oddly too, even though they’re a good football team with good players, they somehow seem like an underdog in every game. Maybe that’s overkill, but it adds drama to all of the games. Also, the high school sports aspect is just extremely relatable.
“STRONG SIDE!” “LEFT SIDE!” “AAHHHHHHHHHH!”
3. Miracle (2004, Gavin O’Connor)
Our second Gavin O’Connor entry on the list. Maybe we should give this guy more sports movies?
This is a really awesome, and in my opinion, underrated sports movie. It is almost more well-known for the viral video of the little kid performing this half time speech, than for how enjoyable it is. Part of the problem, I think, is that the climax of the story is so well-known. Remember The Titans and Rudy were true stories, but I don’t think most people knew about them, so those were new stories for most of the audiences. Whereas the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” is one of the most famous American sports moments of all time. Most may not have known the story leading up to it, but they knew where the movie was heading.
Similar to Coach Boone in Titans, Coach Herb Brooks (played by the always great Kurt Russell) is a hard-ass trying to unite a bunch of guys that don’t get along. The University of Minnesota and Boston University had recently squared off in the Collegiate National Championship, in a game where some were ejected for fighting. A lot of the guys on this Olympic team were from those two college teams. Between the difficult conditioning, and Brooks’ perfectionism and less laudatory nature, the players bonded through their hard work.
I don’t know if this part was true, but Coach announces that he already picked his team after one day of tryouts, saying, “…I’m not lookin’ for the best players Craig, I’m lookin’ for the right ones.” Is there a shrewder quote on building a team than that?
The hockey scenes are fast-paced, and have some big hits, basically everything you want from a hockey scene. Very smooth and well-done, I don’t know if Hockey movies are easier to shoot, but these movies often look better than other sports movies.
Frankly, it was just nice to get a cliff notes background on this team and the people involved. It isn’t too much, and the movie keeps good pace, but for those of us born after 1980, it provides an entertaining context for the greatness of that event. Everything is well put-together, Kurt Russell is awesome, “chill scenes” galore, and it has one of the best movie speeches ever. “Who do you play for?”
2. Bull Durham (1988, Ron Shelton)
This is a movie that has grown on me over the years. It is a bit more adult than a lot of the other entries. Writer/Director Ron Shelton was a former minor league ballplayer, and this movie looks at the more everyday aspects of the game that are seldom focused on.
The story is interesting, and I wonder how often it happens in real life. A ball club has a hot prospect who is a bit wild or raw or immature, and they acquire a veteran to babysit/teach him how to be a professional. In this case, the veteran is Crash Davis (Kevin Costner), a thoughtful everyman, who teaches “Nuke” LaLoosh (Tim Robbins) about winning streaks, talking to the press, and the difference between ground balls and strikeouts, among other things.
More than other movies, this gives the audience a more inside look into the day-to-day routines and banter. We see them traveling on an old bus, chatting at the mound about non-baseball topics, it felt more “inside baseball”, so to speak. As I’ve gotten older this movie has appealed to me a great deal.
It’s not an underdog story, there isn’t a big game, there aren’t a lot of the familiar tropes we see in this genre, but this movie gets it done every time. Just an endlessly enjoyable movie.
1. Rocky (1976, John G. Avildsen)
It can be tough to pick one in a whole franchise, and I’m sure seeing all of the movies reinforces the positive associations I have with the original movie. Rocky has to be #1 for me because it is what I think of when someone says “sports movie”.
Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) is the lovable lunkhead. He is all heart, inside the ring and out. A good-natured, blue collar guy who refuses to lose at the hands of the far superior, Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers, who is awesome).
It’s a story that really popularized a lot of the sports movie tropes. A likable, humble underdog; great training montage; epic final match vs the main antagonist (though Creed is also very likable); underdog gives a gritty performance in the match and exceeds everyone’s expectations, ultimately earning respect.
One thing worth noting is that individual sports like boxing better lend themselves to these movies. There are fewer people to focus on, both in terms of story and in terms of filming the action. Boxing, in particular, is pretty easily understood by viewers.
There are just great characters in this movie. Rocky is an icon. Adrian is his inspiration. Pauly is an enjoyable character, who I’m sure existed in places like Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. Rocky’s trainer, Mickey, is fiery. Even the main antagonist, Apollo Creed, is awesome. Based on Muhammed Ali, Creed is super charismatic, and totally believable as the champ. Everyone in the first movie is likable, that didn’t always stay the case in the sequels.
Having a franchise is certainly an artificial booster, but the first Rocky is a great movie. There’s a lot of heart in the movie, and I’ll watch it any time it’s on. “Adrian!!!!!”
Honorable mentions: Rocky II – IV; Creed; Blue Chips; Invincible; The Sandlot; Any Given Sunday; The Replacements; Friday Night Lights; Raging Bull; Hoosiers; Goon; Dodgeball; Bloodsport; Talladega Nights; Blades of Glory; Foxcatcher; Vision Quest; Win-Win; Varsity Blues; Baseketball
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