Top 50 Greatest Sports Movies Part 2
Part II
50. The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh
49. Blue Crush
48. The Replacements
47. White Men Can’t Jump
46. Major League
45. Pumping Iron
44. Miracle
43. Bang the Drum Slowly
42. The Great White Hope
41. He Got Game
40. Cobb
39. Diggstown
38. Mystery, Alaska
37. Eight Men Out
36. The Endless Summer
35. North Dallas Forty
34. Rounders
33. The Set-up
32. Friday Night Lights
31. Tin Cup
30. Cinderella Man
29. Victory
28. Heaven Can Wait
27. Sandlot
26. Fast Break
25. ESPN presents 30 for 30
Once again (for those who read part I, if you haven’t you can check that out here) here are the The Big Lebowski parameters, which I used to prevent cheating. The Big Lebowski is the perfect cheating example, the leads are bowlers and some % of the film takes placing in a bowling alley, so does that make it a sports movie? Of course not, but it is a great movie so some justify the loophole (Diner is another popular cheat on this list). So, to prevent this kind of malfeasance I have decided that to qualify for inclusion on this list you must meet at least one of the following criteria:
- The movie is building toward a single competition
- The Lead Actor or Actress must be a professional or full-time athlete
- The film is a documentary about athletes or athletics
- The “sport” only qualifies as a sport if it is or has been covered by ESPN*
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9. Brian’s Song (Level VIII) – Another movie that an objective person might be able to pick apart, and if this list were something other than a sports movie list I might pick it apart too. But what are sports about? The fabric of sports is woven with our youth, our childhood, what we remember feeling as much or more than what actually ever was. From the time I was 16 until I was 30 the only movie that made me cry was Brain’s Song, and it made me cry every time I watched it. It is a movie about sports and effort and healthy competition and above everything else it is a movie about friendship. People always say that sports is passed down from father to son, but my father didn’t like sports. Sports was always about friends. So Brian’s Song typifies sports, at least for me.
8. Rocky (VIII) – In almost every way Rocky is everything Rocky III is (and I love them both). Rocky is a story of working class low life who gets a shot at being something more than he ever imagined for himself. Rocky is about a boxer who is a classic bruiser with a rock for a chin and a great left hook. Rocky is about a palooka who has always been viewed with fear and unease falling for the simple girl, who may be a bit slow but has a gentle heart. And the climactic fight in Rocky is the only fight in the Rocky series which seems even remotely real. Maybe it is easy to forget in the wake of Rocky IV, Rocky V and Balboa, but this all started with a really good movie that never feels like it was made with intent of launching a franchise.
7. Caddyshack (Level VIII) – Caddyshack has to be on the short list of funniest movies of all time. I’m not talking about greatest comedies (although it is way up on that list too), I’m talking about movies that make you laugh (sometimes in spite of themselves). I mean if you could some how measure the percentage of the movie that made you laugh AND factor in how hard you were laughing at different moments I can’t think of three movies that could beat Caddyshack. Airplane would be right up there, same with Animal House, The Hangover feels like it belongs, but that’s about it and I don’t know any of those even beat Caddyshack for just laughs.
6. The Natural (Level IX) – Berry Levinson did not make Bernard Malamud’s novel. Sure, it follows the same basic plot, but Levinson took all the dark out of it and decided to make something that mirrors america’s love of baseball and the mythology of the sport. Generally I don’t like taking the dark out of a thing, and someday I kind of hope someone will make Malamud’s novel into a movie, but if you take the book out of it there is no denying that this movie works from beginning to end. Redford is perfect (how many actors can play youthful and worn down by time simultaneously with no melancholy?). All three women (Glen Close, Kim Bassinger and Barbra Hershey) are great. Even Joe Don Baker does a pitch perfect Babe Ruth at the beginning. Just a great movie movie, even if it is optimistic.
5. Bull Durham (Level VIII) – There have been a few sports romantic comedies on here. We had Jerry Maguire, Tin Cup, Heaven Can Wait, even White Men Can’t Jump, Major League and Mystery, Alaska have more than their fare share of rom-com elements. It makes sense that people would try to make these kinds of movies, get the guy in for a sports movie and his date enticed by a love story (sexist, I know, but it is still undeniably the theory). Even though Heaven Can Wait pre-dates Bull Durham, Bull Durham is the father of these films and the best of them. Also, Bull Durham has the best scene in any sports movie that shows an actor really acting like an athlete (Costner and Sarandon in the batting cage, next time you watch it notice how relaxed Costner is when hitting, its perfect). Now, Tim Robins may not be entirely convincing as a pitcher, but he is funny as Nuke and that makes up for a lot.
Also, the guy who hit the home run in that clip was on my high school football team.
4. The Hustler (Level IX) – Forget Color of Money, this is the Paul Newman as Eddie Felson movie you need to see. The four lead actors are so good, particularly George C. Scott, and add so much nuance to every scene that you can watch this movie over and over and pick up new things every time. Each of the final four films are spectacular movies, not just sports movies, and this is a prime example of that.
3. Hoosiers (Level IX) – Originally Shooter, Denis Hopper’s drunk dad character, was suppose to be on the bench for the final game. Dennis Hopper read that in his script and told the director “I can’t do that.” When the director asked why, Hopper explained that if Shooter leaves the hospital then you are saying he will never get better (and if anyone would know what an addict needed to do to get better it was Dennis Hopper). The director agreed and now Shooter listens to the game in his hospital room with joy and elation laced with heartbreak and regret. That turns out to be one of the strongest little parts of the movie. Regret is the chief emotion for Hackman’s Coach Norman Dale at first as well. He tries to hide it, but it is always there. But sports provides opportunity, and the real opportunities weren’t there for the boys playing basketball. Sure, they won the state championship and will always cherish the memory. But the opportunity for redemption lies with the adults, who are the heart and soul of the movie.
One last note about Hoosiers. I love that in the end of the game, after preaching team, team, team, all the players have to remind the coach that sometimes basketball is about one guy, with the ball and time running out, being able to make one shot. That is a truth every basketball fan knows.
2. Raging Bull (Level IX) – The other side of the coin from Hoosiers. Where in Hoosiers sport is a vehicle for redemption, in Raging Bull boxing is as much his curse as it is his salvation. Or, maybe the boxing is inconsequential, maybe Jake LaMotta was damned with or without the ring. Either way, Raging Bull is a tour de force and you feel a little bit like you have lived through a few rounds at the end of it.
1. Hoop Dreams (Level X) – Every great documentary got lucky. Catching Hell, for instance, was able to find footage that no one had every seen from inside Comisky field that fateful night, heck, no one had any idea any of it even existed. One of the 30 for 30 episodes about Marques Dupree, found some random guy who happened to have all of the high school game footage from when Dupree was in school (a friend of a friend had given it to him or something like that and it had just been sitting in his closet for 25 years collecting dust). Where would Michael Moore and Roger and Me be without some of the unbelievable “foot in their mouth” quotes by GM’s PR guy. It is the nature of a documentary. You can pick a good story and tell it well, but to be great you almost have to get lucky. No documentary has ever been luckier than Hoop Dreams. It was supposed to have been a 30 min short, filmed over three weeks, to be aired on PBS as a piece about playground basketball in the inner-city. It became a five year project, following two kids from inner-city Chicago as they get recruited to play for a wealthy private school in the suburbs. They both go for the first year. One of the boys gets on the team and stays, the other goes home and in the end we get to see the most improbable state championship tournament run you can imagine. Just a transcendently great movie that can be both uplifting and disturbing and easily the best sports movie of all time.
Epilogue
Many of you no doubt disagree here or there. You disagree with the order. You disagree with some of those that are in and no doubt wonder why some were left out. But my guess is you aren’t really mad, unless you love Notre Dame football. If you love Notre Dame football you are probably incensed. “HOW COULD HE LEAVE OFF RUDY!” You may well be screaming at the computer screen. My response to you is that I left of Rudy without even a thought. Rudy is hokey. Rudy purports to be a true story, but all the guys on that Notre Dame team say they barely remembered the guy and certainly don’t recall anyone doing the refusing to play by handing the coach your jersey’s bit. More than anything Rudy has done a huge disservice to the young men and women that watch it and get roped in. Hard work, in sports, does NOT make up for not having talent. Hard work in sports is necessary because if you don’t maximize your talents your natural gifts won’t be enough no matter how vast they might be, but you still have to be born with the talent, period. Michael Jordan may be the hardest working athlete of all time, he also may be the most naturally gifted. The first one without the last doesn’t get him to the NBA (or college for that matter) let alone to six world championships. Sorry Rudy fans, your movie does not deserve to be here.
Check Out Previous Top 50 Lists:
The Top 50 Greatest Sports Movies Part I