Watching the Leafs cling to false hope got me thinking. My top sports movies in no particular order:
Remember The Titans
Rocky
The Wrestler
Cinderella Man
A League of Their Own
So many honorable mentions it’s not worth listing.
For the record Gladiator is a sports movie much in the way that Die Hard is a Christmas movie. I’ll allow it.
Raging Bull
Roller Ball(original)
American Flyers
Jim Thorpe, All American
Running Brave
.
Watching the Leafs cling to false hope got me thinking. My top sports movies in no particular order:
Remember The Titans
Rocky
The Wrestler
Cinderella Man
A League of Their Own
So many honorable mentions it’s not worth listing.
North Dallas 40
Remember the Titans
The Replacements
Rocky
Breaking Away
The Natural
Breaking Away
American Flyers
Miracle on Ice (both versions)
Chariots of Fire (weird name when I think of it)
Dang, I forgot Running Brave (lucky to have sat w/Billy Mills a handful of times)
Prefontaine and Without Limits
.
In no order:
Caddyshack
I, Tonya
The Fighter
Happy Gilmore
Blades of Glory
.
Miracle
Field of Dreams
American Flyers
Money Ball
A Sunday in Hell
.
- Days of Thunder
- Stroker Ace
- Six Pack
- Tin Cup
- Old School
Free Solo
Rocky
Breaking Away
Caddyshack
League Of Their Own
.
The Natural
Chariots of Fire (weird name when I think of it)
The title comes from a Blake poem referencing bible verse.
The poem *And did those feet in ancient time *has an element:
"And did those feet in ancient time,
Walk upon Englands** **mountains green:
Bring me my Chariot of fire!"
2 Kings 2:11 recounts Elijah, “And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven,” so the chariot of fire has this divine component, also referenced in 6:17.
This ties into the hymn Jerusalem that plays at the end of the movie.
Bull Durham
Field of Dreams
The Natural
A League of Their Own
Bad News Bears
Also,
Eight Men Out
Pride of the Yankees
Moneyball
Movies other than baseball don’t count. But if they do, then Chariots of Fire. Maybe Running Brave. Or the Loneliest Runner — the kid wets his bed.
The Natural
Days of Thunder
Youngblood (over Slapshot, as every kid playing hockey daydreamed this)
Hoosiers
Major League
Worst: Rudy. Sean Astin ruined it.
Martial arts are sports, right?
Plenty of Bruce Lee movies.
The wrestler
Million dollar baby
Mighty ducks
Bend it like Beckham
Bloodsport
.
…
Youngblood (over Slapshot, as every kid playing hockey daydreamed this)
Them’s fightin’ words. And you better be careful, I’m puttin’ on the tinfoil.
The Natural
League of their Own
Rush
Tin Cup
Million Dollar Baby
The exposition of mogul skiing at the beginning of Molly’s Game is excellent, too.
Hoosiers
Chariots of Fire
Breaking Away
The Black Stallion
Caddyshack
.
Watching the Leafs cling to false hope got me thinking. My top sports movies in no particular order:
Remember The Titans
Rocky
The Wrestler
Cinderella Man
A League of Their Own
So many honorable mentions it’s not worth listing.
Rocky is really a love story, boxing is just part of the background.
Raging Bull
Athens Natural
Field of Dreams
Breaking Away
Hoop Dreams
.
Die Hard is a Christmas movie because Christmas drives the plot. (Also, the writer (producer? I may have that wrong) admitted it was a Christmas movie in an interview several years ago.)
For example: Better Off Dead would not be a Christmas movie as it happens in the background and does not drive the plot. It is, however, a skiing movie.
Gladiator as a sports movie is an interesting thought exercise…
- Jeff
Oh yeah:
Hoosiers
Happy Gilmore
Field of Dreams
Stroker Ace
Better Off Dead