April 20, 2011

A Dying Breed: Great Sports Movies

By - Brian Harrington

I can remember like it was yesterday. I was like 5 or 6, sitting on the couch watching The Natural with my mom. It's the first sports movie I ever remember seeing. When Roy Hobbs trotted around the bases after cracking one off Wonder Boy and into the scoreboard clock, I was completely mesmerized and hooked on sports from that moment on.

Photo from: filmjournal.net
Where are movies like that now? The 80's and 90's were full of some of the greatest sports movies of all-time. The Natural, Raging Bull, Rocky, Bull Durham, Major League, Hoosiers, The Sandlot, Days Of Thunder, even as far up as Varsity Blues and Any Given Sunday. Movies that had the feel and the attitude behind the sports they portrayed. You just don't get movies like that anymore.

What was the last decent sports movie you can remember seeing? Friday Night Lights is probably the last one I can think of that falls under the "great" category. The Blindside was good, but if you think about it, the focus of the story in that was more on the player rather than the game, so it actually had very few football scenes in it.

And I'm not talking about just "hits" either. There have been some movies that didn't make it box office-wise that I think are great sports movies. Necessary Roughness, Blue Chips, The Replacements, hell even Gridiron Gang was a pretty good football movie.

So come on Hollywood. Give us exciting, entertaining and inspiring sports movies again please.

Oh, and what is your favorite sports movie of all-time may I ask?

6 comments:

  1. Jeremy CampbellApril 20, 2011 at 5:23 AM

    How can you name all those great sports movies and NOT mention Caddyshack?! One of the best sports movies of ALL TIME!

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  2. Daniel BellApril 20, 2011 at 5:42 AM

    You mentioned some good ones. One of my favorites of all time is The Longest Yard. The Burt Reynolds one. Its a little older, but still a classic.

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  3. Brian HarringtonApril 20, 2011 at 2:10 PM

    You're right, I can't believe I failed to mention Caddyshack. In my defense it was almost 4 in the morning and I had been up all night lol

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  4. Danny C.April 20, 2011 at 2:15 PM

    Yeah Caddyshack is my all time fav. Hoosiers is a great one too.

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  5. Kris FletcherApril 21, 2011 at 12:48 AM

    I was STUNNED you left off Caddyshack when I saw this post. Lol

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  6. Brian HarringtonApril 21, 2011 at 2:16 AM

    I should edit it lol

    ReplyDelete