Let’s face it: Most of us aren’t athletes. Sure, there are the sporty types among us, but if you’re like me, the height of your athletic prowess rears its head only during marathon bouts of beer pong, the occasional run on the pool table, and kicking virtual butt on Madden NFL.
I had my moments of basking in glory in my younger days—playing Little League and club basketball—but those days are fading like the light of a Pacific Ocean sunset. Now, I watch a lot of movies.
For those of us proud to call ourselves armchair quarterbacks, the next best thing to experiencing the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat we once found in real life is watching it on the silver screen. Hollywood: Is there anything they can’t do?
Without further ado, I’ll present the top 11 sports films ever. Why 11? Because 11 is one more than 10, of course. The following films all have heart and never take a day off due to injury. You can always count on them to inspire or just make you laugh. You won’t find such train wrecks as the Tom Selleck disasterpiece Mr. Baseball or the wretched John Goodman portrayal of The Babe. These are the cream of the crop.
11. Rudy. Before he struck child-star comeback gold as hairy-footed hobbit Samwise Gamgee, Sean Astin played Mikey, the leader of the Goonies. But after that, he starred as Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger, a real-life Notre Dame walk-on who, despite his smallish stature, made the Fighting Irish football team as a defensive end. In the film’s memorable climax, Rudy finally gets into a game, records a sack, and is carried off the field by his teammates. This movie makes the list because of what it added to the sports lexicon. Now, for every pint-sized player who tears it up on the football field, odds are you will hear the cry of “Rudy!” come from somewhere in the stands.
10. Eight Men Out. Throughout its long history, baseball has survived more than its share of scandal. Probably the most damaging to the sport was the Black Sox scandal of 1919, in which eight Chicago White Sox players were banned from the sport for life for taking bribes and throwing the World Series. Starring John Cusack and Charlie Sheen, this film is a compelling and realistic account of that dark moment in baseball history and an interesting insight on the temptations of sport in an era before huge salaries.
9. The Sandlot. Scotty Smalls is the new kid in town. To make friends, he joins up with a group of neighborhood kids at the local sandlot field. He’s not very good (none of the kids really are), but the team has plenty of adventures together, the highlight of which comes when they’re forced to rescue a prized Babe Ruth baseball from a ferocious dog known as “The Beast.” No other film quite captures the simple fun and innocent days of childhood baseball, and I still catch myself saying, “You’re killin’ me, Smalls!” every chance I get.
8. Jerry Maguire. Directed by the remarkably consistent Cameron Crowe, Tom Cruise’s portrayal of a fast-talking sports agent in search of something real in his life after suffering a nervous breakdown was nominated for Best Picture in 1997. Cuba Gooding Jr. plays Maguire’s sole client, superstar wide receiver Rod Tidwell. Tidwell’s counting on Maguire to seal up a fat new contract, and at the same time Maguire is looking for a balance between his work, his new love interest, and her son. “Show me the money!” may have become a catchphrase for greedy people everywhere who enjoy using catchphrases, but you had me at hello.
7. Million Dollar Baby. Hilary Swank plays Maggie Fitzgerald, a poor, over-30 waitress determined to make it as a female boxer. Frankie Dunn (played by Clint Eastwood) is her manager, who reluctantly takes her on and is gradually won over by Maggie’s dedication and ability. The first half of the film is chock full of entertaining fight scenes while the second half takes a turn for the dramatic—and that’s all I’m going to say. Plus, Morgan Freeman is in it, so just watch it already.
6. Hoop Dreams. This documentary chronicles the struggles and victories of two starry-eyed high-school basketball players from Chicago—Arthur Agee and William Gates—with visions of making it to the pro ranks. The film details the pressures put on blue-chip prospects and high school coaches while exposing the grim reality of trying to make it out of the inner city. Out of all the films on this list, this one has probably been the most overlooked—a shame, because it’s that poignant.
5. The Natural. In what’s probably the only baseball film based on Arthurian legend, Robert Redford plays a past-his-prime baseball player named Roy Hobbs, who joins a quest to take a terrible team to the top of the standings. With help from his special bat, “Wonderboy,” forged from a tree struck by lightning, Hobbs obtains apparently superhuman abilities. In the film’s unforgettable climax, Hobbs tears the cover off the ball. It hits the stadium lights, erupting into a shower of sparks, which descend on him as he rounds the bases. It still induces goose bumps.
4. Field of Dreams. In real life, when you start hearing the voices of the dead, you’re checked into a padded cell in a straitjacket. In the movies, you build a ball field. That’s just what farmer Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) intends to do in this surreal flick, to redeem Shoeless Joe Jackson and the rest of the Black Sox. He also enlists the help of a reclusive writer Terence Mann (James Earl Jones) to help get an old ballplayer, Archibald “Moonlight” Graham (Burt Lancaster), who also just happens to be dead. It’s not heaven; it’s Iowa.
3. Raging Bull. “I coulda been a contender.” The immortal lines delivered by Robert DeNiro in the opening scene of Raging Bull sum up all you need to know about this Martin Scorsese masterpiece. DeNiro plays former boxing champ-turned-sleazy lounge singer Jake LaMotta on his way from the penthouse to the outhouse. Shot entirely in stark black and white, it’s art that pummels the senses raw.
2. The Wrestler. An aging, washed-up actor (Mickey Rourke) plays an aging washed-up wrestler (Randy “The Ram” Robinson), and the formula works to perfection. Go figure. His body ravaged by years in the ring, Robinson relies on a steady diet of pills and booze to keep himself comfortably numb and ready for the rigors of his odd wrestling gigs. But the sport’s the only thing he’s ever been successful at, and—against his doctor’s wishes and stripper-girlfriend’s objections—he attempts a comeback to the big time. Oh and he’s also trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter. A warning to the guys: Be prepared to hide the waterworks; this one gets heavy.
1. Rocky (I, II, III, IV). If there’s one wholly American cultural myth that will never go out of style, it’s the story of the poor, dumb shlub who starts with nothing, but through hard work and sheer will is able to pull himself up to the heights of greatness. Rocky is gloves-down the winner and still champion of the genre after all these years. The series cornered the market on montages and meathead-soap opera side-plots, and I like to think there’s just a little bit of Burgess Meredith yelling at the bum inside us all. If hearing the Rocky theme song doesn’t get the blood flowing, check your pulse.
So that’s the list, and there ain’t gonna be no rematch. Bonus points if you read it aloud in a Casey Kasem voice. True, a few highly enjoyable flicks didn’t quite make it—Searching for Bobby Fischer, Bull Durham, The Bad News Bears, and Caddyshack spring to mind—but I’m confident this is the definitive top-11 list of sports films on the planet. But what do I know? I’m just a bum, and that’s my view from the couch, er, bleachers.
Staff Writer Jeremy Thomas also forgot Jaws, which may be considered a movie about sport fishing? Tell him other greats he missed at
jthomas@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Oct 1-8, 2009.