Sunday, July 29, 2007

Historical Sports Movies

One of my colleagues teaches a class on movies and history. He has an entire list of genres - good war movie, bad war movie, biography, etc. The one category he leaves out, however, are movies based on real-life sporting events. I personally get a big kick out of historical sporting movies, but perhaps that is because I like sports.

I also do have a favorite historical sporting film - Hoosiers. I mean how much better can a film be? A small rural team overcomes tremendous odds to become state champions. It also helps that the film focuses on the best sport EVER invented - basketball. But in the interest of fairness, I provide the list below of other historically based sporting films.

Remember the Titans
Cool Runnings
Seabiscuit
Rudy
Miracle
Cinderella Man
Friday Night Lights
The Rookie
A League of their Own
Chariots of Fire
Eight Men Out
Hoosiers
Offside

Did I miss any? Anyone want to argue about the vast superiority of Hoosiers over these other films?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Pride of the Yankees, Fear Strikes Out, Brian's Song, Jim Thorpe--All American, The Great Dan Patch, The Great White Hope -- there are many others.

Irie said...

The Natural... What about all of those cheerleading movies like Bring It On? That's a sport, right? ;)

Tim Lacy said...

How about Stanley Kubrick's 1957 movie The Killing? It involves some cool horseracing scenes. - TL

Anonymous said...

Personally, I happen to like Remember the Titans better than Hoosiers. :)

Tim Lacy said...

Coincidence: I know my wife is not a reader of your blog, but for my recently passed birthday I received Hoosiers, Rudy, and Bull Durham. I know the last doesn't fit, but I received these movies unbidden!

FYI: It seems that Samuel L. Jackson has recently been involved in a number of historical sports movie projects. I can't remember all the titles, but a few might fit this list. - TL

Brad Hart said...

Raging Bull and The Natural have always been favorites of mine! Great blog by the way! I hope to be a regular visitor here.

Unknown said...

Coach Carter comes to mind. But thanks for the suggestions for my Western Civilization II term project!

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