Sports Movies

Here is a bit posted on MSNBC that lists this guy's Top 10 sports movies of all time. He throws a few qualifications in there, and includes some factors for omission, and ends up coming up with a list that sucks. Granted, I've only seen four of his top ten, but he left out a lot of GREAT movies, so I have taken it upon myself to offer up a better list. My list sucks a little bit, too, because some of these movies are not great - they are just sports movies that I like (either a little or a lot); and I don't have any specific criteria matrix, apart from the fact that these are all movies about sports, and I liked them all. In case you don't want to check out the MSNBC thing (and you have to click through three pages to get all ten of his picks), here is his list:

10. Miracle
9. Something For Joey
8. Caddyshack
7. The Tournament
6. Slap Shot
5. Breaking Away
4. Brian’s Song
3. Bull Durham
2. Rocky
1. Hoosiers

And here is mine:

10. The Cutting Edge - Sure, it's campy and a bit too romantic, but it's a fun movie, and D.B. Sweeney and Moira Kelly really seem to have some on-screen chemistry. Plus, it's chock full of great quotes and has Terry O'Quinn, who was in Silver Bullet, an absolutely horrible film, based on a Stephen King book, which I absolutely love.

9. Cool Runnings - Another fun movie, and one that features guys overcoming racial/ethnic adversity, which always makes me feel good. I consider racism America's second-worst moral failing, after its ridiculous adherence to religion. Also, John Candy is in this movie, and he might have been the best comic actor who ever lived.

8. Pride Of The Yankees - My top ten is baseball heavy because baseball is the greatest sport in the world, and because I think most of the best sports movies have been the baseball ones. (Field Of Dreams is absent from this list only because I cannot in good conscience put two Kevin Costner movies in any top ten list, unless it is a top ten list of crappy movies that are way longer than they should be.) Gary Cooper's speech at the end is heart-wrenching.

7. Major League - Best sports parody ever, full of great quotes, and features Tom Berenger in a movie that doesn't suck, one of only two I can think of (the other, of course, is Platoon). There is a literature sub-plot, and James Gammon plays the team's manager - and he was also in Silver Bullet.

6. The Natural - Robert Redford hits a home run that brings down the lights. What more do you want? Adapated from a great novel by Bernard Malamud, this one highlights the guy who gives it all for one last go. For Love Of The Game is another movie in this vein, but does not make the list because it was just too damn cheesy, and beacuse of the Kevin Costner rule.

5. Hoosiers - Call me a heretic if you want, but I think this movie, while great, is overrated. Gene Hackman is excellent (but he's always excellent), and so is Dennis Hopper, and the basketball is good - but I just don't think it's the be-all and end-all of sports movies.

4. A League Of Their Own - Here we begin to find flims that have good sports and also have good studies of deep characters. Tom Hanks is the most lauded actor of his generation, but I think his role here never gets quite the attention it deserves. The movie does a great job of toeing the line between comedy and drama, and doesn't sell out in the end for a neat finish. Maybe the most underrated sports movie of all time.

3. Raging Bull - Speaking of character studies, this is one of DeNiro's best roles. The boxing is beyond great, and the sense of greatness never quite achieved drips from almost every character in the movie. Great supporting parts from Joe Pesci and Cathy Moriarty.

2. Remember The Titans - Back to overcoming racism. This is one of the best feel-good movies of all time, has some really great football, and an amazing soundtrack. Not many movies cause me to nearly tear up, but this is one of them (Field Of Dreams and Dead Poets Society are a couple of others). Based on a true story, a theme that runs through six of the films on my list.

1. Bull Durham - Offers baseball up as a religion. I'm in. Talks about life as much as it does baseball. Has some really good baseball in it, too, as well as some great quotes. Kevin Costner, who made way too many baseball movies, picked a great role here. The best twenty-one days of Crash Davis' life were the ones he spent in "The Show," which is how the minor leaguers refer to the Major Leagues. Like A League Of Their Own, this one doesn't sell out at the end.