Great sports movies - Printable Version

Great sports movies - Printable Version

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RE: Great sports movies - JJJ - 05-24-2020

This isn’t a movie but I’m thoroughly enjoying “Tiger Slam” on Golf Channel right now!

RE: Great sports movies - Robbie - 05-24-2020

Two of my favorite documentaries:

Hoop Dreams
Murderball

RE: Great sports movies - Mick - 05-25-2020

(05-24-2020, 09:34 AM)BostonCard Wrote:
(05-24-2020, 08:52 AM)Mick Wrote: The List of Popular Sports Movies That I Just Didn't Care For:

Field of Dreams. My dad gets a big lump in his throat when he watches this. I just want to puke.

Rudy

Funny, for me:
Rudy. My dad gets a big lump in his throat when he watches this. I just want to puke.

BC

+1. In fact, +1,000,000

I forgot to include Chasing Mavericks. Highly underrated surfing movie starring Gerard Butler. I spent much of my formative years in Santa Cruz (my parents still live there). I wasn't a surfer, but I understood and appreciated the culture. Chasing Mavericks was based on a true story about Jay Moriarty (who died at age 22 diving in the Maldives). Curtis Hanson (L.A. Confidential and 8 Mile) directed, it was his last film. Roger Ebert really liked it, most moviegoers didn't (32% on Rotten Tomatoes, and I can see why people wouldn't like it if they weren't immersed in the surfing culture).

Endless Summer (100% and 91% on Rotten Tomatoes) and Point Break (69% and 79%) were better movies with a surfing theme, but I really liked Chasing Mavericks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chasing_Mavericks

RE: Great sports movies - Phogge - 05-25-2020

I worked with one of the Endless Summer guys. The all time low budget film. They cashed in and probably had more fun on the shoot than any other movie ever.

Another movie from long ago was “Derby.” Without getting too technical they removed the gate from an Auricon 16mm camera and installed one of the first Super 16 gates so that there would be a touch more information on the celluloid when blown up to 35. The product was gritty, sexy and unusual for its time (1970?). Shot for a few thousand it grossed about a million. Subject was Roller Derby.

RE: Great sports movies - qwerty49 - 05-25-2020

And there's always "Rollerball." Now that's true sport!

RE: Great sports movies - Phogge - 05-25-2020

First Rollerball terrific. Remake POS.

RE: Great sports movies - Mick - 05-25-2020

(05-25-2020, 10:49 AM)Phogge Wrote: First Rollerball terrific. Remake POS.

I think that's true with most sports remakes (The Longest Yard). Whoever remakes Raging Bull, Rocky and Miracle will screw it up, I have no doubt.

RE: Great sports movies - AlbanyCardinal - 05-25-2020

A few more I'd add:

I, TONYA
MONEYBALL
FREE SOLO

lex24 - lex24 - 05-25-2020

(05-24-2020, 10:20 AM)Phogge Wrote: The Babe Comes Home because it stars the greatest athlete of all time and my pop was an AD on it.

Secretariat.
Seabiscuit
A Day at the Races. “Get your tootsie frootsie ice cream.”
Tin Cup
The Texas Western movie
Gladiator
The chariot scene in Ben Hur. Not the silent flick with Francis X Bushman or the recent POS but the Charlton Heston film.

Lex, I’m confused. Miracle on Ice was the HBO program that I shot some interviews for and “Miracle”was the Kurt Russell movie. Assume it was the latter.

Miracle. Yes. Corrected my mistake.

(05-25-2020, 02:10 PM)lex24 Wrote:
(05-24-2020, 10:20 AM)Phogge Wrote: The Babe Comes Home because it stars the greatest athlete of all time and my pop was an AD on it.

Secretariat.
Seabiscuit
A Day at the Races. “Get your tootsie frootsie ice cream.”
Tin Cup
The Texas Western movie
Gladiator
The chariot scene in Ben Hur. Not the silent flick with Francis X Bushman or the recent POS but the Charlton Heston film.

Lex, I’m confused. Miracle on Ice was the HBO program that I shot some interviews for and “Miracle”was the Kurt Russell movie. Assume it was the latter.

Miracle. Yes. Corrected my mistake. Also liked Secretariat. Tin Cup, not so much. Lay up for chrisakes!

RE: Great sports movies - Cardinal77 - 05-26-2020

As I was reading this blog on Memorial Day and thinking about all the great sports movies listed by different members, I started thinking about what makes sports special and why they have such impact on our culture. I may watch too much Sportscenter, but it seems like the whole country, from the President on down is waiting for sports to return, both college and pro. With the death of Kobe Bryant and all the eulogies that followed, along with the Micheal Jordan documentary, 'Last Dance', we've been mezmerized by the glorification of killer instinct in sports, including Tiger Woods as another prime example of the human primordial energy to survive & thrive, to claim victory through the warrior's will to stay alive. In some ways, sports mirror war as the ultimate challenge and expression of Nietzche's 'Will to Power' and Darwin's 'Survival of the Fittest'.We are now waging war on the Corona Virus for the health and good of the country. I've seen most of the movies listed in the blog and there's only one I'd like to add, which I'll name later.Two of the movies mentioned, Ben Hur & Gladiator are outstanding and portray the archetype of the warrior powerfully and brilliantly as well as the brutality it often can lead to, but to me, the Games of the Roman Colosseum hardly qualify as sport, at least in the modern era. Both movies do portray the truth in the maxim, 'Absolute power corrupts, absolutely'. I've lived in the world of sports and the military much of my life and the two cultures overlap greatly. I think the Stanford community has embodied much of the warrior's spirit in its pursuit of outstanding athletics, academics, business/entrepreneurial focus and community/collective values; what William James once termed, "The Moral Equivalent of War". James in fact gave what was in fact his most famous speech on that topic while on Sabbatical at Stanford in 1906, just before the earthquake hit. James is perhaps best known as a Harvard Professor in Philosophy and Psychology and considered the Father of American psychology through his influence and writings, including Stanford's fledgling departments during that sabbatical. During that speech he articulated a grand vision of Stanford's future, which has largely proven true. He foresaw an intense, research focused, individualistic university that would seek to contribute the collective good by harnessing individual drive and competitiveness. The speech was expanded into an essay, titled as above. In it James declared himself a pacifist, willing to wage war on war, but recognizing that the martial virtues of heroism, fidelity, cohesiveness, tenacity, adaptability, inventiveness, dedication, moral conscience, physical health and the vigor that lead to wartime victory, apply to peacetime pursuits as well. He felt that at the time he gave his speech that the 'moral equivalent of war' did not yet exist, as war seemed to be the only force that could discipline a whole community and war would have its way until collective restraints developed at a global level.His speech and essay was considered to be the origin of the idea of organized non-military collective service like the Peace Corps and also became a justification for the growth of sports in America, as a more peaceful and production use of the warrior archetype that lies within the psyche of all humanity, albeit some more than others.

James philosophy of pragmatism and psychology of 'radical empiricism' has impacted our culture on many levels in athletics as well as all human endeavors. One might even say he was the forerunner of the modern sports psychologist. Some of my favorite quotes include:

1. The world we see that seems so insane is the result of a belief system that is not working. To perceive the world differently, we must change our beliefs, let the past slip away, expand our sense of the now and dissolve the fear in our minds.

2. If you want a quality, act as if you already had it. Success or failur depend more on attitude than upon capacity. What holds attention determines actions. Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does!

3. Thoughts become perceptions, perceptions become reality. Alter your thoughts, alter your reality.

4.There is a law in psychology that if you form a picture in your mind of what you would like to be, and you keep hold of that picture long enough, you will soon become exactly as you have been thinking.

These ideas have become the foundation of sports psycholgy and are applicable to all human endeavor. Today techniques in positive thinking, mantras, creative visualization, hypnosis, biofeedback and neuro-linguistic programming are being used to re-align the conscious and unconscious mental processes into a more creative and effective functionality. Books like 'The Biology of Belief' or 'Molecules of Emotion' help us understand how attitude translates into effective activity.

So many of these great movies are about hope, faith, and belief in self while in the process of overcoming present and past obstacles/ circumstance by hard work and enduring 'til the end, even in the face of insurmountable odds. If I had to pick two of the wonderful movies already mentioned, it would probably be Hoosiers and Hidalgo; the latter being a cross between Lord of the Rings(Viggio Mortenson) and Lawrence of Arabia(Omar Shariff) with a touch of Native American mysticism thrown in for good measure. However I would like to make the case that the movie 'Invictus', which portrays Nelson Mandela's use of sports in general and rugby in particular as a unifying force to heal the wounds of one of the most divided nations on the planet, South Africa. The movie was a true life example of the statement, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend".
There are so many wonderful lines and moments in the movie, but I thought I'd share a few for those who haven't seen it.

1. Picnar: "I was thinking how a man could spend 30 years in prison then come out and forgive the men who did it to him."
Mandela: "Forgiveness liberates the soul, it removes fear." Then gave a note to the captain of the National Rugby Team which read . . . .
" I thank whomever the gods may be . . . . . for my unconquerable soul. I am the master of my fate, I am the master of my soul".

2. Mazebiko: "So this rugby is a potential political solution?
Mandela: "No, it is a human solution."

3. Mandela: "Times change, we need to change as well."

4. Mazibuko: "You're risking your political capital, you're risking your future as our leader."
Mandela: "The day that I am afraid to do that is the day I a no longer fit to lead."

5. "Rugby is a tough game, almost as rough as politics."

RE: Great sports movies - needle - 05-26-2020

Just because I saw it in high school, nothing will ever really top Varsity Blues.

OTOH, say the word "flubber" and I'll have to think about it.

Honorable mention: Cannonball Run, Cannonball Run II

RE: Great sports movies - Spiny_Norman - 05-26-2020

(05-26-2020, 07:37 PM)needle Wrote: Just because I saw it in high school, nothing will ever really top Varsity Blues.

OTOH, say the word "flubber" and I'll have to think about it.

Honorable mention: Cannonball Run, Cannonball Run II

Varsity Blues deserves to be on any list of favorite movies for Stanford sports fans because of the Stanford connection.

RE: Great sports movies - Phogge - 05-27-2020

And the Stanford connection is Mike Tollin.

RE: Great sports movies - BobK - 05-27-2020

I thought Swinton In fact he was one of the stars

RE: Great sports movies - Phogge - 05-27-2020

Producer Mike Tollin is a graduate of Stanford. His partner Brian Robbins might be. Robbins directed Varsity Blues, Tollin directed Coach Carter and the awful Cape Cod baseball movie with Freddie Prinz Jr. They also created the sports agent HBO show whose name I can’t remember. Tollin formed his own company with Stanford grad Gary Cohen. They sold the company for $23 million and Tollin left NYC for Hollywood. Cohen stayed put and does independent sports production. Both started at Phoenix Communications which had a deal with MLB. They were founders of the show This Week in Baseball.

Looked it up. “Arliss.” Jump started Sandra Oh’s career.

RE: Great sports movies - BostonCard - 05-27-2020

(05-27-2020, 07:35 AM)Phogge Wrote: Producer Mike Tollin is a graduate of Stanford. His partner Brian Robbins might be. Robbins directed Varsity Blues, Tollin directed Coach Carter and the awful Cape Cod baseball movie with Freddie Prinz Jr. They also created the sports agent HBO show whose name I can’t remember. Tollin formed his own company with Stanford grad Gary Cohen. They sold the company for $23 million and Tollin left NYC for Hollywood. Cohen stayed put and does independent sports production. Both started at Phoenix Communications which had a deal with MLB. They were founders of the show This Week in Baseball.

Looked it up. “Arliss.” Jump started Sandra Oh’s career.

Actually, I think it was stylized Arli$$

BC

(05-26-2020, 07:37 PM)needle Wrote: Honorable mention: Cannonball Run, Cannonball Run II

Speaking of Cannonball Run, because of the lockdowns and resultant drop in traffic, the Cannonball Run record keeps getting broken.

https://driving.ca/audi/auto-news/news/people-keep-breaking-new-illegal-cannonball-run-records-during-lockdown

BC

RE: Great sports movies - Spiny_Norman - 05-27-2020

(05-27-2020, 06:10 AM)BobK Wrote: I thought Swinton In fact he was one of the stars

Bob, based on what Phogge has said, I should have said "Stanford connections" plural about Varsity Blues! I know Eliel here in LA. He's still very proud of that movie.

RE: Great sports movies - Mick - 05-27-2020

(05-27-2020, 07:35 AM)Phogge Wrote: Looked it up. “Arliss.” Jump started Sandra Oh’s career.

Sandra Oh in "Sideways." My favorite independent movie, and she was fantastic, as was Virginia Madsen, Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church.

RE: Great sports movies - BostonCard - 05-27-2020

Oh is great in Killing Eve.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7016936/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

BC

RE: Great sports movies - Phogge - 05-27-2020

The scene where Giamatti has to retrieve the wallet is a classic. Sandra Oh going batshit with the motorcycle helmet almost as funny.