My Top 5 Sports Movies
It doesn't come up a lot, but there's possibly no movie genre closer to my heart than that of sports movies. Definitely not psychological thrillers, although there are some amazing ones around. Also not war movies, although really, there's not much of a difference between a war movie and a sports movie, technically, except in regards to the bodycount. That's the thing about sports movies: They're the only epic genre that doesn't involve death and mayhem. In a way that I think people who don't like sports often don't get, there's something incredible about sports - something glorious and beautiful exactly because it's so inconsequential.* It makes shapes lives in these major ways... just because we let it.
(*Except when it starts wars, or referees are shot. Both of these things have happened, but we'll disregard them here. Just for the record, I don't usually like sports movies in which people die.)
So! Really good sports movies. No special order (and a total coincidence that it's all ball games - I watch the other movies, too - there just aren't that many):
Wimbledon (2004)
Wimbledon is actually a love story. It is also a story about tennis (it pays to have a short look at the rules of tennis at Wikipedia before watching this movie, if you don't know anything about tennis), and a story about British patriotism in the face of sports. Can't really make out a difference between Brits and Germans in that regard. Apart from lead actors Paul Bettany and Kirsten Dunst, it also features a younger James McAvoy in a supportive role. Paul Bettany plays sell-out tennis pro Peter Colt, who qualified for Wimbledon only by chance (by way of a wild card), having a tendency to choke at important moments during a match. He's the reserved, inwardly anxious kind of hero who I've seen popping up in British murder mysteries in recent years (Simon Beckett's novels, for starters). Fun only when played by the right actor, which is the case here. However, the story will only work for you if you're ready to belief in love as a motivator, and as a thing that can make your life right. It's just so positive, which is awesome, because sports can be positive. Not last game when my team lost, but definitely at the end of the season when we will win the league cup! (except probably not)
(the trailer is dumb - that movie has a story)
The Miracle of Bern / Das Wunder von Bern (2003)
I'm gonna allow this one although I've recommended it before, and although it is more of a period movie than a soccer movie. This is a German movie about a boy who's having trouble adjusting to the fact that his father is back from a Russian prison camp, and who grows convinced that the German team can only win the 1954 world cup in Switzerland if he watches it in the stadium. This is not like today, where we've won the cup three times and need to win it another time, dammit, to best those annoying Italians. This is then, when we hadn't won anything yet, not even against the English, but instead had lost two world wars. Against the English. Which we had started.
The movie might seem a bit choppy in places for you guys, since it was written for an audience who can ad-lib every important scene in the movie on first viewing. Because they put every conceivable famous quote of the event in it, even if it doesn't make a lot of sense to do so semantically. But it's still a rather fascinating look at a time in our history that not a lot of movies focus on, and it cemented my belief that we just went and replaced patriotism by soccer fandom. This is like Wimbledon - except for how in here, it's a country that realizes it still stands a chance at something instead of Peter Colt.
A League of Their Own (1992)
I was torn about whether or not to pick A League of their Own or Major League for a baseball movie. No matter that Major League is a classic that everybody should know, and that should be featured on any best-of-sports list, I'm gonna go with A League of Their Own for the following two reasons: Everybody knows Major League anyway. Also, Major League includes the male team rewarding themselves for every victoy by "undressing" a paper calender looking like their female boss, while A League of Their Own is all about woman. Smart, interesting beautiful woman who, in most cases, have more important things on their mind than men. If Bryan Singer had wonderered how to do the but-it's-true-to-the-times mysoginy of First Class without annoying half of his audience, he should have had a look at this movie. As I'm sure you all know, it's about how during the world war, all the baseball league was off being shot by, well, us. So there was the formation of an all-women baseball league. It features Tom Hanks being an asshole, Geena Davies being remarkable while handling a bat, and Lori Patty, on whose character I'm pretty sure I had the first major movie crush of my life. Beyond being funny - which this movie is - it also features that lovely old days, old glory melancholy that you sometimes get in those movies that portray that one big thing you did in your life. Gets me every time.
Goal! (2005)
Goal! is a British-American co-production, since the Americans have realized that they can't conceivably make a soccer movies set in America. 'cause, and I'm really sorry that I have to say it so blatantly, but neither are you any good at it, nor do you understand it. So, yeah. Stick to baseball, and continue setting your soccer movies in England. Goal! was set up as a trilogy, however the second part is boring and the third part, I hear, is unwatchable. This one is great. It is about up-and-coming - appropriately Hispanic - soccer player Sandiago Munez who gets a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have a career at English soccer club Newcastle United. Apart from being a story about making a dream come true, also featuring the mandatory love story, it's a great movie about the British love for soccer with some cute if expectable cultural commentary. If you want to watch more soccer movies after this one, watch Hooligans which is not about soccer exactly but also fun. Staring Elijah Wood, it's about how hooliganism can teach you things that will improve on your life back home at the ivy league college.
Mystery, Alaska (1999)
Hockey! In Alaska! With great, great actors in it such as Russell Crowe, Burt Reynolds, Scott Grimes (ER's Archie Morris) and Colm Meaney (ST: Deep Space Nine's Chief O'Brian!). This is the story about the residents of a small town in the middle of nowhere, whose hockey team is challenged to play the New York Rangers. Dunno about America, but at least in German soccer that isn't a fantastical premise at all. Every now and then, a small town club has to play a major league one during cup qualifications, and that's always a big deal - because it's the greatest game those players will ever make in their lives, because it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a small club to make real money. One of the most legendary soccer games around these parts is the Faroe Islands (!) beating Austria. I must say it's been a while since I've watched the movie, but I remember it as charming, sweet, occasionally funny, very character driven and very, very smart. I remember it as more real than you might expect, with a lot of attention to the economical ramifications of such a game, and I also remember the beautiful cinematography. Another hockey movie I could have recommended would, of course, be The Mighty Ducks but again I suspect that you've all already seen it.
(*Except when it starts wars, or referees are shot. Both of these things have happened, but we'll disregard them here. Just for the record, I don't usually like sports movies in which people die.)
So! Really good sports movies. No special order (and a total coincidence that it's all ball games - I watch the other movies, too - there just aren't that many):
Wimbledon (2004)
Wimbledon is actually a love story. It is also a story about tennis (it pays to have a short look at the rules of tennis at Wikipedia before watching this movie, if you don't know anything about tennis), and a story about British patriotism in the face of sports. Can't really make out a difference between Brits and Germans in that regard. Apart from lead actors Paul Bettany and Kirsten Dunst, it also features a younger James McAvoy in a supportive role. Paul Bettany plays sell-out tennis pro Peter Colt, who qualified for Wimbledon only by chance (by way of a wild card), having a tendency to choke at important moments during a match. He's the reserved, inwardly anxious kind of hero who I've seen popping up in British murder mysteries in recent years (Simon Beckett's novels, for starters). Fun only when played by the right actor, which is the case here. However, the story will only work for you if you're ready to belief in love as a motivator, and as a thing that can make your life right. It's just so positive, which is awesome, because sports can be positive. Not last game when my team lost, but definitely at the end of the season when we will win the league cup! (except probably not)
Click to view(the trailer is dumb - that movie has a story)
The Miracle of Bern / Das Wunder von Bern (2003)
I'm gonna allow this one although I've recommended it before, and although it is more of a period movie than a soccer movie. This is a German movie about a boy who's having trouble adjusting to the fact that his father is back from a Russian prison camp, and who grows convinced that the German team can only win the 1954 world cup in Switzerland if he watches it in the stadium. This is not like today, where we've won the cup three times and need to win it another time, dammit, to best those annoying Italians. This is then, when we hadn't won anything yet, not even against the English, but instead had lost two world wars. Against the English. Which we had started.
The movie might seem a bit choppy in places for you guys, since it was written for an audience who can ad-lib every important scene in the movie on first viewing. Because they put every conceivable famous quote of the event in it, even if it doesn't make a lot of sense to do so semantically. But it's still a rather fascinating look at a time in our history that not a lot of movies focus on, and it cemented my belief that we just went and replaced patriotism by soccer fandom. This is like Wimbledon - except for how in here, it's a country that realizes it still stands a chance at something instead of Peter Colt.
A League of Their Own (1992)
I was torn about whether or not to pick A League of their Own or Major League for a baseball movie. No matter that Major League is a classic that everybody should know, and that should be featured on any best-of-sports list, I'm gonna go with A League of Their Own for the following two reasons: Everybody knows Major League anyway. Also, Major League includes the male team rewarding themselves for every victoy by "undressing" a paper calender looking like their female boss, while A League of Their Own is all about woman. Smart, interesting beautiful woman who, in most cases, have more important things on their mind than men. If Bryan Singer had wonderered how to do the but-it's-true-to-the-times mysoginy of First Class without annoying half of his audience, he should have had a look at this movie. As I'm sure you all know, it's about how during the world war, all the baseball league was off being shot by, well, us. So there was the formation of an all-women baseball league. It features Tom Hanks being an asshole, Geena Davies being remarkable while handling a bat, and Lori Patty, on whose character I'm pretty sure I had the first major movie crush of my life. Beyond being funny - which this movie is - it also features that lovely old days, old glory melancholy that you sometimes get in those movies that portray that one big thing you did in your life. Gets me every time.
Goal! (2005)
Goal! is a British-American co-production, since the Americans have realized that they can't conceivably make a soccer movies set in America. 'cause, and I'm really sorry that I have to say it so blatantly, but neither are you any good at it, nor do you understand it. So, yeah. Stick to baseball, and continue setting your soccer movies in England. Goal! was set up as a trilogy, however the second part is boring and the third part, I hear, is unwatchable. This one is great. It is about up-and-coming - appropriately Hispanic - soccer player Sandiago Munez who gets a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have a career at English soccer club Newcastle United. Apart from being a story about making a dream come true, also featuring the mandatory love story, it's a great movie about the British love for soccer with some cute if expectable cultural commentary. If you want to watch more soccer movies after this one, watch Hooligans which is not about soccer exactly but also fun. Staring Elijah Wood, it's about how hooliganism can teach you things that will improve on your life back home at the ivy league college.
Mystery, Alaska (1999)
Hockey! In Alaska! With great, great actors in it such as Russell Crowe, Burt Reynolds, Scott Grimes (ER's Archie Morris) and Colm Meaney (ST: Deep Space Nine's Chief O'Brian!). This is the story about the residents of a small town in the middle of nowhere, whose hockey team is challenged to play the New York Rangers. Dunno about America, but at least in German soccer that isn't a fantastical premise at all. Every now and then, a small town club has to play a major league one during cup qualifications, and that's always a big deal - because it's the greatest game those players will ever make in their lives, because it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a small club to make real money. One of the most legendary soccer games around these parts is the Faroe Islands (!) beating Austria. I must say it's been a while since I've watched the movie, but I remember it as charming, sweet, occasionally funny, very character driven and very, very smart. I remember it as more real than you might expect, with a lot of attention to the economical ramifications of such a game, and I also remember the beautiful cinematography. Another hockey movie I could have recommended would, of course, be The Mighty Ducks but again I suspect that you've all already seen it.