I just saw a couple lists of Top 10 Movies so I figured I would make one of my own. Here is my list of the Top 10 Sports Movies I have ever enjoyed.
10. Chariots of Fire
This is my dad's all time favorite movie and one I have grown up with since I was a kid. It chronicles two incredibly talented, though incredibly different runners that ran for the 1924 British Olympic team, Aubrey Montague and Eric Liddell. It is an incredible film with great acting and a timeless score that you know even if you have never heard of this masterpiece of a film. It is one of the few sports movies to ever win an Oscar for Best Picture, and it truly deserved it. A wonderful piece of film making.
9. Jerry Maguire.
I know many people don't qualify this as a sports movie but I do. I'm sorry if you think otherwise. This is a great film with a great heart. Tom Cruise, in an Oscar nominated role, plays a high power sports agent (not unlike a Drew Rosenhaus) who loses everything when he sends out an office wide memo that goes against everything that his office has ever stood for. Only one client stays by him (played by Cuba Gooding Jr in an Oscar winning role) and he is followed by a secretary from his work, played well by Renee Zellwegger, who in full disclosure I generally don't like. This is another great film.
8. Brian's Song
This is one of the only films that has ever made me cry. This wonderful film about the friendship between real life Chicago Bears teammates Brian Piccolo and Gale Sayers. I understand this is a made for TV movie but it is still a wonderful film and James Caan gives an immensely passionate performance as Piccolo, the ill-fated Chicago Bears player. This story has, for a long time, served as the inspiration for the kind of friend and teammate I try to be and it is one we should all be able to learn from.
7. Rudy
This is the mostly true story of Daniel "Rudy" Ruttiger, a lifelong Notre Dame fan who decides he wants to be a Notre Dame football player. Four years after high school, he moves from Joliet, IL to South Bend, IN and ends up working his way into college, making the team on heart alone and eventually getting to play in one game his senior year. He is still the last player to ever have been carried off the Notre Dame field by his teammates. It is a great story of perseverance and following your dreams and is an inspiration to any person who loves what they do.
6. Moneyball
"There are rich teams, and there are poor teams. Then there's fifty feet of crap, and then there's us," explains Billy Beane, the General Manger of the Oakland A's baseball club, as to why their team struggles from year to year. This movie is geniusly written by the greatest living screenwriter in Aaron Sorkin and is powered by amazing performances from Brad Pitt as Beane, and Jonah Hill as his assistant. It is the story of how the Oakland A's changed baseball scouting forever through the process of sabermetrics and the historic season that follows. Most teams have slowly started adopting this, notably the Boston Red Sox and St Louis Cardinals, both of whom have two World Series titles since adopting Billy Beane's philosophies.
5. Eight Men Out
The story of one of the darkest episodes in Major League Baseball history, the 1929 World Series and the scandal of the Black Sox is depicted with class and dignity in this amazing film. Eight members of the team were accused of throwing the World Series for money, including the great Shoeless Joe Jackson, who has forever been banned from baseball (including his rightful spot in the Hall of Fame) for breaking baseball's cardinal rule. This is a great film with great performances which handles a major episode and black spot on baseball with grace and dignity.
4. Knute Rockne: All American
Now we start getting in to the cream of the crop. This is a movie most anyone reading this list has never seen, but I tell you it is incredible. The story of former Notre Dame player and coach Knute Rockne. He is a legend to anyone who is a fan of either Notre Dame or college football in general and ranks only behind Ara Parseghian in the list of greatest coaches in Notre Dame history. And Ronald Reagan gives a great performance as "The Gipper" who gives one of the most memorable speeches in sports movie history so well, "I gotta go Rock...tell them to go out there, and win just one for the Gipper."
3. Hoosiers
This is another great movie that has stood the test of time. Gene Hackman gives an all time great sports movie performance as a disgraced college basketball coach who comes to Indiana and takes a small Indiana high school all the way to the state championship. You will cheer for these kids. You will yell at the coach. You will wonder how it could possibly be a real story, but that is what makes it great.
2. The Natural
I've always said that this was my all time favorite sports movie until I sat down to make this list and realized I was wrong, but it definitely deserves to be here at number 2. This is the greatest movie about America's pasttime ever made. Roy Hobbs is such a staple in American culture that it is almost like he really was a baseball player. His fictional story reminds me somewhat of Rick Ankiel, formerly of the St Louis Cardinals. Ankiel was supposed to be the next great pitcher as a young kid before he lost control of his arm. Instead of quitting baseball, he went to the minors and remade himself into a hard hitting outfielder. It is a triumphant story with superb performances from Robert Redford, Glenn Close, Kim Basinger and Wilford Brimley.
1. Rocky
Is there any other choice for the best sports movie of all time? I have heard arguments for others, but I'm sorry, this will always be it. It, like Chariots of Fire, won an Oscar for Best Picture. It garnered two different Oscar nominations for Sylvester Stallone, one for acting and one for writing. Two other members of the cast were nominated for acting Oscars as well. This is the ultimate underdog story, and will remain that for years and years to come. Plus, has there ever been a more memorable line from a sports movie then "Yo Adrian. It's Rocky"? If the final fight scene of this movie does not make you cheer, then you seriously need to check your pulse.
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