KEY POINTS:
Motivation: Caused by watching the tail end of a sacharrine movie on TV called the The Bad News Bears - prompting the thought: Has there ever been a decent sports movie?
Criteria: No documentaries - we are talking creative skill.
* No formulaic pap. Hollywood's usual way with sports movies are as follows: Underdog person/team; underdog has reverse; underdog meets girl; underdog gets hope; underdog comes good and, against all expectations wiiiiiins...; underdog rides off with girl. Under no circumstances were such movies permitted unless the proponent manages to convince the censors that this bilious formula has been successfully employed without gratuitous sentimental slush.
* No movies starring Sylvester Stallone. This outlaws all the Rocky movies because he is a pillock of the highest order and the person who first cast him to stardom should be led gently away and introduced to a wood chipper. The thing is, none of the participants knew about this condition before compilation and anyone who nominates Rocky movies was to be humiliated by a graphic consisting of a bright arrow and a little pile of vomit. Luckily, no one did.
* Once Were Warriors is not a sports movie.
Paul Lewis' favourite movies
1 Million Dollar Baby
(Clint Eastwood, Hillary Swank, Morgan Freeman, 2004)
Okay, I admit it. I cried like a little girl at this thing. It breaks the mould because it is not some feelgood, fancypants, soupily sentimental movie. It captures the darkness and bleakness of boxing and the looming, invisible tragedy that lurks behind the sport. It tackles issues like euthanasia and the emptiness of families with punctured lives. Most un-American.
2 Raging Bull
(Robert de Niro, Joe Pesci)
Another boxing movie - but that's not really it. What marks this is the brave call, in 1980, to make a movie of such violence, showing boxing as a sport of (even accepting the science of it) visceral cruelty manipulated by cruel opportunists; with an anti-hero like Jake La Motta and with boxing moves by Robert de Niro that are as near to reality as could be - making the cosmetic fakery of films like Rocky seem like a joke.
3 Bull Durham
(Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, 1988)
Sarandon's sexy portrayal of baseball groupie Annie Savoy has to be the best female performance in any sports movie. But it is also the story of sport - out with the old and in with the new and the inevitability of same. It also scores highly because Costner was able to hit two home runs on demand in filming.
4 Jerry Maguire
(Tom Cruise, Renee Zellweger, 1996)
Cruise's best role and the iconic "Show me the money...!" line lives on. This is a favourite because it shows the hard edge money brings to the business of sport and, if I'm entirely honest, the delectable Zellweger rivals Sarandon's presence.
5 Chariots Of Fire (1981)
Terrific treatment of the true story of Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell and their Olympic achievements. Beautifully written, scored and filmed although all the old slo-mo sequences look dated now and the athletic (in)ability of the stars is not quite disguised. An understated, feelgood film as only the Brits can do it.
6 World's Fastest Indian
(Sir Anthony Hopkins, 2005)
Could be argued that this isn't a sports movie as there is some dispute whether land speed records (remember them?) are a sport or a news item. However, this is an uplifting movie, filmed partly in New Zealand and I defy anyone to watch it and feel unmoved. Great stuff and only rates this far down for Hopkins' execrable Kiwi accent in an otherwise fine performance.
7 The Hustler/Colour
of Money (Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason; Tom Cruise; 1961/1986)
Iconic movie The Hustler and sequel are both pool hustling movies and benefit from the powerful presence of Paul Newman - who died recently. In the original, he takes on the menacing might of Minnesota Fats; in the sequel, he coaches/rivals a cocky newcomer played by Cruise. The original shades it but the sequel gets a mention for Cruise's outstanding turn to Warren Zevon's Werewolves of London.
8 Bend It Like Beckham
(Keira Knightley,
Parminder Nagra)
Charming and amusing 2002 football film which strides easily through difficult territory like race, gender and the problems of maintaining one's culture while making a foreign society home. Could only have been produced by a non-white in modern Britain and the only thing that jars is old Goldenball's cameo appearance.
9 Hoosiers
(Gene Hackman, Dennis Hopper, Barbara Hershey)
Excellent 1986 basketball movie which adheres to the Hollywood formula mentioned above but does it so well that it passes muster here. A fine performance by Dennis Hopper as the town drunk and Hackman as the coach (with a dubious past) of an unfancied Indiana high school which wins the state championships. Worth seeing for Hopper alone.
10 Slap Shot
(Paul Newman, Strother Martin)
Fun 1977 ice hockey farce with Newman in foul-mouthed anti-hero mode who lies and cheats to help his team do good. Entertaining though he is, the movie is made by the Hanson brothers - three homicidal maniacs for whom style comes a long second to casual violence and around whom Newman builds a team. Almost disguises its 30-year-old origins.
Dylan Clevers' favourite movies
1 Raging Bull (1980)
Forget sports movies, this is close to the apex of filmmaking, period. With a genius at the helm in Martin Scorsese, and a lead, Robert de Niro, who essentially swallows Jake La Motta, the character this film is based upon, this could only be a powderkeg of a movie that turns into an unlikely bout between boxing and Freud's Madonna-Whore complex.
2 Bull Durham (1988)
By the end, it is almost impossible not to have fallen in love with Susan Sarandon's Annie and Ebby Calvin LaLoosh (Tim Robbins), the flamethrower pitcher sent to the minor leagues. Completing the triangle is Kevin Costner's Crash Davis. He might have gone off course after dancing with one wolf too many, but Costner always gets his sports characters spot on.
3 Hoosiers (1986)
Yes, they might have poured a bit of sugar on the ending but, when Jimmy Chipwood gets the ball in the corner with time running out, I challenge you to not cheer for him to make the shot. Terrific performances from Gene Hackman as coach Norman Dale, a man hiding his demons, and Dennis Hopper as Shooter, a man whose demons are there for all to see.
4 This Sporting Life (1963)
Rugby league, a gritty northern mining town, a fringe sport, angry young men and guarded women. Wouldn't make for much of a movie would it? It does, actually. A young Richard Harris is terrific, as is the taut script. It looks a little dated, sure, but they haven't made a better league/rugby movie in 45 years.
5 Eight Men Out (1988)
No happy endings here as the Chicago Black Sox scandal of 1919, who threw the World Series on purpose, is played out on celluloid. The ensemble cast - which includes David Strathairn, John Cusack, Charlie Sheen and Christopher Lloyd - gives a mixture of great and gory performances but the story is strong enough to cover any inadequacies.
6 Field of Dreams (1989)
A different take on Shoeless Joe Jackson and the Black Sox, this time they stumble out of the ether to legitimise farmer Ray Kinsella's (Costner, again) decision to carve out a ballpark in the middle of his cornfield. Daft as a brush and dripping in corny, geddit?, symbolism, Field of Dreams is still a winner.
7 Breaking Away (1979)
Who would have thought, two movies set in Indiana? This a tale about a local kid in a university town, Bloomington, who wants to prove he's no cutter' by becoming a cycling star in Europe. This pedals along at a frantic pace and, whoa, how young does Dennis Quaid look?
8 Chariots of Fire (1981)
This should probably be higher but Ian Charleson's running style - he plays the devoutly Christian Scottish sprinter Eric Liddell - is so defiantly unathletic it dimishes the credibility of the action' scenes. Still, Vangelis' soaring soundtrack is undoubtedly the greatest example of sport-meets-synthesisers so these things balance out.
9 Basketball Diaries (1995)
This hellishly flawed film based on the entries of Irish Catholic, heroin-and-hoops-shooting diarist Jim Carroll is rescued on the buzzer by a tour de force by Leonardo di Caprio. Watch this outstanding depiction and you'll (almost) forget he was Jack in Titanic.
10 Spetters (1980)
You have to love the Dutch. Surely only they could come up with a largely coherent coming-of-age movie about three teenagers trying to escape their grim surroundings through motocross, all the while wrestling with religious orthodoxy and (homo)sexual liberation. Director Paul Verhoeven would later become famous for that scene in Basic Instinct.
Gregor Pauls' list of favourite movies
1 When Saturday Comes
(Sean Bean, Pete Postlethwaite, Emily Lloyd, 1996)
The Brits really know how to do urban, gritty films that are alarmingly realistic. When Saturday Comes is a film without glamour - it is an entirely believable plot set among the industrial charms of Sheffield. Jimmy Muir (Sean Bean) is a local boy, obsessed by both booze and football who wins a trial at Sheffield United after being spotted playing for his local club. He can't stay off the sauce the night before the trial and fails to impress. There's no point in spoiling the rest but there are many less pleasant ways to while away an hour and a half of your life.
2 Caddyshack
(Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, 1980)
Okay it's a stretch to call it a sports movie but golf is the prominent theme. This is not a film with a destination - it is a film that is all about the journey. Chevy Chase is at his random best. Bill Murray makes a big impression as the gopher-killing groundsman and there are some classic scenes along the way that shouldn't really be funny but they are.
3 Chariots of Fire (1981)
A Scotsman conquers the world. Brilliant.
4 Tin Cup
(Kevin Costner, Rene Russo, Don Johnson, 1996)
The beauty of this film is that it draws you in and then threatens to spit you out again as it flirts with being yet another Hollywood fairytale about the underdog coming good on the day. It's not, though, and the irony is that it leaves you almost disappointed that it's not. Don Johnson goes through the whole movie without his jacket sleeves rolled up.
5 The Basketball Diaries
(Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Wahlberg, 1995)
Partly about basketball, partly about drugs, this is a sober reminder of how easily young dreams can be broken. DiCaprio is part of a successful high school basketball team with his eye on the big time. Gradually, though, his life comes off the rails as he struggles to cope with a variety of factors in his life. It ends up being a dark and troubled film but it is not without hope. Basketball is his salvation.
6 Jerry Maguire (1996)
If any 20-something sports fan watched this and said they didn't fancy Jerry Maguire's job at the end, they would have been lying.
7 Kingpin
(Woody Harrelson, Bill Murray, Randy Quaid, 1996)
This is arguably the best film written by the electrically funny
Farrelly brothers (Something About Mary, Dumb and Dumber, Stuck on You). Bill Murray is at his best as the supremely successful Ernie McCracken. His hair alone is hilarious. This is a film where the plot sounds ridiculous and it is. But it works. It is funny, heart-warming and charmingly daft.
8 The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (Michael Redgrave, Tom Courtenay, 1962)
This is a moving, classy production that tells a complex story about a troubled youth's struggles in life. Running is the way Colin Smith escapes from the reality of his horrid life and it becomes the vehicle by which he earns favoured status in prison. The ending is most definitely not Hollywood.
9 Gregory's Girl
(John Gordon Sinclair, Clare Grogan, 1981)
Directed by Bill Forsyth this was a film that perfectly encapsulated Scotland and the quirks of its people. Football and love are the two themes and they switch effortlessly in this gloriously funny and charming production. Lines from this film are still used in Scotland today and the only surprise was that the delightful Grogan, who was lead singer of the shortlived pop band Altered Images (they sang Happy Birthday in the 1980s) never really went on to star in much, although she did have a minor part in Eastenders for a while.
10 Best in Show
(Greg Kinnear, 2000)
Not strictly a sport but serious competition. If you can't laugh at this movie, then be ashamed.
