Sports is Not a Game: 5 Greatest Sports Films of All Time

The first sports movie I ever loved was Breaking Away, whose title refers both to a bicycle champion's need to break away from the pack to win and an adolescent's journey from his childhood friends and realities into the greater world beyond.

Bloomington, Indiana is divided socially into the blue collar sons of the local stonecutters, "cutters" and their despised rivals, the wealthier students who attend nearby Indiana State. 19-year old Dave and his three friends have just graduated from high school and are preparing to enter the well-worn grooves of modest blue collar success when Dave falls in love with a college girl and the sport of bicycling. Both turn his feet in unexpected directions. Suddenly Dave must discover who he is: All-American Boy or Italian Bicycling Star, Cutter or College Boy. And what about his lifelong friends?

Like all great sports movies, this one celebrates courage--less physical than moral. This movie spoke to me when I too was 19 and also breaking away.

Chariots of Fire, about English track stars in the 1920's is the next film on my top 5 list. Of all sports, track has the most inherent drama. After all, the long-distance event known as the Marathon commemorates an ancient messenger who ran non-stop for over 26 miles to bring news of a battle, and died after reporting. Track still takes lives-28 year old Ryan Shay during the 2007 Olympic Trials to name one.

Character was exhibited by the winner of the Womens Marathon in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics when Joan Benoit Samuelson took an early lead and never relinquished it while running in heavily polluted air. Her tremendous display of self-confidence, risk-taking, courage and superb physical conditioning led her to an easy lead over the heavily-favored second place finisher, internationally known Norwegian star and darling of the New York Marathon, Grete Waitz.

Grete herself showed the good breeding and character that brought her to international prominence and made her my personal hero by warmly congratulating Joan on her superb finish.

Chariots of Fire, (1981) is not about the marathon, but the even more punishingly paced sprint. It is the true story of two British track athletes competing in the 1924 Summer Olympics. Humble Eric Liddel, the Flying Scotsman, is a devout Scottish missionary who runs for God. Harold Abrams is the son of a Jewish parvenu who carries both a chip on his shoulder and the dreams of his fellow Jews in every race he runs. It is up to him to prove to the snobs of Cambridge that he is their true peer.

In a warmup 100 meter race, Eric defeats Harold, who hires a pro trainer to prepare him for an eventual rematch.. Harold's decision to hire an pro trainer enrages the Olympic Committee who accuse him of unsportsman like behavior. Harold sees this as merely a thinly-veiled Antisemitism.

Eric, whose qualifying heat is scheduled for a Sunday, refuses to compromise his religious principles by running on the Sabbath despite pressure. Harold enters the 100 meter in his place. A compromise is reached when a nobleman allows Eric to compete in his 400 meter slot. Eric, running in an event four times his accustomed distance and Harold, the despised Jew, both win their respective races and go on to achieve fame and outstanding success as missionary and businessman/athletic advocate, respectively.

The sweet science of boxing is the closest any sport approaches savage warfare, so it is not surprising that this paradoxical celebration of character and butchery has produced some of the greatest films.

1980's Raging Bull is the biography of Jack LaMotta, a brilliant and gifted boxer driven to greatness by self-destruction and madness. This classic Martin Scorsese film starring Robert DeNiro as the boxing great remains as true now as it was then: Mike Tyson, anyone?

Clint Eastwood wrote the book on violence as an actor in the classic Dirty Harry series. Although he ranks among the greatest actors of all time, his work as a director puts his acting performances to shame. Clint is the only man who has been nominated for Oscars as an actor, director and musician (he not only starred in and directed, but also wrote the musical score for the classic film, Play Misty for Me).

Million Dollar Baby (2004) in which he stars and directs, is about a crusty trainer who has a poor relationship with his family. A tough, white trash waitress with nothing to lose, Maggie Fitzgerald, convinces him against his will to train her as a boxer. Although he believes that she is too old to train and likely to be injured, he is slowly convinced to give her a shot. After meeting her appalling family who see Maggie as nothing more than a meal ticket, the trainer's stony heart thaws, just in time to have it broken again as Maggie succumbs to a terrible fate.

Seabiscuit (2003) is the true story of the unlikely Great Depression era triple crown contender and the jockey who rode him to victory. Everything was wrong with this horse, from his appearance, through his bloodlines, to his odd gait and poor temperament. But he had the heart of a champion, and he let his elegant competitors eat his dust.

Seabiscuit is on the brink of being put down when wrangler Tom Smith convinces novice horse owner and full time automobile dealer, Charles Howard to acquire the equine loser and turn him over to Smith to train. Smith also convinces Howard to hire the lanky, but courageous jockey Red Pollard. The too-tall jockey and misbegotten horse tear up the tracks and become heroes to an America that is also down on its luck. Remarkable not only for its inspirational story, but also for its portrayals of the dangers of horse-racing and the privations of the jockey's lives, this is one film you cannot miss.

These classics is are all available through both Amazon.com and Blockbuster.com.

Sources:
http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/trackandfield/news/story?id=3092889
http://sports.jrank.org/pages/5090/Waitz-Grete-Wins-Silver-in-Los-Angeles-Olympics.html
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082158/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078902/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081398/
http://movies.about.com/cs/seabiscuit/a/seabiscuitrevie.htm
http://www.fjkluth.com/olympic.html#Clot

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