10 Best Sport Films: Fighting, dying, hoping, hating … great sports films are about far more than sport itself. There are so many great movies that come to mind, I will try to choose the 10 best. Here are SportsXm’s picks for the 10 best Sports Films, Movies of all time!
10. Chariots of Fire
Chariots of Fire is a 1981 British film directed by Hugh Hudson. It is based on the true story of British athletes preparing to compete in the 1924 Summer Olympics. Title song of the film composed by Vangelis won an academy award for the best original soundtrack. The plot revolves around two athletes, a Scottish Christian and an English Jew, Harold Abrahams.
Some of the scenes were shot in the town Scotch of St Andrews. The British comedian Rowan Atkinson, of Mr. Bean fame, parodied this movie in the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games.
9. The Natural
The Natural – is a 1984 film directed by Barry Levinson and based on the novel by American author Bernard Malamud. The film features Robert Redford , Robert Duvall , Kim Basinger and Glenn Close. Like the book, the film focuses on the life of Roy Hobbs, a baseball with innate talent for the sport. Roy Hobbs (Robert Redford) is an old player in baseball with an unknown past, who has an amazing very unique skill which leads his team, The New York Knights, to conquer the majors in 1939.
8. Caddyshack
Caddyshack is a 1980 sports comedy film. In golf, where members are very rich and eccentric, but all employees are poor, Danny Noonan (Michael O’Keefe), a caddy, wants to raise as much money as possible in order to register at college.
The film quickly became a cult comedy and a sequel was released in 1988.
7. Miracle
Miracle is a 2004 American film, directed by Gavin O’Connor. The film is about the so-called. ” Miracle on Ice “at the Olympic Winter Games 1980 in Lake Placid , when the hockey team of the US unexpectedly won a gold medal on home soil, by a sensational win against the hockey team of the USSR.
Miracle earned $64.4 million at the box office.
6. Rudy
Rudy is a 1993 film directed by David Anspaugh. It is based on the true story of Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger son, who had dreams of playing football for the University of Notre Dame despite the obstacles in its path.
It stars Sean Astin as the title character, along with Ned Beatty,Jason Miller and Charles S. Dutton.
5. Friday Night Lights
Friday Night Lights is a 2004 American sports drama film directed by Peter Berg and Josh Pate. The screenplay is by David Aaron Cohen and Peter Berg on the basis of the book Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream by Buzz Bissinger.
The plot follows the story of the 1988 Permian High School Panthers football team as they fight for the state championship.
4. Bull Durham
Bull Durham is a 1988 sports romantic comedy directed by Ron Shelton starring Kevin Costner and Susan Sarandon. The plot unfolds in the title of Durham, a small town in North Carolina, where the main attraction are the matches of “Bulls”, a second division baseball team.
Bull Durham unlike the sports movies of that time received a tremendous response.The film was made with just a budget of $7 million and earned $50,888,729 million alone in am the U.S.
3. Invictus
Invictus is an American feature film from director Clint Eastwood. It is based on the John Carlin book Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation.
The film’s title refers to the poem ” Invictus “by William Ernest Henley, that had given support and comfort to the Resistance fighter and later president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, during the years of his imprisonment .Morgan Freeman was cast as the first actor for the role of Nelson Mandela, then Matt Damon as Francois Pienaar.
Matt Damon got an intense rugby training at the Gardens Rugby Club in Cape Town for his role as team captain.
Invictus earned Academy Award nominations for Morgan Freeman (Best Actor) and Matt Damon (Best Supporting Actor).
2. Moneyball
Brad Pitt starrer Moneyball is an American sports drama film based on Michael Lewis’s 2003 book of the same name.
Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) is the general manager of Baseball team Oakland Athletics, who just lost another season. Determined to revive the team, and with the help of young economist Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), he will use statistics to sign players to generate more appropriate results. A method that is not shared by peers,or by the coach Art Howe (Philip Seymour Hoffman).
The production of the film received six Oscar nominations and the American Film Institute has named the film one of the movies of the Year.
1. Any Given Sunday
Any Given Sunday is a 1999 sports drama film directed by Oliver Stone starring Al Pacino , Cameron Diaz , Dennis Quaid , Jamie Foxx ,James Woods , Lawrence Taylor , Aaron Eckhart , and LL Cool J.
Successful former Miami Sharks football team led by coach Tony D’Amato (Al Pacino), is struggling with several consecutive losses, lack of public and heroes in the twilight of their careers, particularly its Quarterback 40, Jack “Cap” Rooney (Dennis Quaid), who desperately cling to what little remains as a professional player.
Oliver Stone wrote part of the script of this film in the eighties thinking starring Charles Bronson. His first choice for the role of Tony D’Amato was Robert De Niro.
