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Best/Worst depictions of sport in films

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    #26
    No mention of Raging Bull?

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      #27
      Grand Prix, which was about F1 (of course) and was always on the box in my youth, was a favourite.
      Last edited by Nocturnal Submission; 15-07-2017, 18:50.

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        #28
        Originally posted by Hot Pepsi View Post
        Chariots of Fire, one of my favorite movies ever. Largely because I loved it as a kid, but it is a beautiful movie.


        The baseball film canon should be:

        The ones everyone should see to understand the mythology of baseball and why people shed tears over it:
        The Natural - dream-like, mythology, good vs bad, loss of innocence, etc.
        Bull Durham - Best portrayal of minor leagues, especially pre-1990s boom in MiLB stadium construction. But also is the best portrayal of the day to day grind of baseball. Very quotable.
        Field of Dreams - Better than the book, IMO. About fathers and sons, regret, and the power of sport.

        Next tier:
        Major League - Just the first one. Kinda cheesy, but the characters are archetypal player-types that repeatedly appear in real life. And they did a good job of filming real major league baseball, though IIRC, they used the old Memorial Stadium in Baltimore to stand in for Cleveland's old stadium. Lots of great Bob Ueker quotes. The first sequel is ok too, but the later ones are crap.
        The Sandlot - You're killing me, Smalls.
        A League of Their Own - Portrays the game very well, both on the field and the grind of it. Some classic lines.
        Pride of the Yankees - I've never seen it, TBH, but everyone says so.

        I'd also include:
        42 - The newest addition. Pretty straightforward biopic on Jack Robinson's early days with the Dodgers. Great performances all around, but what I loved is the way it uses CGI, costumes, and set-design to bring the old ballparks back to life. Also the scenes in the beginning showing the negro leagues are so good. Really best seen on the big screen. You can feel the humidity and hear the chatter. If it were older and more accepted, I'd say it belongs in the top tier.
        Love of the Game - Another Kevin Costner joint. Does a really good job of portraying a real MLB game. The love story etc, is kinda neither hear nor there, but not awful.

        Maybe worth a look:
        Everybody Wants Some - I only watched about a quarter of this. It's Linklater's movie about being a college baseball player in the early 80s. Not really about baseball, but if you liked Dazed and Confused and like his oeuvre generally, it might be worth a look.
        The Rookie - The one about Jimmy Morris, a high school coach in Texas who agrees to try out for the majors in his 30s. He did manage to debut for the Rays. Not much of a major league career, but given that he debuted at 35, it's nothing to sneeze at, really. Inspiring, but not mawkish, Disney stuff with some nice performances by Dennis Quaid, Rachel Griffiths, and Brian Cox.
        Bang the Drum Slowly - Haven't seen it in a long time, but I recall that it's very good. Just not really about baseball, as I recall.
        No 8 Men Out?

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          #29
          Originally posted by Gangster Octopus View Post
          No mention of Raging Bull?
          Boxing films are such an established genre in their own right they almost transcend 'sporting films', I guess. The characters and inherent drama of one-on-one violent combat lend themselves to a cinematic treatment far more naturally than, say, football, or indeed team sports in general I guess. Baseball has been the exception to the latter rule perhaps because it breaks down more conveniently into a series of one-on-one duels.

          There's one great cricket film I'd like to see, mind: The Full Number Of Overs That Are Scheduled To Be Bowled That Day.

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            #30
            Is The Wrestler a sports movie?

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              #31
              Originally posted by Ginger Yellow View Post
              No 8 Men Out?
              I'd forgotten that one. I'd put it in the second-tier category.

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                #32
                Originally posted by Excitable_Boy View Post
                Is The Wrestler a sports movie?
                Interesting conundrum. See my comments above re boxing movies, I suppose. It's a great film, however you class it.

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                  #33
                  While acknowledging VA's reservations about boxing/fighting films, I would suggest Rocky as the best boxing film. The sharply declining quality and increasing silliness of the sequels has meant that the original has become something of an overlooked classic. It won the Oscar for Best Picture, up against Taxi Driver, Network, All The President's Men and Bound for Glory, all of which are fairly decent movies to say the least. It's a brilliant movie, especially as it was written by Stallone in three days (after he watched the unfancied Chuck Wepner take Ali to 15 rounds), and then shot in 28 days for $1m. And Rocky loses the fight.

                  Raging Bull is one of the best films ever, but boxing is a lesser theme, behind masculinity, anger, jealousy, insecurity etc.

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                    #34
                    Coach Carter has some great basketball game sequences.

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                      #35
                      It's got to be much easier to make golf look convincing on film than, say, football or ice hockey - in part because lots of actors actually play golf to a relatively high standard; but also in part because the less actual running and moving around, and the more static set-pieces, the easier it is to make it look authentic.

                      I think that's why golf films tend to have the best depiction of the "action", even if they're often actually pretty rubbish films. And why baseball films tend to look less artificial than football ones.

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                        #36
                        A flawed but interesting hockey flick is Paperback Hero starring Keir Dullea (of 2001 fame.) The best curling movie — though it's a very low bar — is Men with Brooms.

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                          #37
                          The Natural is mawkish tripe and a capital offense to the memory of Bernard Malamud,

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                            #38
                            Yeah, but it has Barbara Hershey in it, so — like — who cares!

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                              #39
                              This is true . . .

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                                #40
                                Originally posted by My Name Is Ian View Post
                                Things I remember about Murphy's Mob:

                                I'm not sure how many series of it they made, but it was first filmed at Vicarage Road and later at The Baseball Ground.

                                That is all.
                                "Hello? French polishers? It's just possible you could save my life!"

                                The main bloke from Murphy's Mob, there.

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                                  #41
                                  Funny, I was only remembering that French Polisher ad the other day. Same Yellow Pages series as JR Hartley, IIRC.

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                                    #42
                                    WARNING: FAR TOO LONG A POST. FAR TOO LONG A POST. NORMAL SIZED VERSION FOLLOWS IMMEDIATELY. IGNORE THIS VERSION AND MOVE ON.


                                    Stumpy talked earlier about "the BBC biopic last year called The Rack Pack, which dramatised the era of Alex Higgins and Steve Davis. The 70s/80s snooker recreations were spot on."

                                    I missed the beginning but saw most of it and enjoyed it - a kind of 24 Hour Party People of snooker - but couldn't help complaining about the fact "Alex Higgins" never did that little flicky tap of his cue on the edge of the table. Nominally to get rid of excess chalk, I think, but he always did it mid-break like a nervous tic. Longer the break, more taps of the cue. Key part of the enthralling Higgins aesthetic (Oooeeewww - get her - "enthralling aesthetics", is it!).

                                    Gangster's mention of Raging Bull had me ashamed at myself for not thinking of it instantly - one of my top 5 movies. But, yeah, it's such a complete picture of a man's life and character, of place and time, you forget it's a sports film. And the only part of it dating badly is the boxing action.

                                    The real problem comes in dramatisations of true stories, particularly of famous events. You're not only acting out a sport - difficult enough - but recreating historic moments of which footage usually exists. A good portion of your audience will be deeply familiar with the "original version" which, doubtless along with some iconic commentary, is never the whole story but always the most reliable, authentic conveyor of its integral drama.

                                    I mean, I don't know if there's been a dramatic recreation of England winning the 1966 World Cup but you'd need to get Lynchian to add anything worthwhile to Wolstenhome's commentary on Hurst's third in the final.

                                    So, for me, it's the portrayal of West Germany thrashing Austria at the 1954 World Cup, in Das Wunder von Bern. A film which recreates the truly famous action of that World Cup final - and Herbert Zimmermman's equally iconic radio commentary (hats doffed to Uli Hesse's Tor! for prepping me to truly enjoy this film) - does an absolutely beautiful thing with the historic semi-final:

                                    If you haven't seen it, please look away now and go watch the film.

                                    I knew what was coming in the semi, as would almost every German and both Austrians watching the film. Austria were favourites for that game, so it was a revelation when Germany stuffed them - to recreate that sense of stunned joy Soenke Wortmann's portrayal of the game is a revelation. Had me in tears. Instead of trying to recreate the action, he plays the Austrian radio commentary of the game over scenes of the German kids who star in the film playing a makeshift game in one of the remaining bombed-out areas of post-war, mid-Wirtschaftswunder Essen. The film, which I love, is a bit on the money at times but this scene, for me, even beats the "You didn't get me down, Ray" and "He ain't pretty no more" moments in Raging Bull.

                                    I've a DVD of Das Wunder von Bern (the movie) and another containing actual footage of the goals from that semi so I should check if the child actors are actually recreating the six goals West Germany scored in that game. But don't think it's important. It's just a ridiculously moving scene perfectly conveying the whole theme of the film - how that tournament made a country feel child-like optimism again, for the first time in nine years.
                                    Last edited by Alex Anderson; 16-07-2017, 20:51. Reason: Far too long but still gonnae make it longer, so it makes sense to the one person wanting to read it. Sorry mum.

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                                      #43
                                      Fuck me - sorry - had no idea that last post was so boringly long. Meant to say:

                                      For me, it's the portrayal of West Germany thrashing Austria at the 1954 World Cup, in Das Wunder von Bern. Instead of trying to recreate the action, it plays the Austrian radio commentary of the game over scenes of the German kids who star in the film playing a makeshift game on a bomb site. A ridiculously moving scene, perfectly conveying the central theme - how winning that tournament gave a country child-like optimism for the first time in nine years.

                                      It's an aesthetic as enthralling as Alex Higgins playing snooker ...
                                      Last edited by Alex Anderson; 16-07-2017, 20:50. Reason: Watch it. Now. Do it.

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                                        #44
                                        Das Wunder von Bern also features the best football/passenger train cross over of all time



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                                          #45
                                          The tennis scenes in 'Strangers on a Train' were decent.

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                                            #46
                                            Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                                            Das Wunder von Bern also features the best football/passenger train cross over of all time
                                            If you're not hearing Trans-Europa Express when you look at that first pic you have no soul (or you have an accurate recollection of what the Trans-Europa Express actually looked like).

                                            Nice, Ursus. Lovely contrast with the trains arriving from the gulags at the start of the film too - the released POWs disembarking at the station after nine years in Siberia; the dad mistaking his daughter for his wife. ("Hashtag awkwaaaaaard")
                                            Last edited by Alex Anderson; 16-07-2017, 23:06. Reason: come on! I'm not a train person - gie me a brek. It's old and foreign, isn't it. Yeah - well, then ...

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                                              #47
                                              Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                                              The Natural is mawkish tripe and a capital offense to the memory of Bernard Malamud,
                                              I don't agree.

                                              Though it is an example of a film using the title and most of the plot from a book to tell a completely different kind of story to make a completely contrasting point.

                                              Actually, no other examples come to mind.

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                                                #48
                                                My best mate has always said The Miracle of Bern is his favourite ever depiction of football in a film, too. I was sure I'd seen it but now can't remember. I shall have to see whether we get a spare couple of hours to watch it with him in a few weeks.

                                                And thanks VA for that reminder of the Mitchell and Webb sketch. 'Cricket? Here in Yorkshire?!'

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                                                  #49
                                                  And speaking of comedy sketches, one of my favourite things about Monty Python's philosophy football sketch is that when the football finally breaks out, the folks doing the dribbling and crossing and scoring do actually do it properly.

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                                                    #50
                                                    The football scene in Kes pretty accurately conjured up football at School games periods, with Brian Glover brilliant as the PE teacher.

                                                    On the other hand, though a very enjoyable film, the school football in Gregory's Girl was pretty naff, even if the titular hero's rubbish goalkeeping was pretty funny.

                                                    I can't remember if the football in Bend It Like Beckham was portrayed well or badly. At least Keira Knightley was a regular football spectator (West Ham fan) so should have had a clue.

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