This week, OSN author Joe Harris wrote a great column about the best sports movies of all time, and I couldn’t agree more with their list. It got me thinking, though, what are the best sports movies most people leave off that list?
What are the most underrated sports movies?
10. Wildcats
Goldie Hawn as the head coach of a Chicago high school football team, what more do you need? Molly McGrath (not a relative of the lead singer of Sugar Ray as far as we know) not only gets her dream of being a head coach but takes a group of underprivileged kids from the inner city and leads them to the championship game. 1980s comedies were always filled with hidden lessons, and this one taught us that people of all genders and races in all walks of life deserve to be treated equally and given the same opportunities, and that lesson is just as important today as it was then.
9. The Mighty Ducks
I love the true story behind the movie Miracle, and one has to wonder if that story inspired this movie. Minnesota miracle man and Mighty Ducks coach Gordon Bombay (played by Emilio Estevez) takes a team of undersized, inexperienced, and undercoached kids trying to win on talent alone and turns them from laughing stock to champions in less than a season. He has to make some questionable tweaks to make it work, like using legal maneuvers to take the top team’s best player away mid-season, which also costs Gordon his day job. It’s a fun and nostalgic movie that almost makes Miracle the missing Mighty Ducks prequel, and since we never find out the identity of Charlie Conway’s father, we’ll have to assume it was Mark Johnson. Why Mark Johnson, you ask? We know Charlie is age 14 in the third movie, which means he was born in 1982. Guess who was playing for the Minnesota North Stars in 1982 and later relocated to five other cities before settling down in Wisconsin? No spoilers here. I will let you find out for yourself.
8. The Program
If you are curious about getting a look behind the curtain at blue-blood football teams in the early 1990s, this movie is it. From the impact of steroids to the pressure to win at all costs to the disconnect between the head coach and their players, this movie is probably as close to the real deal of high stakes college football in one of its most memorable eras as it gets. James Caan leads an ensemble cast that accurately illustrates the most controversial aspects of running a top college football program. It’s not a fun movie per se, but you will learn a lot about how teams probably were run (and may still be today).
7. Borg Vs McEnroe
There are only a few good tennis movies, and this one is in that same stack of good but not great. This one does a solid job of showcasing the intense yet friendly rivalry between tennis superstars Bjorn Borg (played by Sverrir Gudnason) and John McEnroe (played by Shia LaBeouf) in the late 1970s, culminating in their match in the 1980 Men’s Singles Final at Wimbledon. The accuracy of the movie is in question as neither player was asked to be involved as advisors on the project, but if you are looking for a dramatized version of the events leading up to what is considered one of the greatest tennis matches in the history of the sport, and the lengths both men went to achieve greatness, then don’t miss out on this one.
6. Rush
If you like racing movies, there are more fun options like Days of Thunder and Talladega Nights, but if you are interested in realism, look no further than Rush, which is based on actual events. In the 1970s, British F1 driver James Hunt (played by Chris Hemsworth) and Austrian F1 driver Niki Lauda (played by Daniel Bruhl) were considered the best in the sport. While they were friends and roommates, they share a very fierce rivalry in the movie in reality. A near-tragic wreck in 1976 leaves Lauda severely burned and fighting for his life, and Hunt’s success in his absence motivates Lauda to expedite his recovery and get back in the car. It’s a great movie and very tense, in short, it’s the well-constructed thrilling racing drama that Driven desperately wanted to be, but Rush actually is.
5. Warrior
High school physics teacher Brendan (played by Joel Edgerton) is about to lose his house due to mounting debt from his daughter’s medical bills. After participating in an MMA fight to supplement his income, he is suspended without pay from teaching. To make ends meet, Brenden trains for the recently announced Sparta tournament, which will crown the best MMA fighter in the world and award the winner five million dollars. Brendan’s estranged brother and former US Marine Tommy enters the tournament as well, being sponsored by his local gym owner after he knocks out a top contender for the tournament in a sparring match. Tommy has promised to take care of the family of his friend and fallen soldier and needs the tournament winnings to do so. This movie does an outstanding job of showcasing awkward family dynamics that are often overlooked, the strength of youth in the community, and there is great build up to the final rounds where Brendan and Tommy show how tough they really are when literally everything is on the line.
4. Tin Cup
This movie often gets overlooked when considering the best sports movies. Still, it is such a fun underdog story with Kevin Costner essentially taking his Crash Davis role from Bull Durham and making that character a forgotten golf prodigy. After a chance run-in with his college teammate and rival, Roy McAvoy turns a one-time job as a caddie into a chance to play in the US Open. Roy “Tin Cup” ends up qualifying, and after an up and down first couple of rounds in the tournament, he has a chance at winning before letting his gunslinger antics get the best of him. On his final hole of the closing round, he manages to land one of the most memorable shots in fictional sports history. As Dr. Molly Griswold (played by Rene Russo) reminds Roy, no one will remember who won that tournament, but they will all remember Roy’s shot.
3. Cinderella Man
There are a lot of great boxing movies, and this is one of my favorites, even though most folks tend to forget about it. Based on actual events and the life of James J Braddock (played by Russell Crowe), the film starts by showing us Braddock’s early days as a pro boxer, when he was considered a young up and comer. Things turn quickly as the great depression starts, and Braddock and his family go from well off with money to spare to living in a one-bedroom basement apartment and Braddock’s career in doubt. Over the course of the movie, Braddock goes from out of work and unable to pay the electric bill to fighting for the heavyweight championship and getting his wife May (played exceptionally by Renee Zellweger) and their kids out of dire circumstances. It’s an outstanding movie and a great comeback story that most never saw coming.
2. The Legend Of Bagger Vance
There are many great golf movies, but how many make up their own local legend and pit them against two of the best golfers in the history of the sport? Add to that creating an outstanding character in Will Smith’s Bagger Vance, who is the best caddy and friend a pro golfer could ask for. Vance comes to Savannah, Georgia, to help to recover alcoholic and war hero Rannulph Junuh (played by Matt Damon) finds his lost golf swing. Bagger helps Junuh find his game again, and he enters a tournament being held at the local course against all-time greats Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen. The tournament is being put on by Adele (Junuh’s one-time romantic partner pre-war, played by Charlize Theron) to save her family’s fortune as the depression has lost them almost everything. In a back and forth tournament, following Beggar’s amazing advice, Junuh more than holds his own and even has a chance to win toward the end of the final round. The film ends on a bit of a low note, as the tournament ends in a tie, but we all get to be spectators for one of the best tournaments that never happened.
- A League Of Their Own
This title usually makes it onto most people’s favorite movies lists but often gets left off the list of greatest sports movies. While the story is fictional, the events it is based on are very real. During World War II, with many of baseball’s top names fighting overseas, league owners decided to start the AAGPBL (All-American Girls Professional Baseball League) to keep pro baseball going. In the movie, Chicago Cubs owner Walter Harvey (played by Gary Marshall) tasks Ira Lowenstein (played by David Strathairn) with forming and managing the new league. Baseball scout Ernie Capadino (played by Jon Lovitz) travels to rural Oregon to look for talented players to send to the league tryouts. He recruits sisters and dairy farm heirs Dottie Hinson (played by Geena Davis) and Kit (played by Lori Petty) and takes them on a train to Chicago, where the tryouts will be held. Along the way, they pick up slugger Marla Hooch (played by Megan Cavanagh) and head to tryouts, where they meet Mae Mordabito (played by Madonna) and Doris Murphy (played by Rosie O’Donnell. All four talented players are drafted by the Rockford Peaches and set out to compete for the league title under their poor mannered and alcoholic manager, former MLB great Jimmy Dugan (played by Tom Hanks). The exchanges between Hanks and Davis are worth the price of admission alone. Still, there are so many hilarious moments along the way in this All-American heartwarming story that breaks so many barriers at once. The major strike against this movie is that while it takes place in the midwest and south of America in the 1940s, the filmmakers chose to ignore a critical issue that a league formed around women did not allow participation from African-American women, nor did they show how African-American women were treated at the stadiums. An upcoming Amazon series with the same title plans to resolve this issue and expose other overlooked harsh truths of the era and, more importantly, the AAGPBL.
