Marty Michaels

Greetings, sports fans and welcome to comawhite.com. Enough of that. When it comes to sports, I’m generally not a fan. True, I work for the Scottish Wrestling Alliance and I love wrestling, but as for 90% of other sports, I can take or leave them. That said, sports movies are a different story. There’s nothing that gets me fired up more than a good sports movie – of course, I draw the line at actuallt going out and playing the sport in question, but living vicariously through the star of the movie is always fun. In any case, let’s have a looksee at the top ten sports movies. Onward!

10. BEYOND THE MAT (1999)/WRESTLING WITH SHADOWS (1998)

Coming out of the blocks first on today’s list is a head-to-head tie of two wrestling documentaries. Beyond the Mat is perhaps the better known of the two films and is one of those rare documentaries that can engage people who are not fans of the subject in hand. Wrestling With Shadows, on the other hand, is somewhat more specialised, following the last few months of Bret “Hitman” Hart’s tenure in the WWE (then called the WWF). For my money, Wrestling With Shadows is the better film, but they both deserve a place.

9. WHEN WE WERE KINGS (1996)

The last documentary on our list, When We Were Kings follows Muhammed Ali and George Foreman as they prepare for their classic “Rumble in the Jungle.” The documentary is a bit biased towards Ali, as was everyone in the country in which the fight was being held due to Ali’s manipulation of his image (setting himself up as a man “returning to his homehand” and immersing himself in African culture, unlike the quiet and aloof Foreman), but it remains a fascinating look at a historic bout.

8. THE HUSTLER (1961)

This list might be a bit biased towards the sports I enjoy watching. In fact, there’s no two ways about it considering that we’ve so far had two movies about wrestling, one about boxing and now one about that most manly of manly persuits, playing pool. An classic beyong dispute with Paul Newman as “Fast” Eddie, a poolshark who takes on Jackie Gleason’s Minnesota Fats. Taking place in brilliantly smoky pool halls and seedy bars, The Hustler was revisited in Martin Scorsese’s The Colour of Money in which Paul Newman reprised his role as “Fast” Eddie.

7. ROCKY IV (1985)

Moving from realistic movies and documentaries to the realm of sports fantasy, we find the first of four movies starring Sylvester Stallone on the list. After winning the world title from Apollo Creed and then losing it (only to win it back) from Clubber Lang, Rocky Balboa, the street bum made good, takes it upon himself to end the Cold War by fighting the evil Russian git Ivan Drago. Is it a masterpeice of cinema? No. Is it subtle? Like a brick. Is it rabble rousing nonsense of the highest order. Hell yeah. And that’s why it’s awesome.

6. CADDYSHACK (1980)

Take one part Chevy Chase in his prime, one part Bill Murray playing a dangerous lunatic and one part Rodney Dangerfield being Rodney Dangerfield, mix well with a comedy gopher and add a pool scene in which a Mars bar is mistaken for a turd and what do you have? The best movie ever made about the usually tame and frankly boring game of golf. The antics of the Animal House crew transplanted to an upmarket golf club, Caddyshack is one of the all time greatest comedy movies. Bill Murray plays against type as a borderline retard and Chevy Chase plays Fletch with a four iron and a strange muppet gopher causes chaos. It sounds strange on paper, but on celluloid it was brilliant.

5. ROCKY BALBOA (2006)

Two Stallone movies down and two to go. It’s interestting to note that public opinion character of Rocky in the first and last films mirrors the public perception of Stallone at the time the film was made. When Rocky came out in 1976, Stallone and Rocky were no-hopers both – Rocky would never go the distance with Creed and Stallone would never become an actor. Flashforward to 2006 and both Rocky and Sly are has-beens destined to while away their days in obscurity. Both times, they proved everybody wrong. In ’76 Rocky held his own against Creed and Stallone became one of the biggest stars of all time; in 2006 Rocky went the distance with Dixon and Stallone became a bankable star again. Replacing the jingoism and unintentional self parody of Rockies IV and V with the heart and hopefulness of the original film, Rocky Balboa the movie, like Rocky Balboa the man is full of heart and impossible to resist.

4. ESCAPE TO VICTORY (1981)

Football. That inexplicably popular game loved by millions and hated by me. Well, that’s a bit harsh. I love the World Cup, but league football? I’ve got no time for it. Now, Escape to Victory is not a film that the critics love, quite the opposite in fact: Barry Norman called it “rubbish.” But what do those guys know? The story of a football match set up as a propganda excersise by the Nazis between the German national team and a ragtag group of multi-national POWs, Escape to Victory is one of those films that gets the blood flowing and the fist pumping. Stallone (him again?) is top billed as the goalie, but it’s Michael Caine’s movie as the team captain who leads a team of actors and real football players to… I won’t spoil the ending. Max Von Sydow turns in a surprisingly sympatheic performance as a Nazi officer and former Sherlock Holmeses Clive Merrison and Tim Piggot-Smith as well as a dubbed Anton Diffring round out the cast. Oh, and watch out for Pele’s awesome goal in the final minutes.

3. THE WRESTLER (2008)

“You’ve seen me, I come and stand at every door; you’ve seen me, I always leave with less than what I had before; you’ve seen me, but I can make you smile when the blood hits the floor – tell me friend, can you ask for anything more?” Bruce Springsteen’s song for The Wrestler sums up the film better than I ever could. The story of Randy “The Ram” Robinson, an ageing wrestler (based loosely, it seems, on Jake “The Snake” Robers) struggling to find his place in a world that has forgotten him. Ekeing out a living on the independent circuit for twenty bucks a night, all Randy wants is one last run; one final moment of glory. His only friend is an equally past her best stripper and he is estranged from his daughter, Randy concinves a promoter to set up one final match against his old nemesis. The ending is simultaneously ambiguous and heartbreaking. After years of ridicule and abuse, The Wrestler brought a modicum of respect to the professional wrestling business. And for that if nothing else, I will always love it.

2. RAGING BULL (1980)

The only movie on this list that isn’t really “about” the sport it depicts, Raging Bull is less about the sportsman and more about the man. A biopic based on the (ghostwritten) memoirs of “The Bronx Bull” Jake La Motta, the film starts with La Motta in his prime, winning the world title and then depicting his slow descent into oblivion. Famously putting on a massive amount of weight to transform himself from the slim and hard-bodied young prizefighter to the bloated and corpulent figure La Motta became, Robert DeNiro turns in a remarkable performance, backed up by Joe Peschi, Frank Vincent and the remarkable Cathy Moriarty as La Motta’s wife Vickie. DiNero, an actor never less than charasmatic, makes La Motta – a wife beating, cheating, fight throwing asshole – seem sympathic and at times likeable. Martin Scorsese’s assured direction and the editing of Thelma Schoonmaker make Raging Bull a classic and fully deserving of the plaudits that it has earned.

1. ROCKY (1976)

Say what you like about the man, but Sylvester Stallone knows how to make a good sports movie. Beating Taxi Driver at the 1976 Oscars, Rocky is, quite simply a perfect movie. There are certain films that I can watch over and over and never get bored of them – The Adventures of Robin Hood, Casblanca, The Empire Strikes Back, The Spy Who Loved Me, Star Trek II - but top of this list is Rocky. The story of a bum from Philly who’s “whole life was a million to one shot” who is given a shot at the champ Apollo Creed. Rocky and his trainer Mickey – career best from Burgess “The Penguin” Meredith – train their way through the most famous montage in the history of cinema (ending, of course, with a triumphant sprint up the steps of the Phillidelphia Art Museum) and Rocky, a man who knows he can’t win the fight – goes the distance with Apollo and lasts all 15 rounds. Along the way, he finds love with the mousy sister of his best friend and walks away from the fight the loser, but not *a* loser. I’m convinced that it’s not physically possible to watch Rocky and not root for the Itallian Stallion. At the end of the movie, as Rocky stands in the ring crying out for the woman he loves, many a manly tear has been shed, not only by me, but by anyone with even an ounce of heart – something both Rocky and this film have in abundance.

Like I said in the intro, I’m not much of a sports fan, which explains the amount of boxing and wrestling movies on this list, but my site = my list = my picks. Annoyed about the lack of Kevin Costner baseball films? let me know your picks below. But that’s all for now, sports fans, join us next time for either the top ten movies everybody except me loved or the top ten movies with single word titles – I can’t decide which one to do first. End transmission.

Tags: movies, sequels, sports, top ten