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The Ultimate Book of Sports Movies

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The Ultimate Book of Sports Movies

POSTED: Friday, September 18, 2009, 2:23 PM

Carrie Rickey, Film Critic

John Garfield (right) decks his opponent in "Body and Soul." More than 60 years after its 1947 release, it remains one of the most searing sports movies ever.

Sports mavens Ray Didinger and Glen Macnow have a new tome, The Ultimate Book of Sports Movies, which lives up to its immodest title. Opinionated, informative and fun, it's guaranteed to launch a million debates and twice as many movie memories in its ranking of the Top 100 sports flicks of all time. I won't tell you what their number one pick is, but it's a boxing film that is not Body and Soul (1947, pictured), the John Garfield-starring expose of corruption in the ring, which I would rank first and these sportsmen rank #18.

Among the book's many enjoyable huddles is their "All-Time Movie Football Team," which includes Burt Reynolds ( The Longest Yard )as quarterback, Cuba Gooding, Jr. (Jerry Maguire) as wide receiver and LL Cool J (Any Given Sunday )as running back. Their All-Movie-Star Baseball Team includes Kevin Costner (Bull Durham) as catcher, Michael Moriarty (Bang the Drum Slowly) as pitcher and Wesley Snipes (Major League) as outfielder.

Quibbles? Well, Geena Davis (A League of Their Own) is a pretty awesome catcher, but TOPOSM lists only four femme-centric titles -- including League -- in its Top 100. Guys will be guys. Smartly, they include documentaries like Hoop Dreams (#14) and When We Were Kings (#21). For me, the only glaring omission from their Top 100 is Personal Best. But it's their list, and it's pretty damned good. What's on yours?

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Comments (11)

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 3:28 PM, 09/18/2009

SLAP SHOT.

— garyk

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 4:01 PM, 09/18/2009

Semi-Tough and North Dallas Forty are both very good. And even though they're in a different genre (i.e., they don't seem like "sports movies"), you can learn a lot about figure skating from Ice Princess and The Cutting Edge. And, oddly, an appreciation of figure skating makes Blades Of Glory an even richer experience than it already is.

— ccjroberts

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 4:45 PM, 09/18/2009

My Top Ten Sports Movies: 1. Caddyshack 2. Slap Shot 3. Rocky 4. The Big Lebowski 5. Breaking Away 6. Raging Bull 7. Do You Believe In Miracles? 8. When We Were Kings 9. The Wrestler 10. Heaven Can Wait

— Roscoe

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 5:58 PM, 09/18/2009

my favorite baseball movie is the (original) bad news bears. that movie still holds up, afaic.

— eaglesfillthesky

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 6:37 PM, 09/18/2009

In no particular order (and in addition to those titles already cited), HARD, FAST & BEAUTIFUL; PAT & MIKE; THE SET-UP; ANGELS IN THE OUTFIELD; REMEMBER THE TITANS; MILLION-DOLLAR BABY; SOMEBODY UP THERE LIKES ME; and what the heck, BRIAN'S SONG.

— Nancy KC

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 7:01 PM, 09/18/2009

One sports movie that doesn't get nearly the credit it deserves is the great Without Limits about the runner Steve Prefontaine and starring Billy Crudup and Donald Sutherland. Since there were two films about Prefontaine around the same time, I think Robert Towne's film got lost, but it is great. I could care less about track as a sport, but the film involved me from beginning to end and deserved better than it got.

— edwardcopeland

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 10:50 PM, 09/18/2009

Well, guys, I believe each of your faves (with the exception of Hard, Fast & Beautiful -- a great tennis movie from Ida Lupino -- is mentioned in he Ultimate Book of Sports Movies.

— carrierickey

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 9:35 AM, 09/19/2009

North Dallas Fourty was a terrific sports film with a great performance by Nick Nolte

— romes666

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 4:29 PM, 09/20/2009

Oh, yeah--I forgot BANG THE DRUM SLOWLY, NATIONAL VELVET, CHARIOTS OF FIRE and FEAR STRIKES OUT.

— Nancy KC

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 5:57 AM, 09/21/2009

"Pride of the Yankees" actually won an Oscar.

— clarktacular

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 5:03 PM, 09/21/2009

I prefer sports movies that concentrate on humor, versus those that use sports as a crucible for revealing profound insights into the human condition via the medium of sweat. So I enjoy "The Best of Times" and "Necessary Roughness" and even Joe E. Brown's "Alibi Ike" probably more than I should, and I enjoy "Field of Dreams" and "Raging Bull" a lot less than I should. (Although I do love SCTV's "Jake Lamotta's 'Raging Bull-B-Q" sketch.) I do enjoy "Hoosiers" and "Glory Road," but these are fairly restrained historical re-creations that interest me because of the little moments in time they capture, and because of their nicely observed characterizations. By and large, both manage to avoid the male weepie genre that too many sports movies fall into. A virtually unknown movie that I recall liking very much is "Long Gone," an HBO movie from 1987 starring William L. Petersen and Virginia Madsen. Set in the pre-Jackie Robinson era of baseball, Petersen tries to sell the public on the idea that his great young African American player is actually Cuban. Funny, with some biting social commentary. Plus, it's worth seeing if only for the chance to hear Madsen drawl, "My name is Dixie...Lee...Boxx." (It's that second "x" that kills me.)

— wwolfe