Sports movies and race/class
 

With all the commercials for the new Terence Howard/Tom Arnold swimming movie, it got me thinking, what sports haven't they made a movie about that isn't based around race/class?

Baseball: Bad News Bears (more class than race)
Basketball: Glory Road (Race)
Football: Remember the Titans (race)
Hockey: The Mighty Ducks (more class than race)
Swimming: that new Terence Howard movie
Cheerleading: Bring it on (race)
Horse Racing: ? (Seabiscuit?)
Gymnastics: ?
Soccer: ? (Victory?)
Golf: ? (Happy Gilmore?)
Boxing: Rocky (race/class)
Tennis: ?
Curling: ?
Polo: ?
Karate: Karate Kid (class)
Mixed Martial Arts: Bloodsport (race)

If you were a movie producer, what race/class based sports movie would you greenlight next?

We're calling swimming a sport?

how about, athletic event

getting really old, really fast.

thats how i feel about it anyway.

Remember the Titans was a dam good flick, im just getting sick of race based movies in general.

Karate Kid.

Soccer - When saturday comes (class), Goal! (race/class), Who's Jimmy Grimble (class)

PS> If you're a soccer fan I'd recommend all three - they're corny but good. For added bias:

When Saturday comes - centers around Sheff Utd
Goal! - centers around Newcastle
Who's Jimmy - centers around Man City

Hockey - Maurice Richard ("race" or "class")

Soccer:
Shoalin Soccer (class)

Basketball:
Coach Carter (more class than race)
Finding Forrester (more class than race) - You the man now dawg!
Hoosiers (class ?)

Football:
Brian's Song (race)

My buddy was a tennis coach at Jordan high school which is predominantly black. He's as cracker as they come, so we've talked for a while of making our own movie titled...

Forty Love!

Soccer: Bend it like Beckham: Race/Religion

football: Wildcats: Gender.

I'm half tempted to write a screenplay based on my high school tennis coach and team. It'd be a lot better than Remember The Titans in the pool..

How could you forget Cool Runnings!?

Why the "?" ? I am sure this movie was all about Class. From the owner, to the jockey this movie was all about people from the wrong side of the track trying to compete against the upper class.


I would also question this one. The only race problem Frank Dux had in the movie is when he showed up at the tournament and tried to represent the Tanaka clan. Other than that the show didn't seem to have any bias towards anyone's race.


BTW Do not try to look this tournament or Frank Dux up on the internet, you will not like what you find.

Rugby League: This Sporting Life (class)

Boxing: The Great White Hope (race)

Cycling: Breaking Away (town vs. gown)

This is totally incorrect. No Sheff Utd, Newcastle, or ManCity players or supporters have any class!:)

How is Gymkata classified?

As one of the worst movies ever conceived, sports or otherwise ;)

Baseball: Eight Men Out (class)
Basketball: Hoop Dreams (race/class)
Boxing: Cinderella Man (class???)
Golf: Caddyshack (class)

I saw Goal! 2 announced yesterday, this time the player moves from Newcaste to R.Madrid. There he starts to play with fame, women, parties etc. The nice thing is that it was recorded in the real R.Madrid stadium and sports facilities, and the team mates are the real football players, Beckam, R.Carlos, Raul etc. Should be fun to watch.

Dola, more on on the thread subject, I love all the sports movies, but I agree that they are getting old, it's always the same, from the bottom to the top with a happy ending.

Something i really hate are the comebacks to end winning in the last second. For example in the serie Friday night lights, i love the TV show but why do they need to win always in the last second while showing the scoreboard clock counting down?? One time is already tiresome, but on every game? come on.

After Glory Road, I just find it difficult to enjoy movies that are "based on true events." While I was ecstatic that Texas Western finally got their story told in a format that enabled the entire country to learn about them, some of the BS they injected into the film really turned me off. Now whenever I see a preview for a movie that's based on true events, I roll my eyes and wonder how much of it is really true...

Sports movies without a happy ending....

Bang the Drum slowly
Brian's Song
Bad News Bears (redemption, but they lost)
This Sporting Life


Any others? Not many, I'd venture...

Basketball-

FastBreak(class/Race/gender)--Gabe Kaplan's having a ball! - His dream team's got a preacher, a jailbird, a pool shark, a muscleman. And the best guy on the team is a girl

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079136/

Well, if you will name the Bad News Bears because they lost in the end, then "Rocky" definately qualifies and "Friday Night Lights" as well.

I guess you could call Ladybugs gender for soccer.

What was that baseball movie with Keanu Reeves pretty recently. I believe that was race/class as well.

Bagger Vance (both)? - Never saw it, but I think it's got both in it. Golf

If you want to stretch gayness into race/class, then this is your gymnastics flick.

YEah, you could also add Any Given Sunday to that kind of list too. Also, Tin Cup. There are a lot close but no cigar sports movies.

The movie was ass, more ass than #1

Hardball

Field of Dreams? Bull Durham?

Both happy endings:

Costner gets his Dad at the end of the first, gets Susan Sarandon at the end of the second.

When i saw Field of dreams, I cried. When I saw the end of Bull Durham, I thought, "Lucky b*stard."

At the end of the story that the film The Natural is based on, the hero strikes out , loses his family , and becomes a national disgrace. Needless to say, the story was a satire of American sports hype and legend.

The film was just a melodrama. Shame, that.

Million Dollar Baby is not a particularly happy ending.

Raging Bull - Probably the best sports movie ever. Maybe you could make a case for it being a "class" based movie. But really all boxing is lower class, so it really is not a class struggle thing.

Slap Shot - Greatest sports comedy.

On the original topic, I was thinking "The Replacements" was a class based football movie. The striking football pros being rich, snotty types and the scrubs being ordinary joes (Go Falco!! Yeah, the movie was cheesy and all, but I still love it ;)).

How about North Dallas Forty? Not exactly a happy ending.

Shane "Footsteps" Falco

Mystery, Alaska didn't have a "happy ending" I guess.

So, to summarize: It's OK to make a movie where the bad guy is either white or rich (preferably both), but underprivileged minorities can't be cast as evil, because even if they're antagonistic, they're just victims of circumstance.

Bonus points are awarded if your movie portrays America, Christianity, and capitalism in a negative light as well, because at this point, the only thing it's OK to hate is everything this country was founded upon.

And how many instances in sports of oppressed rich white guys, held down by the yoke of evil underprivileged minorities, are there?

America was founded as a Christian country?

My US constitution includes this in its first amendment:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;

Does yours?

You're missing the point. There are plenty of instances of ordinary middle-class white guys achieving athletic greatness, but nobody cares for that sort of "hero."


I love the revisionist argument that attempts to make America an atheist nation.

Who founded America, and why did they come here in the first place? It's not like the Pilgrims came over on the Mayflower because they wanted to practice Godless Darwinism without fear of persecution.

If you don't think the US was founded on Christianity, I suggest you check the writing on the coins in your pocket along with what our laws are originally based on.


A lot of this is tied to America's love for the Underdog. Jeeber mentioned Glory Road and thats a great example. Hollywood took what was already a great story and turned it into some Remember the Titans underdog knockoff because thats what the masses enjoy and its what they expect to see in sports movies.

Invincible?
Karate Kid?
Bad News Bears?
Hoosiers?
Rocky?
Happy Gilmore?
Breaking Away?

Sports movies are chalk full of stories of "ordinary middle-class white guys achieving athletic greatness." I guess it depends slightly on your definition of "middle class".

Woe be to rich, white Christian men in America. The oppression they suffer day-in, day-out must be simply unbearable. What am I talking about? I was a relatively white Christian male in America before many years, I know first-hand just how difficult a road that is...

Do you think there will ever be a rich, white Christian president? Any successful rich, white Christian athletes in America? Businessmen? Oh dare to dream!!

Um, you're in the wrong thread. You must be looking for the one that discusses the "War on Christmas."

Please stop feeding his persecuted white christian male minority complex.

Who would pay to see a film about someone who achieves "greatness" without struggle against external factors? A story about a guy who wins who just trains hard and wins, while noble, is boring.



Maybe you do, but I did not say that. The USSR was an officially atheist nation, we are a secular nation.


The Pilgrims came here because they were being persecuted in a state which had an established, state Christian religion. You know, like the one a certain type of Christian would like to establish here.

This country was established by people who were Protestant (Anglicans, Methodists, Unitarians, Quakers, non-conformists) Catholic, Jewish, Deist, Free-mason, non-believers. It was established as secular because these folks remembered the persecution they and their ancestors faced in their countries of origin. Hence the first amendment.

What do you think the First Amendment means, anyway?