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This Weekend’s Film Festival Celebrates Five Underrated Sports Movies

With the underrated sports film, PERSONAL BEST, arriving on DVD for the first time last week, it seemed like a good time to look at other overlooked sports films. There are many best sports movie lists to be found online and most have HOOISERS, BULL DURHAM, FIELD OF DREAMS, HOOP DREAMS, RUDY, BRIAN'S SONG, JERRY MAGUIRE or RAGING BULL near the top. Three boxing films have won Oscars — ROCKY and MILLION DOLLAR BABY for best picture and WHEN WE WERE KINGS for best documentary. CHARIOTS OF FIRE, another sports movie, won the best picture Oscar as well. MURDERBALL, about hardcore wheelchair rugby players, was nominated a few years ago. All these films are very good to great films, but the five films in this week's lineup deserve to be in their ranks. The closing film is actually my favorite sports movie.

With a title like FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, I felt it was a fitting film for the Friday night slot in This Weekend's Film Festival. Considering I said in my original review, "This film is the best film I’ve ever seen about high school football. Actually it’s the best film I’ve seen about football period. It’s also a close second to HOOSIERS for the best high school sports movie as well" — I feel this should be a bigger hit than it was upon its release in 2004. Billy Bob Thornton gives a nuanced performance as Gary Gaines, the coach of the Permian High School football team. In their town, football is everything and the young players are put under a great deal of pressure to succeed. This is the kind of film that makes one even question whether 17-year-olds are allowed to play the game "just for the fun of it." Based on a true story, the film from director Peter Berg is able to use the conventions of the genre to build typical tension, but throws in twists to make us rethink everything we've seen before. Though it wasn't a box office hit, it had enough respect in the industry to inspire a TV series, which was overlooked as well. Sports fans should not miss this one, because it captures the ups and downs of competing like no other sports film has done before.

Having inspired this week's lineup, PERSONAL BEST kicks off the Saturday double header. Mariel Hemingway stars as a young hurdler who develops a lesbian relationship with pentathlete Tory Skinner, played by real-life pentathlete Patrice Donnelly. Tory convinces her high-pressure coach Terry Tingloff, played wonderfully by Scott Glenn, to train Chris, who advances to the level of the pentathlon. This creates an additional emotional punch to the women's relationship, as well as to the film's look at high-level competitive sports. Later champion swimmer/ water polo player Denny Stites (played by former Olympic runner Kenny Moore) puts another wedge between Chris and Tory. As I stated in my original review, "The most interesting topic the film tackles is why athletes need to overcome being 'the best.'" Director Robert Towne, who is best known for writing CHINATOWN, not only makes a frank film about homosexuality, but a deep film about what motivates athletes. With so many real-life athletes in the production there seems to be an honesty that spills over the whole story. This underrated sports movie does what all standout genre films do; creates original characters to bring fresh focus to plot conventions.

The Academy has a record of overlooking great basketball documentaries. HOOP DREAMS isn't an Oscar nominee, let alone an Oscar winner? Last year, they missed another very good basketball documentary, THE HEART OF THE GAME. This sports flick focuses on the Roosevelt High School girls' basketball team over several years, starting with the first year Bill Resler came to coach the team. Its central team player is the very talented Darnellia Russell, whose pregnancy jeopardizes her basketball future. As I said in my original review, "GAME puts basketball at the center. This is a stylistic choice, which transforms this documentary into one of the best inspirational sports movies I’ve seen in years." It gives us characters we care about and puts their dreams in peril via personal missteps and societal hurdles. The injustice that is thrust on Darnellia is classic inspiring material. It being true only makes it more emotionally engaging. When it comes to her coach, I said of him, "Whether he lead them to championships or helped them get college sports scholarships, on the simplest level, the girls are better off having had him as a mentor in life."

Starting off the Sunday lineup is a sports movie about sports fans. Matt Buckner, played by an unlikely Elijah Wood, goes to stay with his sister in England, where he gets caught up in the soccer firm of his sister's brother-in-law Pete, played hard as nails by Charlie Hunnam. These firms are gangs by another name. A point I made in my original review was that the film distinguishes itself because "It doesn’t downplay the rush and camaraderie that draws members to join, but ends on the pointlessness and consequences of not knowing when enough is enough." Matt turns out to be a stronger man when the film ends, but was the cost worth it? Director Lexi Alexander shows us how obsession around sports teams allows fans to touch a bit of the immortality that their favorite teams attain. Along with good performances from Wood and Hunnam, Claire Forlani gives the best performance of her career as Wood's successful sister. In finding an unexpected conduit into this world, GREEN STREET HOOLIGANS creates an unforced drama that explains "why groups of men would chose to beat the crud out of each other as a hobby."

Though I found it on both ESPN's and Moviefone's Best Sports Movies of All Time lists, BREAKING AWAY didn't rank higher than 14th. Despite winning an Oscar for its screenplay and earning four additional nominations including best picture, this cycling movie does not have the recognition that lesser sports films like CADDYSHACK even have. One could blame it on the sport, which isn't as popular as golf or baseball or dozens of other sports. But what wider audiences are missing is a film about the desire and need for competition in life, because sometimes it can level social playing fields. Dave Stoller, played wonderfully by David Christopher, is obsessed with the Italian cycling team and often goes around speaking in Italian. He lives in Bloomington, Indiana where his father, played hilariously by Paul Dooley, is a former stonecutter and now sells used cars. Dave and his friends (which are played by Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern and Jackie Earl Haley) live in the shadow of the kids attending the university. Dave's father thinks his son is a bit off, while his caring mother, played by Barbara Barrie in an Oscar nominated performance, knows something about having dreams. Oscar nominated director Peter Yates, who also helmed BULLITT, knows how to pace action and he brings those skills to this film's race scenes. The story intelligently deals with the unfairness of life, the value of honesty and hard work, and how obsessions sometimes form to hide harsh realities. As I mentioned in my original review, "The Australian tagline is 'Somewhere between growing up and settling down…' and that’s exactly what the film is about. It’s an underrated classic."

So it's that time again to either tell me what you think or get the rental queue ready for five solid sports flicks. Other options of course are heading to your local video store or checking out Zap2It.com for TV listings.

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Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks