Can you recall a sports movie that they were truly inspired by? For instance like Rudy, Rocky, Miracle, Remember the Titans, 42, ect.
Well there is a reason those movies are known to be inspiring, not only for the acting, but the athleticism of the actors portraying the athletes in their individual sport.
Sports films have often been pushed to the side as the most forgettable movies, and for good reason as it is hard for actors to recreate historical sports moments.
The movies that are listed seem to be the most recognized, I mean come on how can no one like Rocky with his training scenes.
Sports scenes are often over-edited, making it look funky, or having some type of CGI to make the actor or actress look athletic.
Directors or filmmakers of these movies often look more for the acting than the athleticism of the characters since it is still a movie, and not really looking for players.
In the movie “Full Count,” it was showing the main character playing catch with his dad as a kid. He was throwing with his left hand at first then the camera did a full circle which showed the main character in his teens throwing with his right hand instead.
There was so much confusion, and to make matters worse is whenever they did a scene of the actor throwing the ball they had made the ball CGI.
Imagine watching a computer generated ball for half of the movie.
It was unwatchable, since in the movie he was recognized as the greatest pitcher in the state of Texas, but played like a little leaguer.
But not everyone can play a sport and act in a movie.
A actor that has remarkable recognition for being both a great athlete and actor is Kevin Costner. Directors have said that he was a marvelous ball player and all around great athlete.
There is also another reason why sports movies are difficult to make, all of them have the same plot.
The same plot for your standard sports film has to show the character be the hero, making them the underdog in the beginning, have them face adversity, and then in the end become the hero.
This is your classic fairy-tale but with more than 50 sports movies it could get repetitive to see since you know how the film is going to end.
Then what do you need to have for your hero in a sports film? Well you need a villain, like Johnny Lawrence from “Karate Kid” or the Soviet Union hockey team in “Miracle”.
It is the same script for many sports films, but again many sports fans have a movie they will always cherish no matter how others may think of it.
In total if you were to look at a sports movie that had won an Oscar for best motion picture that would be only three movies which is “Rocky,” “Chariots of Fire” and “Million Dollar Baby”.
