Madness at the movies: How Hollywood has embraced sports
If anything has the power to draw us away from the endless stream of television and cinematic entertainment, it’s a healthy dose of sports.
Although Syracuse University was knocked out of the NCAA Tournament on Friday, you can still get your sports fix on the silver screen.
And when these two spheres of sports and cinema collide, we’re left with some of the most entertaining and exciting movies — movies that combine all the beauty of storytelling with the intense thrills of sports.
I think we love sports films not for the sports, but for the players. If you asked if I’ve seen that movie about the “down-and-out coach who forms an unlikely companionship with an ad hoc team of misfits who go on to win the championship,” we may never narrow down the exact movie you’re referring to. Sports movies typically have a similar formula for production.
It’s the unique players that fascinate us.
The natural struggles of sports inherently create some of the most intriguing storylines. Sports narratives are about the youthful underdogs, the aging veterans and everyone in between. No series captures these tales better than ESPN’s “30 for 30.”
“30 for 30” is an umbrella title for a large catalog of documentary films highlighting various people and events in sports history. Some of the best installments include “I Hate Christian Laettner,” the story of the polarizing big-man for the Duke Blue Devils; “The Price of Gold,” which follows the scandal behind Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan in the 1994 Olympic Winter Games; and “Muhammad and Larry,” which details the preparations for legendary boxer Muhammad Ali’s last attempt to reclaim his World Heavyweight title.
Sports are surprisingly romantic, so it’s obvious why their beauty has been brought to the silver screen on more than one occasion. I think these documentaries are fantastic. But I can’t help but notice their limitations.
Hollywood has given basketball the least amount of respect out of all major sports. Films such as “Above the Rim,” “Coach Carter” and “Semi-Pro” are all great, but they’re not Oscar winners by any stretch of the imagination.
So what’s the greatest basketball flick ever made? It really only comes down to two movies. I believe I’ve narrowed it down to the very best one, but the runner-up deserves just as much recognition as the winner.
“Space Jam” is great. Not often did a superstar in one field of work make the successful transition into the entertainment world, but our boy Michael Jordan looked like he fit right into Bugs Bunny’s universe. Any film that brought us the song “I Believe I Can Fly” should be appreciated until the end of time — a truly magical moment in the history of cinema.
But I’m saving the best for last, a film that I think captures what it means to commit oneself to a sport, or to anything for that matter. “Hoosiers” is about choosing to hand over your life to a game. I think “Hoosiers” connects so deeply because its message is so potent: If you want something, you need to live with it every second of your life, or someone else will take the prize.
The film doesn’t preach this idea, though — it shows it. Like all good films, instead of sitting on the sidelines explaining what it takes to be great, we are out on the court with the players. In the rain and snow, six members of a small high school in Indiana overcome adversity and defy the expectations of an entire town.
Rotten Tomatoes said of the film, “It may adhere to the sports underdog formula, but Hoosiers has been made with such loving craft, and features such excellent performances, that it’s hard to resist.” I couldn’t have said it better myself.
This is how sports and cinema fit together. They both intrigue the mind in different ways, and when they work together it’s just another example of pure movie magic.
Michael O’Connor is a freshman television, radio and film major. His column appears biweekly. He can be reached at moconn03@syr.edu