Sporting Oscars

As I sit here watching the Oscars, it makes me think of all the great sports movies out there.  Only a handful of sports movies have actually won Oscars (including three Best Pictures), but there are so many others that are rewarded with nothing more than cult status.  So, I decided to have some fun and present my own Sports Oscars.

I don't have awards for things like acting or directing or writing.  Rather, my I'm putting baseball movies against baseball movies, football movies against football movies, etc.  The only exception is the documentary category.

Documentary: O.J. Made In America-There have been some really great sports documentaries that have won Oscars.  When We Were Kings and One Day In September were both extraordinary.  But they pale in comparison to O.J. Made In America.  An exquisite piece of film making, it packs a lot into five parts and 10 hours.  And I don't think there's a single moment during those 10 hours that drags.  Every award it received was well-deserved.

Baseball Drama: Eight Men Out-The baseball movie is a cinematic staple, so I'm dividing it into two categories (I could even do three if I wanted to have a Kevin Costner baseball movie subcategory).  And for Drama, I'm going with what's still one of my favorite all-time movies.  The true story of the 1919 Black Sox throwing the World Series.  What I love so much about this movie is how it succeeds in putting the players (at least some of them) in a sympathetic light, even if their actions were reprehensible.

Baseball Comedy: A League of Their Own-This was a tight battle with Bull Durham and Major League.  But A League of Their Own gets the nod here.  This movie was originally intended to be a tribute to the women who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.  It's turned into a beloved classic full of oft-repeated Tom Hanks one-liners.

Basketball: Hoosiers-Is there really any other choice?  There have been some other quality basketball pictures through the years (Glory Road and The Basketball Diaries come to mind), but none are on the level of Hoosiers.  It's the standard by which all basketball movies are measured for a reason.

Boxing: Raging Bull-Both Rocky and Million Dollar Baby both won Best Picture, but I'd argue that Raging Bull was the superior film of the three.  DeNiro won Best Actor for his portrayal of Jake LaMotta in the signature role of his career.  Rocky is great and has spawned a franchise that is now eight movies strong (and counting).  But Raging Bull is widely considered one of the greatest films ever made, and it's hard to disagree.

Football: Remember the Titans-Another sport that can be divided into subcategories.  It could be drama/comedy.  It could be college/high school/pro.  But I decided to just stick with one category.  And my choice in the football category is Remember the Titans.  There are plenty of other worthwhile football selections going all the way back to Knute Rockne: All-American.  I'm partial to Remember the Titans, though.

Golf: Caddyshack-Three great golf comedies.  Any one of them could've been selected here.  And you wouldn't be wrong to go with Happy Gilmore or Tin Cup.  Neither one of them is Caddyshack, though.  That was the original.  And just take a second to think about that cast full of comedy legends.  All in an incredibly stupid movie with such a dumb premise.  Which is what makes it great.  Cinderella Story!

Hockey: Miracle-Like Hoosiers, this one is a no-brainer.  In any list of the greatest sports movies ever across all sports and all genres, Miracle is right there at the top.  Everything about this movie is perfect.  The casting they got exactly right.  They told a true story with nearly every detail historically accurate.  And they captured the emotion that everyone felt in that moment.  Which, by the way, is one of the greatest moments in American sports history.

Horse Racing: Seabiscuit-Pardon the pun, but this one is really a two-horse race.  Which is funny, because Seabiscuit and Secreteriat came out right around the same time.  Secreteriat gets the sappy Disney treatment, though, so that brings it down a notch.  Seabiscuit is the better picture regardless.  That's why it got a Best Picture nomination, which, as we've already established, is rare for a sports movie.

Olympics: Chariots of Fire-An Olympic movie is tough.  Which is why there haven't been many great ones over the years.  Race has recently entered the conversation, but Chariots of Fire is still the gold standard in the genre.  It was just the second sports movie after Rocky to win Best Picture.  This movie has its critics (there are plenty of people who hate it and think it's boring), but there are plenty of others who think it's a masterpiece.  Put me in that category.  Plus, that iconic music.

Auto Racing: Days of Thunder-Let's be honest, most movies featuring auto racing are really stupid, not very good, or both.  Take all 35 Fast and the Furious movies, for example.  Days of Thunder is neither of those things, So, it rises to the top of what is really a pretty shallow candidate pool.  It gets bonus points for being the only good Tom Cruise & Nicole Kidman movie, and more bonus point for bringing NASCAR into the mainstream.

International Sports: Invictus-Bringing it full circle to the documentary thing, we have Invictus, a movie that you'd be forgiven for thinking IS a documentary.  It's the story of Nelson Mandela, aka Morgan Freeman, and his role in using the 1995 Rugby World Cup to unite black and white South Africans.  It's so much more than just a sports movie.  And it sends a beautiful message about how sports can bring people together.

Note that there are several sports missing from this list.  There's a reason for that.  Can you name a tennis movie or a soccer movie?  Any tennis or soccer movie!  It doesn't need to be good.  Wimbledon.  That's all I've got.  So, there's still plenty of room for a filmmaker who wants to do a sports movie to make his mark on the genre.