Sports Movies: Best of All Time

Over the course of time, there have been many great classic sports movies that have entertained us, inspired us, and presented great drama and fun. Narrowing down a list of sports movies to just a Top 10 might seem impossible, but that is what this feature is about.

Before embarking on the best movies about sports, let’s establish some rules of the game. In order to be considered for the list, the movie must fit into a broad interest sports category, as opposed to being about a niche sport. Baseball movies, football movies, basketball movies, hockey movies, and boxing movies were among those considered, while MMA Movies, as a niche, were not. These fit better in the action movies genre.

This list of sports movies includes films that included a predominately sports-related theme, and they were and are compelling, iconic, accurate, inspirational, and impacting. Other great movies about sports were left off the list that would have been ranked in one or more of these factors. Here are the top 10 sports movies of all time based on the combination of values, beginning with #10.

10. Miracle – You could all this the token hockey movie on the list since it hasn’t been around long enough to be considered a classic at this point, but the mere presentation of arguably the greatest sports story and sports moment in history makes for a good film plot. The movie is a bit lengthy, but it does a nice job presenting the behind the scenes development of a hockey team that started out with moderate talent, but eventually did the impossible by relying on heart.

9. Bull Durham – The acting was average, with Susan Surandon helping cover for Costner and Robbins. This movie offers a humorous charm because it is a unique story about the real sacrifice many baseball players have made, spending most of their careers making little money and racking up lots of miles. It highlights the intricacies of minor league baseball in a nostalgic way.

8. Remember the Titans – This movie is a classic as far as football movies go, because it offers both a motivating high school football story, and an intense cultural drama as well. Denzell Washington is great as the emotional and persistent leader of a football team in general that struggles with creating team chemistry in a community separated by hard racial lines.

7. Raging Bull – While many people think first of Rocky with regard to great boxing movies, for others, Raging Bull is the measuring stick for movies featuring boxing. Robert DeNiro delivers many classic movie lines in his portrayal of a great boxing champion who struggles to keep his life in order amidst drinking and emotional instability.

6. Jerry Maguire – Okay. Maybe its giving a bit too much credit to Tom Cruise and his ability to play a sports agent, but there was so much to love about this movie that brilliantly blended football movie and romantic comedy into one. This movie was the breakout party for Cuba Gooding Jr., and it is one of Renee Zelweger’s best performances. The movie is inspiring to any non-nuclear family who wants to create normalcy and for any single parent that wants to find love. It also features some of the all time great movie lines like “Show me the money” and “You had me at hello”.

5. Rudy – Perhaps no football movies have stirred the emotions of anyone whoever dreamed of gridiron glory than the true story of Rudy. Rudy’s only dream was to one day play football for Notre Dame. Despite being one of the smallest and definitely not the most talented players on his high school team, Rudy guaranteed his blue-collar working father and brothers that he would some day be on the Fighting Irish football team. His story is about perseverance, work ethic, determination, and heart.

4. Field of Dreams – It should be a crime to have two movies in a top 10 list of sports movies that featured Kevin Coster. How he garnered so many great roles is one of the all time mysteries of movies. This movie is an uplifting story about every boy’s dream of playing baseball and one day impressing his father. It also features one of the best classic movie lines of all time – “If you build it, he will come”.

3. Rocky – While there is a classic and constant debate among fans of boxing movies about which Rocky movie was really the best, if you have to honor would on a list of best sports movies, why not start at the beginning? Sylvester Stallone will rarely be listed among the best actors of all time, but he produced one of the best sports movie series’, in which he stars as Rocky Balboa, the street punk turned boxing champion.

2. Hoosiers - Gene Hackman is brilliant is the hard-nosed, and unabashed coach who comes to the small town of Hickory, Indiana, and leads the high school basketball team to a state championship against much larger schools. Among basketball movies, Hoosiers is iconic because it is a true story and a motivating tale of David and Goliath. There is also a bit of back-drama with Dennis Hopper playing the role of a local drunk with a brilliant basketball mind who is called upon to help out the team.

1. The Natural - While this Robert Redford classic may not measure up to some other sports movies with regard to cinematography and historical accuracy, it is the pinnacle of inspiring baseball movies. It is a sports movie that all athletes would be inspired by and Roy Hobbs lived the baseball dream that all players would aspire too. Of course, this movie offers plenty of drama as well, with love interests and bad men adding to the mix.

No doubt there are great sports movies left off this list. If you have others that you think are great or should have been honored, please add a comment and express yourself. Just realize that there is no right answer to naming the best sports movies of all time. These are simply ten that met the challenge based on the aforementioned criteria.

Best Sports Movies feature written by Neil of Movie Room Reviews

See also:

• Best Superhero Movies

Tags: best sports movies, sports movies