ESPN is celebrating its 25th year on television. All year long they have been airing top 25 sports moments. Tonight I watched some of the show where they listed the 25 best sports movies of all time.
The top five were:
1) Hoosiers -- I agree, it has endured the longest as my favorite
2) Raging Bull -- great film, great performances
3) Field of Dreams -- a little too high on the cheese factor, but it made me cry
4) Bull Durham -- the best baseball film in my opinion
5) Caddyshack -- certainly the funniest sports movie of all time, but in the top five?
Some notable movies missing:
*Rocky -- this is a no-brainer folks; how could they miss this gem of a movie?
*Breaking Away -- no love for the bikers
*Hoop Dreams -- a fantastic documentary
*The Champ -- big time tear-jerker, certainly better than some on the list
*The Longest Yard -- the original football movie
*Knute Rockne - All American -- "Win just one for the Gipper"
*Brian Song -- made even the toughest football fans shed a tear
*The Hustler -- they DO show pool on ESPN
*One on One -- a great 70s basketball movie starring Robbie Benson
*Ice Castles -- OK, this one is a stretch, but I had a crush on Lynn Holly Johnson
*Endless Summer -- a classic of the surf film genre
*The Bad News Bears -- "never assume anything, because..." you know the rest
*Slapshot -- had to get a hockey one in
and isn't fishing a sport? What about A River Runs Through It?
That's all I could think of for now. I'm sure if I think of it longer, I'll come up with more. These were left off when films like Bend it Like Beckham and Searching for Bobby Fischer were included. Searching for Bobby Fischer was a very good movie, but should it make it over the likes of Rocky, Breaking Away or Hoop Dreams on a top 25 list for top sports movies?
Posted by Frank Yamada at July 1, 2004 08:28 AMMy fav is The Natural.
Posted by: justin at July 1, 2004 02:55 PMI love the Natural. It was #6 on ESPN's list. In my opinion, it is a much better sports movie than Caddyshack.
Posted by: Frank at July 1, 2004 05:14 PMI was just coming to ask about that! (^_^) The Natural is a favorite of ours, too. My brother would vote for Caddyshack, though-- he can quote the whole movie, I think.
Posted by: Jane Ellen at July 2, 2004 12:31 PMNo Brian's Song??? (The original, with James Caan and Billy Dee Williams.) They gotta be kidding.
re: Rocky it's clear from this article that people have connected with the movie.
Posted by: Wes at July 3, 2004 05:24 PMThe true irony of this is that Stewart Scott, who hosted the show, mentioned the 4 sequels without mentioning the movie Rocky before they went to commercial. As it happens, in the 7.14 issue of ESPN, the magazine, Stewart says that his favorite all-time sports movies are in this order... ROCKY, followed by Brian's Song.
Even ESPN's own staff ranked Rocky #2!
http://espn.go.com/page2/movies/s/top20/fulllist.html
Posted by: Jack at July 4, 2004 02:00 PMAh, I think I found the answer to our problem, i.e., why these movies were left off for the likes of Bend It Like Beckham. The page itself says, "The 25 Best Sports Movies," but the show itself (I saw some of it again) said, "The 25 Best Sports Movies of the Last 25 Years."
Of the list that I had, I think only two fit this criterion: Breaking Away (1979) and Hoop Dreams (1994). These are still big omissions. Rocky came out in 1976, I think. I agree that the Rocky sequels, esp. the later ones, weren't as good (though Rocky II and III weren't bad and both would qualify).
Posted by: Frank at July 4, 2004 03:31 PMWHAT?!? No "Happy Gilmore?" Best sports movie . . . EVER!
Posted by: Michelle at July 5, 2004 05:29 AM