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y favorite sports movies of all time. These were movies that moved me, made me laugh and cry, movies that sent me running out of the cinema to start training, movies that proved once again that sport can be a theatre for heroism, passion and the whole range of human emotion. My thoughts turned to sports movies in August when I visited the "Field of Dreams" in Dyersville, Iowa. In the words of Arnold Schwarzenegger, "Field of Dreams" is a film that makes strong men cry." Flying home I compiled a list, not of the most critically acclaimed movies with a sporting theme, but of the sports movies which got inside my mind and have stayed there.

1. FIELD OF DREAMS     Directed by Phil Robinson     BASEBALL
   

   Long before the movie, I loved the short story by BC based writer Bill Kinsella called "Shoeless Joe Comes to Iowa". He was encouraged to expand this into his first full-length novel which he titled just "Shoeless Joe". I felt the novel was too sensitive and lacking in action ever to make the transition to film. There was no sex, no violence, no crime and no car chases, just a gentle fantasy about a man who loved baseball and his family.

But Hollywood stayed true to the spirit of the book and the movie was released in 1989.

"Field of Dreams" gave birth to some phrases that are now embedded in everyday speech. None is more famous than, "If you build it, they will come" and, as so often happens, life imitates art and fantasy becomes fact, as everyday hundreds of people come to the "Field of Dreams" to hit a baseball, and just maybe, have a game of catch with their dad.

The script of the movie is anchored in reality, featuring famous names such as Shoeless Joe Jackson, who was implicated in the 1919 Chicago White Sox betting scandal, although in the games in question he was errorless and batted over .370. This gave birth to another catch phrase when a boy asked him about the corruption by saying, "Say it ain't so, Joe." Jackson is said to have replied, "Afraid it is, kid." Even the character of Moonlight Graham, played so exquisitely by Bert Lancaster, was as saintly as his "too good to be true" portrait in the movie.

He was the school doctor for the town of Chisholm, Minnesota and pioneered mandatory blood pressure screening for children in a 13-year study. Doc Graham was legendary for making sure the poor children in town had enough money for sports equipment or an affordable treat. He is buried in Chisholm where the Doc Graham memorial Scholarship Fund still helps provide for the children of the town.

In 1990, "Field of Dreams" was nominated for an Oscar as Best Picture, but lost out to "Driving Miss Daisy". In my opinion, Kevin Costner has never been able to replicate the quality of performance he gave as Ray Kinsella, which the creator of the story, Bill Kinsella, said was "perfect".

2. CHARIOTS OF FIRE     Directed by Hugh Hudson     TRACK
   (Executive Director Dodi Fayed)

   
   
   A film about the journey of some young, male athletes in post World War l Britain towards the Olympic podium in Paris. Perhaps the most lasting feature of the movie is the music of Vangelis, which remains one of the most recognizable movie themes of all time. [ click here for a short sound clip of the theme in wav format.] There are wonderful contrasts in the protagonists ranging from the noblesse oblige of Lord Lindsay to the gifted, rugby playing, quarter mile running Eric Liddell, whose toughest opponent is his Christian beliefs about the value of sport and Sunday competition. Then there is Harold Abrahams, the son of a Jewish immigrant, intense, angry, talented and trying to win acceptance among his fellow English undergraduates. The subtext of the film is the xenophobia and exclusivity of the English aristocracy and upper classes. In seeking to improve his sprinting performance, Harold engages a professional coach, which, to his professors, is tantamount to cheating. The Arabic coach, Mr. Mussabini, quickly becomes persona non grata at British track meets and is hustled out of the infield by zealous marshals.

   It wasn't until Princess Diana was killed with Dodi Fayed that I realized what fuelled the film and added an intensity, which transcended track. Dodi's father, Mohammed Al-Fayed had tried desperately to find acceptance in his adopted country of England. He tried to be more English than the English, he bought Harrods, he revived Punch magazine, which was an English institution, his horses raced at Ascot and he even owned Fulham F.C., a London soccer team, but despite all that he was denied a British passport, he remained an outsider, an interloper. Nothing would have pleased Mohammed more than if his son, the 'Executive Producer' could have married Diana, mother to the future King of England.

   Knowing all this, it's easy to see that Chariots of Fire is a tribute to outsiders; be they Arabic, Jewish or Scottish, for whom there is no place in the English establishment. Harold can sing Gilbert and Sullivans' "He is an Englishman" and William Blake's 'Jerusalem' about 'England's green and pleasant land' but through the eyes of his college administrators, he's still a Semite. Dodi Fayed was not well thought of in the movie world, but I have to think that he and his father identified with Mr. Mussabini alone in his room outside the stadium where the King and the Olympic committee are applauding Harold Abraham's victory

   'Chariots of Fire' won the Oscar for Best Picture and for once I feel the committee got it right.

   

3. THE HUSTLER     Directed by Robert Rossen     POOL

   This 1961 film gave us a young Paul Newman in a story of circling pool sharks. The casting was spot on with Jackie Gleason as a totally convincing Minnesota Fats and George C. Scott at his best as the manager/coach who works with Fast Eddie Felson (Paul Newman). The pool hall and bar room settings are so seedy and noir that they are almost a character in themselves. In a pivotal scene after Fast Eddie has let Minnesota Fats off the hook in a big money game, George C. Scott teaches Fast Eddie some lessons about the philosophy of winning and losing.

   

   "Sure, you got drunk. You got the best excuse in the world for losing. It's no trouble losing when you've got a good excuse. Now winning can be heavy on your back too like a monkey and you can lose that monkey when you find an excuse. Then all you gotta do is learn to feel sorry for yourself, it's one of the best indoor sports feeling sorry, a sport enjoyed by all losers." So real were the characters that it was commonly believed that Minnesota Fats actually existed. But the author of the book, Walter Tevis, said otherwise. "That is ridiculous. I made up Minnesota Fats - name and all - as surely as Disney made up Donald Duck."

   Walter Tevis is an interesting story in his own right. After a difficult childhood, he became a popular professor of English and not only "The Hustler" but his book "The Man Who Fell to Earth" (starring David Bowie) became successful films. It's no accident that alcohol is featured in 'The Hustler' because it became a big part of Tevis' life and he wrote nothing for the next 17 years until he finally dried out. Then he wrote an intriguing chess based novel "The Queen's Gambit" and finally 25 years later he wrote a follow-up to 'The Hustler' in which Paul Newman reprised his role as Fast Eddie Felson now mature as a liquor salesman and 'student of human moves'.

   The movie was directed by Martin Scorsese and features one of my personal favorite vignettes of all time, when the young pool protege (played by Tom Cruise) struts his stuff around the table to a soundtrack of Warren Zevon singing 'Werewolves of London'. As he says, "money won is twice as sweet as money earned."

   

   
4. THE ENDLESS SUMMER     SURFING

   In the early sixties, Bruce Brown made surfing movies for surfing audiences, but he wanted to do more and spent two years creating 'The Endless Summer', which cost more to make than his previous five films grossed. The concept was contrived, two surfers circling the globe in search of the 'perfect wave'. The dialogue is often bland, the jokes are corny, but somehow the movie captured the spirit and freedom of surfing. Strange as it might seem, I think that the songs of the Beach Boys and 'The Endless Summer' were as much responsible for me going to California as was a chance to study at Stanford and to coach at Santa Clara Swim Club.

   Initially, Brown had a hard time convincing any distributor to handle the movie. ("It'll never fly, baby.") To prove a point, he rented a theatre in Wichita, Kansas, thousands of miles from any ocean, in the middle of winter. The movie showed for two weeks and broke all attendance records. Still no one picked up the distribution rights. Undeterred, Brown took 'The Endless Summer' to Kips Bay Theatre in Manhattan where it played for over a year. After the first few weeks of sold out business, he got his distributor.

   

   I love the logo, I love the concept of an endless summer and I bought the T-shirt, which I still own. A couple of years back I was surprised to find an Endless Summer Bar and Cafe in Santa Barbara. I asked the owner how he was able to get access to the famous logo and he replied that Bruce Brown lives in town and said he could use the Endless Summer trappings provided that he (Bruce and his friends) could eat free of charge.

   There is an Endless Summer II, but I prefer the original.

5. ROCKY     Directed by John Avildsen     BOXING
   and RAGING BULL     Directed by Martin Scorsese

   There are a lot of bad things associated with boxing not the least of which are brain damage and corrupt promoters. However, at times it produces great theatre and a handful of memorable movies.

   ROCKY

   Before Rambo and before Rocky movies were followed by Roman numerals a young Sylvester Stallone had a screenplay and an idea for a film. A number of potential backers liked the screenplay but not the idea of the unknown Stallone playing the lead role. In his mind the young Stallone was Rocky and he could not conceive of anyone else inhabiting the part. The movie, like Rocky, was a million to one shot, but the pieces fell into place and a classic underdog movie was born.

   The movie was well filmed, beautifully directed and Bill Conti's "Eye of a Tiger" became synonymous with sporting heroics. [ click here to download an mp3 of 'Eye of the Tiger" ]. Two great scenes still remain with me, Rocky's cry of "Adrian" after he wins the title and his dramatic ascent of the steps leading up to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

   Successful movies have a life of their own and the lines between fact and fiction get a little blurred. Every day hundreds of people run those steps and raise their arms like Rocky at the top. A statue of Rocky was donated by Stallone to Philadelphia and placed at the top of the steps, but the Art Museum felt it lacked sufficient 'artistic merit' and it was moved to the Spectrum. (A move guaranteed to keep ordinary people away from the Museum in droves.)

   The film was not only a commercial success, but won Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director, with the 4 leading characters all nominated for Oscars.

   

6. RAGING BULL

   Like Rocky, Raging Bull was a huge commercial and artistic success and was the film nominated in most categories for the1980 Academy Awards. Robert DeNiro submerged himself in his role of Jake La Motta; he trained relentlessly and actually fought minor professional fights. Performances like this transcend acting and in this case, let you see the world though the eyes of a violent and self-destructive fighter. In the words of Sports Illustrated "DeNiro's unsparing portrait of this opaque, repellent villain is poignant in its precision."

   The use of the 'Intermezzo Sinfonico' from Cavalleria Rusticana had the same kind of jarring dissonance as did Barber's 'Adagio for Strings' in Platoon.

7. HOOP DREAMS and HOOSIERS     BASKETBALL

   HOOP DREAMS     Director: Steve James

   This is a daring documentary where the outcomes are unknown, this is prospective research, it's a mystery novel in which the author hasn't figured out the killer and the victim. Two inner city 8th grade basketball prospects, Arthur Agee and, the ironically named, William Gates, are recruited to play for St. Joseph's High School where the religion is basketball. The coach, Gene Pingatore, is looking for 'another Isaiah Thomas'. The heroes of the film are their two respective mothers who deal with missing husbands, loss of jobs, welfare, the cutting off of utilities such as electricity and water, the ever-present drug culture and yet continue to support their son's basketball ambitions with almost Oprah-like fortitude.

   

   We see a system where young men are commodities. When Arthur loses his 'scholarship' at St. Joseph's and goes back into the public school system, the Christian school tries to block his graduation by withholding his grades in an effort to squeeze $1300 from his mother, who is on welfare.

   There is a systematic winnowing process at work in which those with active pituitary glands and coordination might survive, but the odds are overwhelmingly in favor of a return to the inner cities rather than the Promised Land of the NBA. (A similar process operates in ballet; film, music, theatre and virtually all performance based professions.)

   Fortunately for basketball hopefuls in the US, there is a consolation prize of an expense paid college education. In Hoop Dreams, William gets a 4 year scholarship to Marquet, while Arthur, after a bizarre couple of years at the 99% white Mineral Area Junior College, moves on to Arkansas State.

   It's a pleasure to watch a movie free of contrived situations and simplistic outcomes, where, to quote Rudyard Kipling, "You can meet with triumph and disaster, and treat those two imposters as the same."

   

8. HOOSIERS     Director David Anspaugh

   "Hoosiers' is included as a counterpoint to 'Hoop Dreams' not because it merits a place amongst my favorite sports movies. I was predisposed to like Hoosiers; it was based on a true story, the 1000 to 1 shot with David beating Goliath. In 1954, Milan High School of Indiana with a total of 164 boys and girls beat the dominant Muncie Central with a student body of nearly 2000 in the final of the state championship. It's a great story, but David Anspaugh messed it up by buffing away the facts to 'improve' the real story and by trying to make the film more palatable to the general public. So instead of getting some insights into the greatest story in the history of Indiana high school basketball, we get a Hollywood confection.

   

   In reality, in 1952 a popular coach, Herman 'Snout' Grinstead, was fired for ordering new uniforms for his Milan High School team against the wishes of the superintendent. He was replaced by a young, dedicated and often inspirational coach named Marvin Wood who, in his first season, took the Milan Indians to the State semi-finals. Wood, who used to practice with his team to provide enough numbers for a scrimmage, bore no resemblance to the old coach seeking redemption played by Gene Hackman. (One of the many ways the film lost credibility was that I couldn't imagine a coach as inflexible, intractable and just plain stupid as the Gene Hackman character ever producing a championship team.)

   In the actual 53-54 season, there was no drunken assistant coach (Dennis Hopper), no holdout by the star player, no intrigue between a glamorous teacher and the coach and no thought of firing the remarkable Marvin Wood. The only place the movie came close to realism was that the game was won by a last second shot by the star player, but they even managed to blow that. What the movie missed was the tactic used by Milan to control the score against their physically superior opponents. There was no shot clock in the 50's so with the score tied the star player, Bobby Plump, dribbled or just held the ball for nearly 5 minutes before attempting a shot that missed. Muncie failed to score, so Plump protected the ball for the last 1 minute 18 seconds of the game before scoring in the last seconds to give Milan a 32-30 victory. The tension was indescribable and can still be experienced on the original game film on www.ihsaa.org/video/bbbvideo.htm.

   There's a restaurant in Indianapolis called "Plump's Last Shot", the 32-30 score is still visible on the water tower above Milan and local stores do a brisk trade in 1954 style Milan Indian uniforms. It's unfortunate the "Hoosiers" did not provide a better tribute to Marvin Wood and his team. Wood died of cancer in 1999 having raised large amounts of money for cancer research and the Special Olympics. (See poetry "9 Gold Medals")

SPORTS AND HUMOR

4 Sport movies that made me laugh

1. BULL DURHAM     Director Ron Shelton     BASEBALL

   I don't rate this movie as highly as some sports movie aficionados. It was both written and directed by a former major leaguer and gets a lot of points for detail and general authenticity. Some segments strain credulity, but that happens in comedies. Susan Sarandon is wonderful, as is the smitten young pitcher Tim Robbins, and or course, it's good to have Kevin Costner back in a baseball uniform.

2. SLAP SHOT     Director George Roy Hill     HOCKEY

   Twenty-five years after the film was released the notorious Hanson Brothers still show up to provide entertainment at NHL games. There are Hanson Brothers teams in many intramural and bush leagues and a few years back I had 3 teenagers with taped glasses and hockey sticks as the Hanson Brothers for Halloween. It's hard to find a Canadian male who is not familiar with 'Slap Shot'. The film lacks political correctness, sensitivity and subtlety but it's just plain funny and strangely enough is rooted in reality. In the 1970's there was a Pennsylvania team called the Johnstown Jets who featured 3 brothers with long hair and glasses who were the team goons. (Jeff, Steve and Jack Carlson). On the same team was a player named Ned Dowd whose sister, Nancy, wrote movie screenplays. Ned fed Nancy some stories, the Johnstown Jets begat the Charlestown Chiefs and 'Slap Shot' became a movie. There was one other piece to the puzzle; the single most feared player on the Jets was Steve 'Killer' Hanson. When Hill went to cast the movie he could not improve on the originals to essentially play themselves. Jack Carlson had been called up to the Edmonton Oilers so Steve Hanson joined Jeff and Steve Carlson and the legendary 'Hanson Brothers' were born.

   
   [ www.hansonbrothers.net/ ]

   Improbably Paul Newman was persuaded to play the role of the manager of the Chiefs and, as always, acquitted himself well, even on skates. When he tells the Hanson Brothers to "Show me what you've got." The door is opened to some magnificent hockey mayhem.

3. BREAKING AWAY     Director Peter Yates     CYCLING
   

   Coming of age, loss of innocence, boy almost meets girl, all set in the context of cycling. Dennis Christopher is the young cyclist who loves all things Italian, much to the frustration and disgust of his Middle American, used car salesman father. In one great scene at dinner the father (Paul Dooley) says, "There will be no more 'ini' foods in this house." Christopher leaves the table and calls his cat, "come here, Fellini". The Little 500 cycle race where the local Indiana Cutters take on the boys from the University makes an acceptable climax.

   Footnote: The Little 500 is still going strong at Indiana University and recently passed the one million dollar mark in student scholarships donated from money raised at the race, which has been in existence more than 50 years.

4. JERRY MAGUIRE     Director Cameron Crowe     FOOTBALL

   Tom Cruise frustrates me. I tend to see him as a Hollywood pretty boy, but the reality is that he's a terrific actor. My local sports radio station said this was really a chick flick disguised as a sports movie. The casting was flawless, Cruise was great, Rene Zellweger can do no wrong and then there was Cuba Gooding Jr. who gave us the phrase, "Show me the money" and won best supporting actor. Hollywood can still get things right on occasions and Jonathon Lipnicki as Zellweger's (Dorothy's) son was outrageously and wonderfully cute. I loved the soundtrack, which included a special bonus for fanatics such as myself. Crowe inserted an alternative, never before heard, version of Bob Dylan singing "Shelter from the Storm". (He wrote the liner notes for Bob Dylan's retrospective set 'Biograph' and presumably had access to some rare material from the vaults of Columbia Records.) This movie was funny, poignant and flat out good and deserved its nomination for Best Movie at the Academy Awards.

FILMS THAT NEED TO BE MADE

The world needs a good soccer movie. Soccer is the world's game but has yet to inspire a truly memorable film. Currently we have "Bend It Like Beckham" which is an enjoyable if somewhat contrived confection. I enjoyed "Fever Pitch" based on Nick Hornby's first book of the same name, but I liked it because I'm a huge Nick Hornby fan, not because it was a movie of substance. "The Cup" was delightful, but was more about young Tibetan monks than soccer itself.

I think a movie of 'The Lance Armstrong Story' could be terrific. Brash young Texan triathelete from a single parent family, whose promising cycling career is cut short by cancer. Rejected by his French sponsors who would not honor their commitment to him. Armstrong and his friend go into seclusion to train. He emerges stronger, lighter and with a determination to win the Tour de France, with his new team, US Postal. Five straight wins with all the pain, crashes, climbs, intrigue and triumph which are part of the 'Tour'. It could be a great movie and maybe Robin Williams could lose about 20 lbs. and play the part of his friend, Lance.

Robin gets to ride his bike with
cycling's reigning champion, Lance Armstrong.
Lance gets his personal "comic domestique."
Photo and caption from Saturn Cycling Magazine