The dialogue is sharp and funny, the baseball sequences are accurate and the prevailing sexual tension triumphs throughout. link
Annie Savoy: I believe in the Church of Baseball. I've tried all the major religions, and most of the minor ones. I've worshipped Buddha, Allah, Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, trees, mushrooms, and Isadora Duncan. I know things. For instance, there are 108 beads in a Catholic rosary and there are 108 stitches in a baseball. When I heard that, I gave Jesus a chance. But it just didn't work out between us. The Lord laid too much guilt on me. I prefer metaphysics to theology. You see, there's no guilt in baseball, and it's never boring... which makes it like sex. There's never been a ballplayer slept with me who didn't have the best year of his career. Making love is like hitting a baseball: you just gotta relax and concentrate. Besides, I'd never sleep with a player hitting under .250... not unless he had a lot of RBIs and was a great glove man up the middle. You see, there's a certain amount of life wisdom I give these boys. I can expand their minds. Sometimes when I've got a ballplayer alone, I'll just read Emily Dickinson or Walt Whitman to him, and the guys are so sweet, they always stay and listen. 'Course, a guy'll listen to anything if he thinks it's foreplay. I make them feel confident, and they make me feel safe, and pretty. 'Course, what I give them lasts a lifetime; what they give me lasts 142 games. Sometimes it seems like a bad trade. But bad trades are part of baseball - now who can forget Frank Robinson for Milt Pappas, for God's sake? It's a long season and you gotta trust it. I've tried 'em all, I really have, and the only church that truly feeds the soul, day in, day out, is the Church of Baseball. link
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PLEASE READ THIS
Whenever I post diaries about popular culture (movies, television, stand-up comedy, sports, and music) such as these two -- "Lawdy, Lawdy, He's Great" - A Profile in Political Courage and "Death Doesn't Always Get the Last Word" - A Tribute to Two Great Female Singers -- some of you with dial-up connections, older pc's, slower processors, not enough RAM, and the like complain that you could not easily scroll through the comments and that the diary comes to a crawl as way too many videos had been posted. If you'd like to post a few favorite videos, feel free to do so but just don't go overboard. Embed only one YouTube video and post links to the others.
Example: This is a YouTube link to the movie Escape to Victory (the "La Marseillaise" scene). Directed by John Houston, the story revolves around Allied prisoners of war playing a soccer match against their Nazi captors.
http://www.youtube.com/...
Thanks.
Like many - if not most of you - I love sports. Both as a participant and as a spectator.
The highs one experiences in moments of triumph. The depressingly low lows when we lose and nothing, I mean nothing, can get us out of our funk. The crowd cheers we hear urging us never to give up even as we face insurmountable odds. The boos in defeat that ring in our ears as we walk off of the field of competition. The camaraderie that exists between teammates. The rivalries across the lines. In the end, the thrill of it all.
It is often said that professional sports are a diversion from the everyday struggles and pressures of modern-day life. To ease our minds from the troubling realities of our existence. To soothe our emotions and feelings when facing divorce, illness, or death. To pacify our many urges. To escape into a world so unattainable for most of us. Yes, indeed, sports are a necessary diversion. Sports is life, life is sports.
Bull Durham was ranked as the #1 Sports Movie by Sports Illustrated a few years ago. It may or may not be the best in this genre of films but it certainly reflects the ups and downs of daily life better than the vast majority of its competitors.
I recently wrote a long diary about the life of boxer Muhammad Ali and one which also included a tribute to another great champion, Joe Frazier -- "Lawdy, Lawdy, He's Great" - A Profile in Political Courage.
An excerpt from that diary
During this season of political protests, when tens of thousands of people around the country are expressing their democratic will and forcefully asserting their constitutionally-guaranteed political rights, it is instructive to remember an American who did just that with dignity, conviction, and style over four decades ago by standing up to the establishment and adopting controversial positions which were, to say the least, extremely unpopular at the time.
He was much more than a flamboyant and charismatic boxer whose triumphs in the ring thrilled countless number of fans. Millions more around the world cheered him on for his courageous stands on behalf of freedom of speech and expression. He was called a traitor to his own country and, yet, his principled opposition to war and aggression (as a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War) made him a hero and one to emulate for an entire generation of young people. Freed perhaps from their earlier biases, not many would later question his pugilistic mastery, poetry, and personal bravery.
His exploits in the boxing arena alone would have have been sufficient to enshrine his place in history. That wasn't enough for him. Exercising his free speech rights cost him dearly but his actions reflects a life that epitomizes uncompromising personal integrity and political courage.
Sketch Credit: Fan Art! (Artist: Otrofco). Muhammad Ali hovers over Sonny Liston, after knocking him out in the first round of their rematch fight in Lewiston, Maine in May 1965, exhorting him to "Get up and fight, sucker!" The photograph that inspired this sketch is widely considered to be one of the most famous in sports history. Photographer Neil Leifer described the iconic moment in this article.
Boxing, Don King, and Muhammad Ali are synonymous in the minds of many with decadent bloodsport, sleaze, and tragedy respectively. But for a fleeting moment in 1974, all were central figures in a miraculous confluence of pop culture flash and deep sociopolitical import that seems, if anything, more remarkable now than it did then. This Academy Award-winning documentary by Leon Gast (The Dead, Hell's Angels Forever) revisits the storied "Rumble in the Jungle" heavyweight title fight in which a rusty and thirtyish Ali squared off with the awesome young champ George Foreman in Kinshasa, Zaire.
The stunning vitality and passion of this film arises not only from the high-voltage personalities involved (especially Ali and King) but from the way they galvanized political and ethnic pride among the people of the poor West African nation. Ali's bold defiance of the draft, his embrace of Islam, and, of course, his wild eloquence and physical beauty elevated him to the status of a black demigod in their eyes. His flamboyant posturing and poetic self-aggrandizement operated on two levels. Superficially, of course, it was simple macho gamesmanship. But deeper down, it was a thrilling assertion of black pride that unified the kid from Louisville, Kentucky with ethnic Africans in a soul-deep bond. link
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The true story of Eric Liddle (Ian Charleson) and Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross) who ran for British and Scottish gold in the 1924 Olympics despite great personal obstacles. Liddle, a devoutly religious man, would not run his qualifying heat because it fell on a Sunday, while Abrahams, who was Jewish, faced anti-Semitism...
It does intend to be simple and it aims to work with elemental ideas like the power of the establishment, of England and of God on their respective subjects. The pressures on these men, as much from within as without, are forgotten today but while we're perhaps meant to lament this, it's hard to. It's an examination of whether Liddle and Abrahams were made by their beliefs or shackled by them. link
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Except for some updating, and minimal plot simplification, John Hancock's Bang the Drum Slowly is a remarkably faithful rendering of the well-known baseball novel that Mark Harris wrote in 1955. It is one of those rare instances in which close adaptation of a good book has resulted in possibly an even better movie.
The story is simple enough. Bruce Pearson, a kid from Georgia and a catcher of no great quality for the New York Mammoths, is dying of Hodgkin's disease, incurable but, in his case, not yet debilitating. Nobody knows except his roommate and one friend, Henry Wiggen, and it is Henry's job not to tell—especially the team manager, Dutch Schnell—so that Bruce can play baseball through the last season that is left him on earth...
Bang the Drum Slowly (the title comes from the cowboy song "The Streets of Laredo") is ultimately a lament for the dying. But since that includes all of us, it would be unseemly to shed too many tears. link
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The rest of the movies included in the diary poll are Breaking Away (1979); Hoop Dreams (1994); North Dallas Forty (1979); Caddyshack (1980) ...
Best friends Dave, Mike, Cyril and Moocher have just graduated from high school. Living in the college town of Bloomington, Indiana, they are considered "cutters": the working class of the town so named since most of the middle aged generation, such as their parents, worked at the local limestone quarry, which is now a swimming hole. There is great animosity between the cutters and the generally wealthy Indiana University students, each group who have their own turf in town. The dichotomy is that the limestone was used to build the university, which is now seen as being too good for the locals who built it. Although each of the four is a totally different personality from the other three, they also have in common the fact of being unfocused and unmotivated in life. The one slight exception is Dave. Although he has no job and doesn't know what to do with his life, he is a champion bicycle racer. link
A film like "Hoop Dreams" is what the movies are for. It takes us, shakes us, and make us think in new ways about the world around us. It gives us the impression of having touched life itself.
"Hoop Dreams" is, on one level, a documentary about two African-American kids named William Gates and Arthur Agee, from Chicago's inner city, who are gifted basketball players and dream of someday starring in the NBA. On another level, it is about much larger subjects: about ambition, competition, race and class in our society. About our value structures. And about the daily lives of people like the Agee and Gates families, who are usually invisible in the mass media, but have a determination and resiliency that is a cause for hope. link
Ted Kotcheff's un-nominated, uncompromising, cynical and brutal expose of NFL pro-football (loosely based on the championship Dallas Cowboys team of the 70s) was one of the most realistic sports films ever made. It starred Nick Nolte as jaded, rebellious North Dallas Bulls wide-receiver Phillip Elliott (based upon semi-autobiographical scripter and former Dallas Cowboys wide-receiver Peter Gent who also wrote the best-selling 1973 unflattering novel), Mac Davis as quarterback Seth Maxwell (paralleling real-life Cowboys quarterback "Dandy" Don Meredith), and G.D. Spradlin as ruthless team coach B. A. Strothers (based upon coach Tom Landry). The gridiron film also starred real-life players, such as John Matuszak. It showcased the dark side of professional football, involving drug use and alcohol (painkillers), racism, sexual perversity, and corporate labor abuses. link
The smash success Caddyshack became a prototype for countless other wacky T&A-tinged teen comedies of the early 1980s. At an exclusive country club for WASPish snobs, an ambitious young caddy (Michael O'Keefe) from an overpopulated home eagerly pursues a caddy scholarship in hopes of attending college and, in turn, avoiding a job at the lumber yard. In order to succeed, he must first win the favor of the elitist Judge Smails (Ted Knight), then the caddy golf tournament which the good judge sponsors. Of course, there are love interests as well -- one good, one naughty -- not to mention several foes he must vanquish along the way. The story itself serves to string along a series of slapstick scenes involving an obnoxious nouveau riche land developer (Rodney Dangerfield) who wants to turn the site into a condominium community; an oddball, Zen-quoting, millionaire slacker/golf ace (Chevy Chase); and a psychotic groundskeeper (Bill Murray) with a gopher-fixation. link
Jerry MaGuire (1996); Million Dollar Baby (2004); Hoosiers (1986); Rocky (1976); The Natural (1984); and Raging Bull (1980).
- "Jerry MaGuire" - Somehow they managed to turn a movie about an agent into a statement against the greed and selfishness that has overrun professional sports. link
- "Million Dollar Baby" - We're all gonna cry at the heart-wrenching ending, after we've cheered the hard-knuckled determination of Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank), left-hooking her way to self-respect as she climbs the ranks of women's boxing. link
- "Hoosiers" - [T]he greatest basketball movie ever made...based on the true story of a tiny Indiana high school team that won the state championship...supremely acted...and beautifully shot, and features a Jerry Goldsmith score. link
- "Rocky" - With one shot to prove he's not just another bum from the hood, Sylvester Stallone faces the champ and does the unthinkable, by Hollywood standards: He loses. But he wins our hearts by going the distance. link
- "The Natural" - Authentic in the nostalgia that's in every adult heart -- the career, game, love, girl that got away; then turns up again, backlit. link
- "Raging Bull" - Any serious list of greatest sports movies begins with Raging Bull...Martin Scorsese's black-and-white epic about Jake LaMotta, a middleweight thug brought low by his own paranoia, insecurity, and rage... On the Waterfront plus Rocky minus the schmaltz. link
A Note About the Diary Poll
What makes a sports movie appealing to us? I think a lot depends on how interested you are in that particular sport. For example, if you aren't a fan of boxing, it is unlikely that you will like any movie made about the brutal sport of boxing. That said, some of the better movies are indeed about that very sport.
Over the years, there have been many excellent movies made and this diary only mentions a few. The ones included in the poll are not necessarily the best ever. That is, for many, an entirely subjective decision.
Here are a few more that you may have seen and liked: White Men Can't Jump (1992); Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006); Heaven Can Wait (1978); Brian's Song (1971); He Got Game (1998); The Hustler (1961); The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings (1976); Any Given Sunday (1999); The Karate Kid (1984); The Bad News Bears (1976); A League Of Their Own (1992); Personal Best (1982); The Longest Yard (1974); Bend It Like Beckham (2002) ; The Great White Hope (1970); Escape to Victory (1981); The Pride Of The Yankees (1942); Major League (1989); Slap Shot (1977); and Seabiscuit (2003).
If your favorite movie is not mentioned in this diary, please look it up in one of the following web sites
Don't forget to take the diary poll. Thanks.