An Exultation of Sports: Nine Iconic Films - Page 2

FOOTBALL: The Replacements, 2000:

You could argue with me that either version of The Longest Yard, or perhaps 2000's Remember the Titans, would be a better choice for football. Yet I place this Keanu Reaves outing on my icons shelf for a simple reason: this movie, more than any other, glorifies the game as a game. I love Shane Falco (Keanu Reaves)'s synopsis of why football is worth playing: "Pain heals. Chicks dig scars. Glory... lasts forever." There's also the essential concept for any team sport, that the team must become more to the player than himself. The hair-lifting scene comes as quarterback Falco jerks the ball away from field-goal kicker Nigel Gruff (Rhys Ifans) to save him from the consequences of a team-versus-me choice.

When I learned that a Jamaican bobsled team would compete in the 1988 Olympics in Calgary, I thought it was a joke. This movie is a comedy based on the team's first entry into the Olympics, but it earns a place on my shelf of icons by showing the real heart and effort that made this team a winner. Okay, they came in last—but they didn't quit. This Disney film takes that almost-universal initial reaction, and uses it as fuel to show why the Jamaican bobsled team could come back and finish 14th in 1994 in Lillehammer—ahead of both sleds from the United States.

I nearly picked 1988's On the Edge (the Bruce Dern film) for this shelf, for the thrilling depiction of a marathon event, but Chariots edged past it. Ian Charleson as the Scottish Christian runner, and Ben Cross as the Jewish Cambridge student, both of them competing in the 1924 Olympics, give us a real feeling for each runner's motivation. Charleson makes no secret of his faith, while Cross is never allowed to forget his. Interestingly, it is Charleson's faith that brings him into conflict with his Christian country's Olympic team.

The plot is simple: a WWII soccer-player POW (Michael Caine) conceives a plan to escape with his entire team during a match between German players and the POWs. The game turns into a metaphor for the war itself, with real soccer legends (Pelé, Bobby Moore, Osvaldo Ardiles, Werner Roth) playing Allies and German kickers. Until the break in the game, this is a typical escape-from-German-stalag film, with soccer thrown in. What sets this story firmly on my shelf of icons is the refusal of the players to escape by tunnel from their Paris locker-room, when "we could win this game!" One hair-lifting moment here comes with the in-your-face singing of the banned national anthem, La Marseillaise, by the French crowd, another from the astounding over-top kick by Pelé. Even a re-written ending that let Stallone make the winning play can't detract from the solid soccer action provided by legends of the game.

Article Author: DrPat

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