Everytime ESPN or any other major sports outlet has a poll to determine the greatest sports movie, Hoosiers seems to win. There are of course a lot of great sports movies out there, and Harrogate would like to know what others prefer.
Rocky has been treated at length on this blog, but for the purposes of giving other movies a chance Harrogate suggests that we leave that one out of the mix. There is after all no way to perfect perfection. Not counting the incomparable Rocky, then, Harrogate's money would ultimately have to fall on a three-way tie between Hoosiers, Bull Durham, and Field of Dreams. Depending on Harrogate's mood, one of these always seems to come out on top. But tis the season for basketball and the sweet nectar of youth, ans so Harrogate provides this famous clip from Hoosiers, a movie based on a true story.
A movie, moreover, that now stands as a primary cultural artifact, a memento of what was once the greatest high school spectacle in the nation--Indiana's Winner-Take-All Basketball Tournament. In recent years that state finally sold out and did the same thing every other state does, breaking things apart into divisional categories, 1-A through 5-A ad nauseum. Which means the Hoosiers story will never happen again.
Problems abound in this fairy tale scene, of course. The bootstrap narrative is something Harrogate has dedicated hmself to combating at every turn. Not because it is inherently bad but because it is like all stories at bottom a lie, and not only that but it is this nation's dominant lie, the one that has always worked to hold down the poor, the obscure, the helpless, those who slip through the cracks and who never had a Gene Hackman figure to inspire or believe in them.
Nevertheless the movie is beautiful also, and this scene is no exception. Notice Dennis Hopper jumping on the hospital bed.
3 comments:
My faves:
Bull Durham
Major League
Love & Basketball (corny, but I like it)
Despite my lack of interest in real sports, I really love sports movies--all sports! Strange, huh?
This is a tough one.... so many good movies to choose from...
I tend to like baseball movies...so I second the opinion on Bull Durham and Field of Dreams (though this one was full of inaccurate baseball lore - dammit, yes, Jo Jackson sold out his sport).In addition to that, I have always been partial to The Natural.
For football, my two favorites are Rudy, which is good, if not a wee over-sentimentalized, The Longest Yard (Reynolds not Sandler).
For the other football, for my European friends, I really like Victory! It is a little off the beaten path and one I really enjoyed, even though I don't like soccer.
For thumb-wrestling -- there is always "The Pain and the Glory: The True Story of Harrogate" which was not in the theatres but went directly to the We Channel. It is a crime...a crime! ... that Ralph Macchio did not win an Oscar for the portrayal of the trials and tribulations of this true American sports hero.
Vision Quest.
Also one of the best soundtracks.
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