Sports movies can be a polarizing topic. On one hand, many people love sports films for their inspirational storylines, while others condemn them for their inaccuracies and portrayals of real-life figures.
On Thursday, the sports-related film "Silver Linings Playbook" was honored with eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Editing, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director (David O. Russell), Best Supporting Actor and Actress (Robert de Niro and Jacki Weaver, respectively), Best Actor (Bradley Cooper), and Best Picture. The film also became the first picture to be nominated for four acting awards, best picture, writing and best directing since Warren Beatty's 1981 film "Reds", which chronicled the Russian Revolution.
In honor of the announcement and the reception of the film by the Academy, here is a look at some of the top Oscar-nominated sports films. Naturally, everyone is entitled to an opinion, but here are some of the best ones (in no particular order). Obviously many were left off, but these deserve some recognition.
Raging Bull, 1980
Directed by Martin Scorcese, Starring Robert De Niro
On top of the fact that this is one of the best sports movies of all-time, it is also simply one of the best films in the history of cinema. Scorcese put his entire life into this film because he sensed that if this picture was not a success, he would no longer be able to be a film director. The movie was nominated for eight awards and took home two, including Best Actor for Robert De Niro and Best Editing for longtime Scorcese collaborator Thelma Schoonmaker.
Other nominations for Raging Bull included Best Picture, Supporting Actor (Joe Pesci), Supporting Actress (Cathy Moriarty), Cinematography, Director (Martin Scorsese) and Best Sound. De Niro was awarded for his honest and brutal portrayal of boxer Jake LaMotta, an Italian American middleweight boxer who dealt with all types of issues including anger, violence and extreme jealousy.
De Niro transformed himself for the role, gaining 60 pounds to portray the real-life boxer. The performance is one of the best and most accurate in any sports film and won De Niro the Best Actor Golden Globe to go along with his Oscar. Scorcese filmed the boxing scenes very close and with a visual style that had never been seen before the film. He recreated fights that looked extremely realistic and gave viewers the full picture of La Motta as a man. The movie has amazing performances from Nicholas Colasanto, Theresa Saldana, and Frank Vincent and may have been the best film of the decade, even though it lost the award to Ordinary People, which was directed by Robert Redford.
Moneyball, 2011
Directed by Bennett Miller, Starring Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill
All modern sports movies should be judged against Moneyball. The film was a labor of love for Brad Pitt, who dealt with a production shutdown, script rewrites, changing directors and arguing executives for years before finally getting it to the silver screen. The film follows the Oakland A's during the 2002 season as they made the playoffs and set the record for most consecutive wins for a major league baseball team.
Amazingly, with all that behind the scenes turmoil, the film turned out to be a great success, netting nominations for Best Picture, Actor (Brad Pitt), Supporting Actor (Jonah Hill), Editing, Sound Mixing and Adapted Screenplay. Miller takes you into the head of Beane and lets you watch him as he tries to evolve the game of baseball into the modern era. Hill is simply fantastic as Beane's assistant GM and completely deserved an Oscar nomination.
The look of the film is crisp and evokes the style of thrillers from the 1970s like All The President's Men and Three Days of the Condor. One scene that takes place in a parking garage echoes a scene from All The President's Men and lays out how Hill and Beane think when it comes to baseball. A number of former Major League players appeared in the film and Chris Pratt gives a totally underrated performance as first baseman Scott Hatteberg, who featured prominently in Michael Lewis' book, which the movie was based upon. While the film didn't take home any Academy Awards, it proved that sports films could be intelligent, honest, funny, serious and yes, nominated for Best Picture.
The Fighter, 2010
Directed by David O. Russell, Starring Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale
What separates "The Fighter" from so many sports movies of the past is that it simply could have been a retelling of boxer Mickey Ward's life that played out on the big screen. Instead it is a character study of two brothers and their surrounding family and how success can sometimes remain just out of reach depending on how you react to the people around you.
Wahlberg could easily have been nominated as Best Actor and stuck with this film for years as it went through development, with Brad Pitt at one point set to play his brother Dick "Dicky" Eklund. Bale was simply astonishing as Ward's drug addicted brother, bringing home his first Academy Award along with Melissa Leo, who won for her performance as Ward's mother and boxing manager. Amy Adams was brilliant as Ward's girlfriend and wife Charlene, earning herself and Academy Award nomination in the process.
In total the film won two awards for Supporting Actor (Christian Bale), Supporting Actress (Melissa Leo) and was nominated for Best Picture, Director (David O. Russell), Supporting Actress (Amy Adams), Original Screenplay and Editing.
Rocky, 1976
Directed by John G. Avildsen, Starring Sylvester Stallone
The story about an underdog boxer was a true underdog itself at the 1976 Academy Awards. The film was nominated for 10 Oscars and took home three, including Best Picture, Director and Best Editing. It was nominated for Original Screenplay, Actor (Sylvester Stallone), Actress (Talia Shire), Supporting Actor (Burt Young), Supporting Actor (Burgess Meredith), Sound and Original Song ("Gonna Fly Now") and helped Stallone become the star that he is today.
The inspirational story of Rocky Balboa was one no one could avoid and it defeated a number of films that are considered to be some of the best of all time. Taxi Driver, All The President's Men, Bound for Glory and Network are all considered classic films, but Rocky is the one that took the golden statue home.
The scene of Rocky training in Philadelphia and running up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art is considered to be one of the most memorable in film history and inspired the city to name the area the "Rocky Steps". The film was a cultural phenomenon and joins Chariots of Fire as one of the only sports films to win Best Picture.
Honorable Mentions:
(some of these weren't nominated by the Academy, but still deserve some love)
--Hoosiers, 1986
2 nominations: Supporting Actor (Dennis Hopper), Original Score
-This classic basketball film has some amazing performances from Gene Hackman, Dennis Hopper and Barbara Hershey and is considered to be one of the most inspirational movies of all time.
--Major League, 1989
A group of loveable losers takes the Cleveland Indians to the playoffs. Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, Wesley Snipes and David Haysbert give hilarious performances as baseball players and the film features the most effective cursing of all time.
--Rudy, 1993
Sean Astin gives an amazing performance as the real life Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger and makes everyone a fan of Notre Dame at least for a couple hours. Sure, not everything in the film is completely accurate to real life, but the story is one of the most inspirational to hit the screen. It's hard not to get goosebumps when the Notre Dame players enter coach Devine's office and lay down their jerseys so Rudy can play. It's sensationalized a bit, sure, but the story is true and the determination of the character is one of the most memorable performances in a sports film.
