Six Movies About Rarely Portrayed Sports
By the Sword (1991): There are at least 50 films about football and basketball, 100 about baseball and boxing, 60 about racing. Even golf and horse racing have at least 20. Meanwhile, only one truly glorifies fencing. Perhaps it’s the affectated silliness of the sport that’s kept filmatists at bay. Or perhaps it was because its one film pits Eric Roberts against F. Murray Abraham for an old-fashioned ham-off.
Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India (2002): There are actually several Bollywood films about the British sport cricket, the only exportable one being this ludicrous epic about a group of noble peasants playing against cartoonishly evil British imperialists. Despite being about four hours, you won’t have any better clue how the game is played than you did coming in.
Men With Brooms (2003): After getting inducted as an Olympic sport in 1998, the fairly ridiculous, Scottish-bred sport curling became big enough to warrant its own movie, at least up north. Leslie Nielsen and Molly Parker headline this rom-com that was Canada’s biggest homegrown hit in five years.
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004): Chosen less because its makers had fond memories of the swollen-faced gym activity than because it fit in nicely with the wall-to-wall absurdist jokes, dodgeball winds up being broadcast on ESPN 8 (“The Ocho”), home to such activities as tractor racing and squirrel water-skiing.
Murderball (2005): Rugby doesn’t have a huge film line-up itself, but it’s strange that this rowdy niche doc—unveiling the tempestuous world of wheelchair rugby—has yet to spawn a copycat Hollywood crowd-pleaser.
Whip It (2009): It’s kind of bizarre that this is the first time roller derby’s been onscreen since the 1972 Raquel Welch vehicle Kansas City Bomber . Uh, thanks, Drew.
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1. Paul C. said... on Oct 1, 2009 at 06:53AM
“Where is the arm-wrestling opus OVER THE TOP bud.
Where.”