Whether True of Fictional, there have many. Stories of individuals and/or teams overcoming adversity and challenges can be the cornerstone of Inspiration Covering all sorts of Sports, be it Semi / Biographical, Fanciful or Factual, there is always a degree of entertainment value to be had Feel fee to post your favourite 'Good, Bad, ... or otherwise'
ROCKY: (BOXING) 1976 American sports drama tells the rags to riches American Dream story of Rocky Balboa, an uneducated, kind-hearted working class Italian-American boxer, who gets a shot at the world heavyweight championship. Rocky - Wikipedia
SLAPSHOT: (ICE HOCKEY) 1977 American sports comedy film directed by George Roy Hill, written by Nancy Dowd and starring Paul Newman and Michael Ontkean. It depicts a minor league ice hockey team that resorts to violent play to gain popularity in a declining factory town. Slap Shot - Wikipedia
ESCAPE TO VICTORY: (SOCCER) Boys' own fantasy with all the narrative elements to boot. The Nazi's are there to be hissed, the peril present but only implied and our heroes chirpy throughout and stiff of upper lip when needed. Escape to Victory - Wikipedia
'EDDIE - the EAGLE': (SKI-JUMPING) . . The heart-warming comedy film loosely depicts his real-life struggle to qualify for the Games against the wishes of the British Olympic bigwigs and the worldwide attention he garnered after his “performances” in the normal and large hill competitions in Canada. Eddie the Eagle (film) - Wikipedia
CHARIOTS OF FIRE: (ATHLETICS) The film is based on the real-life stories of Eric Liddell, a devout Scottish Christian, and Harold Abrahams, an English Jew, who face problems and prejudice as they seek to make the Great Britain athletics squad for the 1924 Olympics. Chariots of Fire - Wikipedia
BATTLE OF THE SEXES: (TENNIS) Gender inequality continues to be a problem in the sporting world, in 1973 Tennis was no exception - Step forward then Billie Jean King, who set out to redress the unfair balance. Former world number one Bobby Riggs goaded King into a money-making exhibition match. King knew losing would be a setback for women’s liberation, it became more than tennis. Off the court, she was also fighting another, internal, battle - meeting hairdresser Marilyn Barnett and forming a relationship with her, despite being married. King said the film was 99% accurate. Although she did point out the inaccuracy of one moving scene where a gay tennis kit designer tells her that one day “we won’t have to live in the shadows”.
BLADES OF GLORY: (ICE SKATING) Two rival figure skaters, who are banned after a punch-up on top of the podium and fall on hard times. They realise there is nothing in the rules to stop them teaming up and competing as the world’s first all-male pairs team in this Hollywood comedy.
COOL RUNNINGS: (Bobsleighing) 'Feel the rhythm! Feel the rhyme! Get on up, its bobsled time!' Whilst so much of this film was not true, there was really a Jamaican bobsled team in Calgary 1988 and they were really made of sprinters - albeit from the army and not borderline Olympians - though it was a pushcart derby proved the inspiration. Still, It was Entertaining Cool Runnings - Wikipedia
WHEN WE WERE KINGS: (BOXING) When We Were Kings, an exquisitely paced documentary following Muhammad Ali’s training camp in Zaire leading up to his fight against George Foreman in 1974: = The Rumble in the Jungle. . . . . When We Were Kings - Wikipedia
SENNA: (MOTOR RACING) Senna tells the story of how one man from Brazil made it in Europe as a racing driver, then gracefully captured the world's attention – silencing rooms as people listened intently to what he had to say. Senna includes scenes from his untimely death at the San Marino Grand Prix, and the world's reaction to the loss of a charming man whose "luck ran out" Senna (film) - Wikipedia
INVICTUS: (RUGBY UNION) 2009 biographical sports drama film directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon. <> The story is based on the 2008 John Carlin book Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation about the events in South Africa before and during the 1995 Rugby World Cup. The Springboks were not expected to perform well, the team having only recently returned to high-level international competition following the dismantling of apartheid—the country was hosting the World Cup, thus earning an automatic entry. Freeman and Damon play the South African President Nelson Mandela and François Pienaar, respectively. François was the captain of the South Africa rugby union team, the Springboks. <>
I, TONYA: (ICE SKATING) 2017 American biographical sports black comedy film directed by Craig Gillespie and written by Steven Rogers. It follows the life of figure skater Tonya Harding and her connection to the 1994 attack on her rival Nancy Kerrigan. The film states that it is based on "contradictory" and "true" interviews with Harding and her ex-husband Jeff Gillooly, suggesting they are unreliable narrators. Margot Robbie (who also produced) stars as Harding, Sebastian Stan as Gillooly, and Allison Janney as Harding's mother LaVona Golden. Julianne Nicholson, Caitlin Carver, Paul Walter Hauser, and Bobby Cannavale also star. Loosely based on actual events, the film depicts Harding as a victim, reframing the narrative around her implication in the aftermath of the crime and other criticism of her action
THE HUSTLER (POOL): 1959 novel by American writer Walter Tevis. It tells the story of a young pool hustler, Edward "Fast Eddie" Felson, who challenges the legendary Minnesota Fats. The Hustler was adapted into a 1961 film of the same title, starring Paul Newman as Fast Eddie and Jackie Gleason as Minnesota Fats. The film was a critical and commercial success and was nominated for multiple Academy Awards. It remains widely regarded as a classic.
* And ... Later, there came ... THE COLOR OF MONEY (POOL): 1986 American sports drama film directed by Martin Scorsese. The film continues the story of pool hustler and stakehorse Edward "Fast Eddie" Felson from Tevis' first novel, The Hustler (1959), with Newman reprising his role from the 1961 film adaptation. It begins more than 25 years after the events of the previous film, with Eddie retired from the pool circuit. Newman won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance, his first Oscar win after eight nominations, seven of them for Best Actor. The film centered around the game of nine-ball, a pool variant played for high stakes. A challenge nine-ball match was named after it in 1997 at which Efren Reyes defeated Earl Strickland to win the largest single match purse in pool history of $100,000.
* ROLLERBALL * (The Game of the future) 1975 science fiction sports film directed and produced by Norman Jewison It stars James Caan, John Houseman, Maud Adams, John Beck, Moses Gunn and Ralph Richardson. The storyline (by William Harrison) was an adaption of his own short story, "Roller Ball Murder", which had first appeared in the September 1973 issue of Esquire. . . . . . .
HAPPY GILMORE: (GOLF) 1996 American sports comedy film directed by Dennis Dugan and produced by Robert Simonds Adam Sandler as the title character, plays an unsuccessful ice hockey player who discovers a newfound talent for golf. It was a commercial success, earning $39 million on a $12 million budget. The film won an MTV Movie Award for "Best Fight" for Adam Sandler versus Bob Barker.
RAGING BULL: (BOXING): 1980 American biographical sports drama film taken from Jake LaMotta's 1970 memoir Raging Bull: My Story. Robert De Niro as Jake LaMotta, is an Italian-American middleweight boxer whose self-destructive and obsessive rage, sexual jealousy, and animalistic appetite destroyed his relationship with his wife and family. The American Film Institute ranked it as the fourth-greatest American movie of all time.
MILLION DOLLAR BABY: (BOXING) A determined woman works with a hardened boxing trainer to become a professional. Wanting to learn from the best, aspiring boxer Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank) wants Frankie Dunn (Clint Eastwood) to train her. At the outset, he flatly refuses saying he has no interest in training a girl, but as she showed a lot of grit in the ring and he eventually relents. Maggie not only proves to be the boxer he always dreamed of having under his wing, but a friend who fills the great void he's had in his life.
