Sports have become an important part of our lives. One doesn’t have to be playing a certain sport to love it. The love for the game can be developed by watching it and supporting a team or a sports person. It’s true that we get divided based on them, but on a contrary, we get united in a way only a true sports fan can feel. There are uncountable lessons we can learn from each and every sport that has ever been invented.
The power of sports is so strong that millions of people every day get inspired by them. That is probably why there are hundreds of movies based on the sports we love. Some of them leave us shocked as they unveil the true insight of a game while others make us proud of ourselves for sticking with the roots of the sports we love.
Sports films have been made since the era of silent films. Even though a classic theme for a sports-based movie is the triumph of an individual or team who prevail despite the difficulties, this genre ranges from serious to silly ones. So, here is a list of 25 of the sports based movies that I thoroughly enjoyed watching and got inspired by in one way or the other. hope y’all will like it too.
- Million Dollar Baby– A movie about a determined woman who works with a hardened boxing trainer to become a professional.
- The Damned United– A fictional version of Brian Clough’s tenure as the manager of Leeds United.
- Bend It Like Beckham– An English movie revolving around a Sikh girl who idolizes David Beckham and loves playing football despite her family’s disallowance.
- Invictus– A film based on the 1995 rugby world cup and the ultimate victorious host team, South Africa.
- Gridiron Gang– ‘The Rock’ starred movie about the teenagers at a juvenile detention center, under the leadership of their counselor, gain self-esteem by playing football together.
- Rush– A true story depicting the rivalry between James Hunt and Niki Lauda during the 1976 Formula One season.
- Green Street Hooligans– A film about a wrongfully expelled Harvard undergrad moves to London, where he is introduced to the violent underworld of football hooliganism.
- Mary Kom– An Indian biopic about the 5 times female world boxing champion Mary Kom
- 42– The story of Jackie Robinson’s historic signing with Brooklyn Dodgers under the guidance of the team executive.
- Mean Machine– A 99 minutes long movie about a soccer star jailed for assault leads a group of inmates in a match against prison guards.
- Bhag Milkha Bhag- Another Indian biopic of an extraordinary athlete, Milkha Singh, or famously known as ‘The Flying Sikh’.
- Coach Carter– Based on a true story, the movie is about the controversy that surrounds high school basketball coach Ken Carter after he benches his entire team for breaking their academic contract with him.
- Looking for Eric– Eric, a football fanatic postman whose life is descending into crisis, receives some life coaching from the famously philosophical Eric Cantona.
- We Are Marshall– An inspiring movie about the team’s new coach and his surviving players try to keep the football program alive after a plane crash claims the lives of members of the Marshall University football team and some of its fans.
- Remember The Titans– The true story of a newly appointed African-American coach and his high school team on their first season as a racially integrated unit.
- Goal! The Dream Begins– The story of Santiago Munez, a footballer in a regional club, who gets scouted and transferred to Newcastle United.
- Goal II(Living The Dream)– When Newcastle United soccer star Santiago Munez is offered a spot with Real Madrid, he accepts, but the move – accompanied by big money and fame – tests his ties and loyalties to family, friends and business acquaintances.
- Swimming Upstream– Fact-based story of Tony Fingleton, an Australian who skipped the 1964 summer Olympics to attend Harvard
- United– United is based on the true story of Manchester United’s legendary “Busby Babes” and the tragic Munich Disaster.
- The World’s Fastest Indian– The life story of New Zealander Burt Munro, who spent years building a 1920 Indian motorcycle – a bike which helped him set the land-speed world record at Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats in 1967.
- Moneyball– A movie about the Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane’s successful attempt to assemble a baseball team on a lean budget by employing computer-generated analysis to acquire new players.
- Will– A 12 year old Liverpool fan’s journey from England to Istanbul to watch the 2005 Champions League final.
- Wimbledon– The story of a pro tennis player who loses his ambition after falling in rank to 119. Fortunately for him, he meets a young player on the women’s circuit who helps him recapture his focus for Wimbledon.
- Gracie– A movie revolving around a New Jersey teenager who faces an uphill battle when she fights to give women the opportunity to play competitive soccer.
- Raging Bull– An emotionally self-destructive boxer’s journey through life, as the violence and temper that leads him to the top in the ring, destroys his life outside it.