15 Recent Sports Films That Prove Why Hollywood's Most Clichéd Genre Needs to Die

By: Adam Quigley Posted: December 8, 2008

Rocky. Rudy. Field of Dreams. Hoosiers. Raging Bull. Bull Durham. These were the sports film classics that helped define the genre, providing original, exhilarating and heart-stirring material that affected people of all ages. Fast forward to the present, and this time is now long past. What was once a respectable genre has since paved the way for this depressing Hollywood market that steals liberally from the classics without ever bothering to bring anything innovative to the table. This can be best demonstrated not by picking apart each sports film individually, but by proving how they're all the same film already, each taking identical concepts, themes, characters and subplots and interchanging them in hopes that people will get so caught up in the melodrama that they won't notice that they've already seen this story a dozen times before. With that, I present to you...

The Hollywood Guide to Making a Sports Film

Step 1. Choose a sport. Doesn't matter which; they're all interchangeable with what's to follow.

Step 2. Find inspirational true stories involving said sport; preferably ones that deal with a specific individual or minority that overcame all odds. Keep in mind, the stories don't need to be all that impressive, as long as they can be aggrandized in a melodramatic enough way to be instinctively perceived as impressive.

Step 3. Don't worry about following the actual events of the story. Just make sure to include any number of the following scenes, subplots and/or characters when writing the script:

a. The team's coach must be someone who's stern yet passionate and endearing. He should also be defined by any of the following characteristics: down on his luck with one last shot at redemption, a once-great athlete who hasn't played the sport in a very long time, a newcomer who isn't prepared for what's up ahead, someone who operates by his own rules and seeks out players others wouldn't have expected, and/or someone whose obsession with the sport leads to his suffering a troubled family life.

b. The opposing team should always start out as being better equipped, organized, and respected, as well as completely full of themselves and distinctly lacking in personality. It helps to have their coach be an asshole that the protagonist coach has a personal history with. For good measure, you can also give the "asshole coach" a son who's the head of the team but (upon being defeated in the end) disregards his father and shows respect for the other team.

c. If the story is about a team as a whole, have the members split into two sections, on opposing sides of whatever the main conflict is (race relations, social standings, gang violence, etc.). By the end, the team should become unified through their competing together. Additionally, there should be a subplot where a member of the team is constantly butting heads with the coach, at one point even quitting. He will later acknowledge his mistake and both parties will have earned an unspoken, mutual sense of respect for one another, or he will try to re-join the team without understanding the consequences of his actions and won't be allowed back on.

d. Write in a character that constantly doubts the team/coach/protagonist/etc. but is proven wrong in the end. Have this character acknowledge their error in judgment, showing admiration for what the protagonist(s) was/were able to accomplish.

e. While training, the team should lose the first few games. When success appears to be hopeless, they unite and begin their rise to power, winning game after game and making it to the finals. This should be conveyed with a montage.

f. When everything seems to be going perfectly for the protagonist(s), one of the team members or supporting characters gets injured or dies, providing an emotional roadblock that eventually becomes even further motivation to win.

g. During a pivotal moment when hope and the odds of success are at an all-time low, the coach or a central team member give a rousing emotional speech that reinvigorates all involved and changes everything for them.

h. Ending #1 – When all seems lost during the last minutes of the final game, the team manages to miraculously turn things around at the last second and win a glorious victory. Ending #2 – Despite playing a strong game and overcoming various obstacles, the team does not win in the end. This ends up being unimportant, however, as they've won a much greater victory in life.

Step 4. Cast a high profile actor to play the coach.

Step 5. Incorporate all of the following when shooting the sports scenes: slow motion, shaky (i.e. gritty) camera work, and both muted and overemphasized sound effects (ex. silenced crowd cheers, heavy breathing, ear-shattering tackles, etc.).

Step 6. Focus all of the marketing on the high profile actor playing the coach, as well as what an "inspirational true story" the film is. Posters should often feature hopeful-looking blue or classical sepia toned backgrounds and/or a dramatic sport pose.

Step 7. Rake in the no-effort profits while laughing maniacally and puffing a Cuban cigar in a giant mansion made of money as audiences shell out ten bucks to see the same movie they've already seen countless times before.

If you have any doubt regarding whether or not the above seven-step formula is an accurate summation of sports films of late, feel free to compare them to these 15 "inspirational" sports films (all from the past 5 years), which act as depressing proof of this fact.

Poster Trademarks: Dramatic sport pose Off-center framing Muted/amplified colors

What's the sport? Football.
Is the film based on an "inspirational" true story? Yes.
Who overcame all odds? Ernie Davis, the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy.
Which high profile star plays the coach? Dennis Quaid.
What kind of coach is he? Stern yet passionate and endearing.
Any "heart-stirring" trailer quotes? "In a time of change... one man had the courage... to achieve the extraodinary."
What makes the film different than other sports movies? Give me a second, I think I can figure this one out. The story...? No, issues of racism have already been dealt with significantly in sports films like Remember the Titans, Glory Road, and others. Dennis Quaid...? No, he was in The Rookie and Any Given Sunday. How about... The title...? OK, yeah, the title.

The studio clearly learned their lesson halfway through making this film and didn't even hire someone to design the poster. They just snapped a picture of Ice Cube and Keke Palmer and put them on a white background. Ta-da!

What's the sport? Football.
Is the film based on an "inspirational" true story? Yes.
Who overcame all odds? Jasmine Plummer, the first female to participate in the Pop Warner football tournament.
Which high profile star plays the coach? Ice Cube.
What kind of coach is he? A down-on-his-luck former high school football star with one last shot at redemption.
Any "heart-stirring" trailer quotes? "He was a hero who lost his way. She was a loner who didn't belong." and "This summer... Comes the true story... Of a team that attempted the impossible... And a family... That reached for their dreams."
What makes the film different than other sports movies? It's a lighthearted family-friendly dramedy directed by Fred Durst, the lead singer of Limp Bizkit. Are you excited yet?

Poster Trademarks: Sepia tone Dramatic sport pose

What's the sport? Baseball.
Is the film based on an "inspirational" true story? Yes.
Who overcame all odds? A group of boys from Mexico, who became the first non-U.S. team to win the Little League World Series.
Which high profile star plays the coach? Clifton Collins Jr., who's admittedly a poor man's version of a high profile star. This is an indie film, after all.
What kind of coach is he? A down-and-out former major leaguer with one last shot at redemption.
Any "heart-stirring" trailer quotes? "Most kids can only dream of playing in the big game... But for nine boys, that dream is about to become real."
What makes the film different than other sports movies? Forget sports films dealing with racism against African Americans! That's old news! This movie's about the discrimination of Mexicans. Boom! Instant originality.

Poster Trademarks: Dramatic sport pose Off-center framing Dramatic close-up Sepia toned

What's the sport? Basketball.
Is the film based on an "inspirational" true story? Yes.
Who overcame all odds? A group of African American students, who marked the first all-black starting lineup in NCAA history.
Which high profile star plays the coach? Josh Lucas.
What kind of coach is he? Stern yet passionate and endearing.
Any "heart-stirring" trailer quotes? "...the incredible story of the team that changed the game forever."
What makes the film different than other sports movies? A better question is, what makes this movie different than Remember the Titans? The answer: It's about basketball instead of football, and stars Josh Lucas instead of Denzel washington. Clearly, they're two distinctly different movies.

Poster Trademarks: Sepia tone Dramatic sport pose Dramatic wide shot

What's the sport? Football.
Is the film based on an "inspirational" true story? Yes.
Who overcame all odds? The rebuilt Marshall University football team, who helped heal the community and honor the players from the 1970 plane crash that took their lives.
Which high profile star plays the coach? Matthew McConaughey, with Matthew Fox as the assistant coach.
What kind of coach is he? Given that there are two high profile stars here, the "stern yet passionate and endearing" coach role is rather appropriately split in two, with McConaughey being passionate and endearing, and Fox being oh-so-stern.
Any "heart-stirring" trailer quotes? "Everything can change... in a moment. Anyone can inspire you... in a moment. Anything is possible. Hope never dies."
What makes the film different than other sports movies? Despite attempts to portray the new team in a positive light by the film's end, one can't help but notice that (as proven by the closing text explaining the history of the new team) they were terrible football players. It wasn't until years later that they improved, likely due to new players coming on board. So in other words, this is one of those rare inspirational sports film that tells the story of an underdog team that not only didn't overcome all odds, they outright sucked, with the exception of a single game that (of course) concludes the film. (A better film might've focused less on the football and more on the people involved.)

Poster Trademarks: Sepia tone Dramatic sport pose Dramatic wide shot

What's the sport? Football.
Is the film based on an "inspirational" true story? Yes.
Who overcame all odds? Vince Papale, the oldest rookie in the history of the NFL to play without the benefit of college football experience.
Which high profile star plays the coach? Most sports films focus on younger characters, which is why studios put their focus on the coach roles to bring in the A-list talent. But since Invincible deals with a much older character, the studios didn't have this problem and were able to cast an actor like Mark Wahlberg in the lead. Thus, they called upon the cheaper, noticeably less marketable (but certainly not less talented) Greg Kinnear to play the coach.
What kind of coach is he? For the very same reasons listed above, the filmmakers didn't spend nearly as much time trying to develop the "coach" character as the studios would've made them do had they not been able to secure such a big star to play Papale. In turn, the clichéd role normally applied to the coach character has here been applied to Wahlberg's character, who's a down-on-his-luck bartender with one last shot at redemption.
Any "heart-stirring" trailer quotes? "The Eagles' biggest fan... is about to take a shot... at a dream." and "In 1976... a 30-year-old bartender... who played only one year of high school football... tried to become the NFL's most unlikely rookie."
What makes the film different than other sports movies? I take back what I said about We Are Marshall. Evidently it's less rare than I thought for sports movies to center on underdogs who barely "overcame all odds"; because aside from making the team, there was absolutely nothing special about Vince Papale's performance on the Eagles. As depicted by the movie itself, his big moment of triumph comes when he recovers a fumble and returns it for a touchdown. That's it. Whoop-de-doo.

Poster Trademarks: Dramatic close-up

What's the sport? Football.
Is the film based on an "inspirational" true story? Yes.
Who overcame all odds? A group of juvenile delinquents, who managed to band together despite their differences and prove their worth to all who doubted them.
Which high profile star plays the coach? Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson.
What kind of coach is he? Stern yet passionate and endearing.
Any "heart-stirring" trailer quotes? "Now is the time to prove to yourselves, and prove to everyone out there, that even though you're locked up, you are somebody!"
What makes the film different than other sports movies? It's set in prison. Well, not really. It's actually set in a detention center, but that doesn't sound nearly as extreme, now does it? And come to think of it, that wouldn't be very original anyway, since The Longest Yard already combined football and prison in the '70s. Now that was a good movie.

Poster Trademarks: Dramatic sport pose Hopeful blues Dramatic wide shot

What's the sport? Swimming.
Is the film based on an "inspirational" true story? Yes.
Who overcame all odds? The PDR swim team, which was the first African American swim team.
Which high profile star plays the coach? Terrence Howard.
What kind of coach is he? A stern yet passionate and endearing former competitive swimmer who's down on his luck, struggling to find a job due to his race.
Any "heart-stirring" trailer quotes? "We've been chasing dreams for many, many years... Tomorrow you'll all get an opportunity to fulfill some of those dreams."
What makes the film different than other sports movies? It's about swimming, by far the world's most fascinating sport. (Just to clarify: Yes, that was sarcasm. Had I not mentioned it, I fear America's obsession with Michael Phelps during this past year's Olympics may have possibly lead people to perceive otherwise.)

Poster Trademarks: Sepia tone Dramatic sport pose

What's the sport? Basketball.
Is the film based on an "inspirational" true story? Yes.
Who overcame all odds? A group of inner-city teenagers, who work through various obstacles (including poor grades, gang violence, pregnancy, etc.) and defy expectations.
Which high profile star plays the coach? Samuel L. Jackson.
What kind of coach is he? A once-great athlete who's stern yet passionate and endearing.
Any "heart-stirring" trailer quotes? "He offered them a choice... between surviving alone... or standing together."
What makes the film different than other sports movies? This film doesn't even pretend to be about the students/athletes, with a title that clearly addresses who the story is really about: the coach. This bit of blunt honesty already makes it far more original than most other sports films.

Poster Trademarks: Dramatic sport pose Hopeful blues

What's the sport? Hockey.
Is the film based on an "inspirational" true story? Yes.
Who overcame all odds? The 1980 US Olympic Men's ice hockey team, who unexpectedly defeated the Russian team and won the gold medal.
Which high profile star plays the coach? Kurt Russell.
What kind of coach is he? A once-great athlete who's stern yet passionate and endearing and has one last shot at redemption.
Any "heart-stirring" trailer quotes? "Herb Brooks had given up his dream of Olympic glory... until twenty ordinary kids... gave him a second chance." and "When you face the impossible... and you refuse to give up... miracles can happen."
What makes the film different than other sports movies? Aside from the film starring Kurt Russell, who's the epitome of awesome, I cannot think of a single aspect of this film that's unique. At least it's well made.

Poster Trademarks: Group cheering Sepia tone Dramatic wide shot

What's the sport? Golf.
Is the film based on an "inspirational" true story? Yes.
Who overcame all odds? Francis Ouimet, the first amateur to win the U.S. Open.
Which high profile star plays the coach? Due to the sport and story at hand, there is no coach character, forcing the studios to find a bankable teen star to play the lead.
Any "heart-stirring" trailer quotes? "He was born with nothing except a dream. He was given no opportunities except the ones he made. But sometimes it takes an outsider... to change the rules."
What makes the film different than other sports movies? As mentioned above, there is no coach character. Also, the opponent of the lead character is presented in a positive light, which is hugely uncommon in sports films. Points for that.

Poster Trademarks: Dramatic sport pose Off-center Sepia tone

What's the sport? Horse racing.
Is the film based on an "inspirational" true story? Yes.
Who overcame all odds? Seabiscuit, an undersized, overlooked down-and-out thoroughbred race horse.
Which high profile star plays the coach? The role of the "coach" is spread across three actors: Tobey Maguire, Jeff Bridges and Chris Cooper.
What kind of coach is he? To quote the trailer, the film describes these characters as: "A young man whose spirit was broken. A millionaire who lost everything. And a cowboy whose world was vanishing." Then the clincher: "Three lost men found each other. And discovered hope in an unlikely place." Not to discout the trailer's inspirational words of wisdom, but when it comes to sports films, I'd argue there's no such thing as an unlikely place to find hope. After all, have you seen a recent sports film where hope wasn't found in an unlikely place? It's a paradox, really.
Any "heart-stirring" trailer quotes? See above.
What makes the film different than other sports movies? The "athlete" character is actually a horse. Strange, then, that this seems to change little of the film when it comes to upholding the standard clichés and predictable story developments. This would seem to act as further evidence that sports films of today operate with a strict set of interchangeable details, and even if you attempt to significantly alter one of them, the rest of the film's rigid adherement to the formula will prevent the genre from evolving in the slightest.

Poster Trademarks: Group cheering Dramatic wide shot Hopeful blues

What's the sport? Baseball.
Is the film based on an "inspirational" true story? Yes.
Who overcame all odds? Kent Stock, who took the job of a lifetime as head coach of the Norway High School baseball team, a school which had won 19 State titles.
Which high profile star plays the coach? Sean Astin. From Rudy to this; how depressing.
What kind of coach is he? Stern yet passionate and endearing.
Any "heart-stirring" trailer quotes? "Now... to become a team again... they will need courage... discipline... and determination." and "When you face the impossible... the only thing you can rely on... is each other."
What makes the film different than other sports movies? In this case, it's the coach who has to overcome all odds; not the players. Basically, his job is to stand idly by and hopefully not screw up the team's winning streak. Oh my, what an inspirational story.

Poster Trademarks: Hopeful blues Dramatic sport pose

What's the sport? Soccer.
Is the film based on an "inspirational" true story? Yes.
Who overcame all odds? Gracie Bowen, who fought to overcome the loss of her soccer star brother by convincing her family and school to allow her to play varsity soccer on an all-boys team.
Which high profile star plays the coach? Dermot Mulroney, who plays Gracie's father. He may not be her coach in the technical sense, but he fills the role in every way other than name.
What kind of coach is he? Stern yet passionate and endearing.
What makes the film different than other sports movies? Absolutely nothing.

Poster Trademarks: Group cheering Dramatic wide shot

What's the sport? Soccer.
Is the film based on an "inspirational" true story? Yes.
Who overcame all odds? The 1950 US soccer team, who beat England 1-0 in the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
Any "heart-stirring" trailer quotes? "In 1950, America was searching for eleven men... to defend the honor of a nation."
What makes the film different than other sports movies? Like The Greatest Game Ever Played, the "coach character" staple is virtually nonexistent here, instead focusing more on the athletes. It's just a shame the rest of the movie is so by-the-numbers.

NOTE: This list is meant solely to demonstrate the lack of originality in the sports films genre of late, not to judge their individual quality. I'll be the first to admit, as clichéd and predictable as all of the films featured above may be, not all of them are necessarily bad; just most of them.

Dishonorable Mentions:

There aren't sports movies, per se, but that doesn't stop them from adhering to the exact same formula as depicted above. Simple switch out sports with spelling and debating. Unsurprisingly, both have central themes that deal with race (as is so often the case with sports films).

And then we have the teen-geared entries of the genre, many of which also switch out actual sports with some alternate activity, yet still always manage to stay true to that tried-and-true formula in most other respects. Additionally, a good majority of them have been given a serious dose of "hip urban style." (This helps to explain why many of them are lacking the stock "coach character," because fo realz dawg, these kids play by their own rules.)

If this trend continues, pretty soon movies won't even need scripts; studio executives will simply fill out a form, run it through a computer program, and the script will write itself. Sadly, even if that was the case, I'm not sure anybody would even notice the difference anymore. Let this article act as a plea: if new entries of the sports film genre are to continue populating cinemas, please let them be more like Darren Aronofsky's upcoming film The Wrestler and less like Fred Durst's The Longshots.

Game Time!

Using the "Hollywood Guide to Making a Sports Film" at the beginning of the article, try to figure out which sports films throughout history are the worst offenders when it comes to lacking any sort of originality. Post your observations in the comments below.