From Stadium to Screen: Why Sports Movies Resonate
I’ve rarely met a kid who didn’t dream of being an Olympic athlete. In my experience, “Olympian” is up there with “the President” and “Superman” in terms of children’s answers to the question: What do you want to be when you grow up?
Of course, not all of us will become professional athletes. As we grow, our priorities and interests often change. (Or we get tendonitis, or one too many concussions, and that’s that.) But although the dream may fade, for many of us, it never truly disappears, even after we hang up our cleats. Why? Because the game is still there, waiting to be played. If not by us, by someone else. And as spectators, we can watch from the sidelines, cheer whole-heartedly, and remember that dream we had as kids, when everything seemed possible. It starts to feel like we can do anything. That’s especially true when it comes to the Olympics. Even people who generally don’t like sports seem to have a soft spot for the games. They’re undeniably magnetic.
It’s not just the real-life games that have this appeal, either. There are decades of beloved sports movies that excite fans while also transcending the “I-don’t-like-sports” barrier. So as the rescheduled 2020 Summer Olympics kick into high gear, I decided to take a look at what’s in the DNA of these movies that makes them so great.
The first, most easily-recognizable and probably most important element of a good sports movie is the Underdog. This can take the form of a diamond-in-the-rough rookie: someone who lacks experience but has a talent that will bring them success if they learn how to use it properly. It could be a fallen champ who has to bounce back from injury or retirement for one more fight. It could also be “a regular guy” who may not be the most skilled, but loves the sport and works hard to achieve their goals a la Rudy. This can apply to a whole team, too: In Mystery, Alaska, who would have believed a rag-tag team of Alaskans would be able to compete with the New York Rangers? Nobody, but that’s what gets us invested in the story. The Underdog is such a loveable character because we see ourselves in them. In real life, we want people who work hard to find success, regardless of the external circumstances or conflicts they face. Of course, things don't always work out that way, but the movies give us hope that they can.
Another important element of the sports movie is the Mentor. This also works because we can easily identify parallels to our own lives, either in the mentor figures who helped us grow or the ones we wish we’d had. A lot of times, unsurprisingly, the Mentor is the coach, but it can also be a family member, a pro athlete, or a teammate. The Sandlot has good examples of two of these, with both an imaginary Babe Ruth and Scotty Smalls’ friend, “Benny the Jet” Rodriguez, providing guidance for the main character as he learns to play baseball.
Closely related to the Mentor is the Motivational Speech, which is usually delivered by the coach and is one of the most memorable scenes in the film. A good sports movie can probably get by without one of these, but many of the greats have them. When all hope seems to be lost, the Mentor steps in with spine-chilling, energizing words of encouragement that everyone rallies around as they make their last push to meet their goals. Some notable examples are the “Great Moments Are Born from Great Opportunity” speech from Miracle and the “Inch by Inch” speech from Any Given Sunday. When the audience hears the Motivational Speech, we know that it’s time for us to get hyped, too. We’ve probably seen the protagonists struggle and fight to improve for the better part of ninety minutes, and after experiencing all those ups and downs alongside the characters, we’re ready for the key moment of the movie: the Victory.
The Victory is the real reason we’re watching. Finally, the characters have overcome their emotional and physical obstacles, and now it’s time for a win. This is the part we don’t always get in the real world, regardless of how hard we try or how much we care. Not every sports movie ends in a championship title or a literal success, but they don’t have to. Rocky doesn’t have to beat Creed in order for us to feel like he’s won. The story resolves just fine when the Victory is a moral one, but either way, the lessons the protagonist has learned must pay off in the final scenes. The people we’ve rooted for need to prove us right.
That’s the beauty of the sports movie. It’s wonderful to imagine a world where all of us are rewarded and acknowledged for our efforts and progress, where we all ultimately succeed. This is even more true when those fictional fields, courts, and arenas become stand-ins for something more universal than the games they hold, like the fight for social justice, the challenges of making friends, the pain and joy of seeking redemption, or the thrill of showing your doubters what you’re really worth. At the end of the day, sports movies - and the Olympic Games themselves - remind us of our dreams and inspire us towards our goals because they highlight one of the persistent quirks of being human: We all see ourselves as the underdogs and we hope to one day see ourselves as the heroes. And if Rocky Balboa and Scotty Smalls could do it, and if Simone Biles and Michael Phelps could do it, then why can’t we?
The 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games take place from July 23, 2021 - August 8, 2021. NBC will provide coverage for the duration of the events.
Written by: Cassidy Elibol
Art By: Serik Bybee | Instagram
