Show Sports movies that were never made but should've Childs Walker The Baltimore Sun Sports movies and uplift go together like peanut butter and jelly The one can exist without the other but people sure seem to like them as a pair Take a movie like Remember the Titans which edited the story of a newly integrated high school football team so that most characters fit preconceived types the noble and wise black coach the white star who's wary of losing his spot but comes around the fat kid for comic relief A few years ago my dad had jury duty and they showed Titans in the waiting area By Bythe Bythe Bythe the end he said the racially mixed audience sat rapt cheering cheering cheering cheer cheer- ing as blacks and whites came together to win a high school championship We like broad uplift even if it doesn't always carry the ring of absolute truth In January Glory Road became the latest inspiring sports tale to roll off the assembly line The movie tells a great story that of Don Haskins' Haskins black all-black starting starting starting start start- ing five basketball team from Texas Western on Kentucky and its coach Adolph Rupp who had been slow to inte inte- grate Many call the game the most important in the history of the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament Reviews suggest that the movie sets aside nuance and chums churns out the numbers trea trea- cle Which is fine Genre sports j flicks i are are what the they are l But uL Glory Glory Road Road prompts a a few few few broader questions Which great sports stories linger out there waiting to be told by Hollywood Which might resist the triumphant underdog treat- treat A uL L. L u u. u ment 10 to which we weve ve grown so su accustomed A few criteria learned from past missteps The events depicted had to happ happen n before sports were televised televised televised tele tele- widely or had to be obscure enough that they haven't been shown on video clips since Ali AH for example was beautifully beautifully beautifully fully shot and well-acted well but felt strange to many critics because so much of Muhammad Alis Ali's life had happened on camera or had been documented thoroughly The whiff of insight was absent The film also cannot be too dependent on game sequences that cant can't be reproduced by actors This makes pro basketball a difficult subject because the athletes are uniquely large and expressive Spike Lee in a question and answer session on said the best sports stories have not made it to film Oh no because making a great sports film is very hard to do it is so hard to duplicate the action rarely can actors be as believable as athletes even stunt men cant can't great sporting events and teams are more intriguing than you could ever write reality is so much better than stuff you could make up like in fiction the best stuff is true Enough with the reservations Here are a few sports stones mat that could make inspired if not necessarily necessarily necessarily inspirational films A Afew Afew Afew few have been made into television television television sion movies or unmemorable films but those dont don't count Jackie Robinson Its It's hardly surprising that Lee has considered considered considered consid consid- ered the idea of shooting a Robinson bio This puppy has everything You have in Robinson a deeply compelling central character an educated man who played with ferocity but toned down his personality at first for the good of his team his race and ultimately the nation You have a great supporting character in Branch Rickey the Dodgers' Dodgers general manger who might have wanted black players because he believed integration was just or simply might have wanted to tap a new reserve of talent Lesser supporting turns could go to white Southern teammates teammates teammates team team- mates Dixie Walker who worried worried worried wor wor- ried that associating with Robinson would hurt his reputation reputation reputation tion back home and Pee Wee Reese who became Robinsons Robinson's closest friend on the team despite hailing from segregated Kentucky You have a great arc as Robinson goes from the Negro leagues to Triple-A Triple Montreal to the New York Dodgers You have conflict as some of Robinsons Robinson's teammates are cautious and opponents are downright hostile And you have a triumph as Robinson overcomes early batting batting batting bat bat- ting struggles to win Rookie of the Year and bring new run base ning elan to baseball Jo Robinson so debuted ted f I television exploded so vi video pf x f j i him isn't burned into our brains His contribution is vital and enduring in a way many people can understand And baseball can be filmed without looking lous louse Its It's just a great story J Joe Joe oe Louis vs Max Boxing probably has produced more good movies th thany than any other sport because it distills conflict so purely But Louis and would make particularly particularly particularly compelling fare because they represented a lot more than themselves Louis preceded Robinson as black Americas America's sporting hero The black neighborhoods in New NewYork NewYork NewYork York Chicago and Detroit came cameto to a virtual halt when he fought and burst into celebration after he won Boxing was an unimaginably unimaginably unimaginably big deal in the often pushing world events and the Great Depression down the front page And Louis was the next great American the heir to Jack Dempsey until he met maintained the delicate delicate delicate del del- balance of seeming loyal to Hitler while remaining palatable to American boxing fans many of whom were Jewish He even kept a Jewish manager as the Third Reich robbed German Jews of their comfort their property property property prop prop- erty and their lives He could make a wonderfully ambiguous character The fights provided great drama as handed Louis the first defeat of his career Louis then rebounded to knock out in a fight ficht v O g that made the world stop This could be an epic tale operating on many levels You'd have two nations on the brink of war one fighter who was becoming becoming becoming becom becom- ing his nations nation's first popular black hero and one who was trying trying try try- ing to survive an impossible political situation Early days of Stock car is racing among our most popular and colorful sports but hasn't produced much film beyond Tom Cruise reliving Top Gun in a race car in Days 1 of Thunder Think along the lines of The Right Stuff a Sports Movies j Co Cont t. t Page 10 It t I Sports Movies Cont from Page 8 I sprawling examination of our infatuation with risk and speed It could begin with bootlegging bootlegging bootlegging bootleg bootleg- ging runs in the hills move to the dirt tracks and end in the corporate wonderland of mod mod- n ern Theres There's a great Tom Wolfe profile of pioneering pioneering pioneer pioneer- ing driver Junior Johnson to serve as source material It would be loud full of characters characters characters charac charac- and might actually say something about this country Battle of the Sexes Integration has gotten most of the attention in sports movies but gender provides another fertile ground Billie Jean King stood on the front lines of the feminist movement when she met Bobby Riggs inthis in inthis this tennis 1973 exhibition 1 She had been agitating for recognition and equal pay J This would center on two J I great characters The outspoken outspoken outspoken ken King was a true crusader who subjugated her own career to create true professionalism professionalism professionalism in women's sports At 55 55 Riggs was a huckster who saw money in gender baiting Their match won in straight sets by King forced the country to confront its feelings about women in society society society soci soci- ety and the workplace The tennis scenes wouldn't even be that hard to re-create re because the play itself was tic Fischer vs Back to the political geo-political intrigue When American Bobby Fischer met Russian Boris in inthe inthe inthe the 1972 world championship Americans suddenly became crazed with chess Heres Here's the plot You have an eccentric prodigy in Fischer challenging the Soviet chess dynasty in the midst of the Cold War Fischer a control freak who rarely bothered to show up on time but dazzled with manic bursts of brilliant play would be a dream part for many actors You could even foreshadow foreshadow foreshadow fore fore- shadow his dark turn toward Semitism anti-Semitism and life on the fringe was quieter but chafed against the same Soviet chess establishment that propped him up Vince Lombardi An assistant assistant assistant assis assis- tant coach who has toiled in obscurity gets his shot in remote Green Bay Wis and builds one of the greatest sports dynasties You could film great scenes as Lombardi hammers home the fundamentals of the sweep and the supporting s cast from mentors including Army Anny coach Red Blaik to players including halfback Paul Hornung could be rich Lombardi is an iconic figure and he was something of an underdog But he had enough self-confidence self to be a tyrant when needed Theres There's also an When excellent biography Mattered by David Maraniss that could be the basis for a screenplay While were we're thinking coaches coach coach- es es manager Casey Stengel would make a good subject as well |