These underdog squads overcome adversity and poor rosters to become sports heroes.
Sports movies have long relied on the tried-and-true method of telling stories about underdog teams who rise above adversity to capture glory on the field of play. Without the requisite team misery or the futile history of a forlorn sports franchise, audiences don't have the necessary platform for stories of sports redemption. These unlikely outcomes often occur in real life sports - with teams like the Boston Red Sox and, more recently, the Denver Nuggets overcoming years of incompetence to capture championships.
Whether these films capture the struggles of real-life fan bases, or tell stories about fictional teams, they all fall under the same banner of inspirational sports films about crews of castoffs raising dubious teams from the cellar of infamy. These stories span many of the major team sports in America, and also arise in some unexpected sports arenas - such as the roller derby film Whip It. What's necessary, in order for the film's leading characters to have true arcs, is to start out the film with a truly crappy squad.
The following are 12 redemptive movies about crappy sports teams who defied the odds and won everything.
12 Rookie of the Year
Don't let its mediocre Rotten Tomatoes rating fool you - Rookie of the Year was a lightning rod for the imaginations of kids across America when it was released in 1993. Director and City Slicker Daniel Stern had some unique insight into childhood imagination after serving as Kevin Arnold's narrative voice on The Wonder Years and chasing around Kevin McCallister in Home Alone.
How Rookie of the Year Showed the Plight of Chicago Cubs Fans
The real-life Chicago Cubs had one of the most tortured fanbases ever, after decades of futility - making them the perfect team for Henry Rowengartner's (Thomas Ian Nicholas) improbable rise as the first kid to make it to the bigs. Henry gives his beloved baseball franchise an adrenaline shot with his magically-acquired pitching prowess, something Cubs fans sorely needed, both fictionally and in real life. The film's best touch is the inclusion of real-life Cubs fan John Candy as the team's announcer.
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11 The Longest Yard
The Longest Yard
Release DateMay 27, 2005DirectorPeter SegalCastAdam Sandler, Chris Rock, burt reynolds, Nelly, Michael Irvin, Walter WilliamsonRatingPG-13Runtime114
The Longest Yard may be better known for the Adam Sandler version, but the original is far superior, catching Burt Reynolds at the height of his '70s superstardom. Reynolds plays Paul "Wrecking" Crewe, an ex-NFL-quarterback-turned-convict, who fields an unlikely football squad using fellow prisoners at Citrus State Prison.
How The Longest Yard Takes the Underdog Story to the Extreme
There had been underdog football films before The Longest Yard, but none heightened the idea to the point of using inmates as the film's sports heroes. Films like Major League took a major cue from the Burt Reynolds film, understanding the appeal of ne'er-do-wells in the leading roles of sports movies.
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10 Any Given Sunday
Any Given Sunday took Oliver Stone's montage-style and slapped it on a football film, taking a more artful approach to the sports movie. It still had the stalwarts of an underdog story, as the Miami Sharks lose their starting quarterback Cap Rooney (Dennis Quaid) to a vicious concussion. The team must turn to Willie Beamen (Jamie Foxx), who navigates as many off-the-field minefields as he does on the gridiron.
How Oliver Stone Changed the Tenor of Sports Films
Stone predicted the CTE and concussion controversy in the NFL, even using real life linebacker Lawrence Taylor as a character increasingly reliant on drugs to stay on the field. The film swam into darker waters than the usual sports fare, a sea change signaling how sports films would be made in the coming century.
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9 The Mighty Ducks
the mighty ducks
Release DateOctober 2, 1992DirectorStephen HerekCastEmilio Estevez, Joss Ackland, Lane Smith, Heidi Kling, Josef Sommer, Joshua JacksonRatingPGRuntime100
The Mighty Ducks made the coach the star of the movie, as former phenom Gordon Bombay (Emilio Estevez) must exorcise his hockey demons and lead a ragtag crew of castoffs to supremacy on the ice. The film inspired a generation of little-leaguers and led to the creation of a hockey franchise, the Anaheim Mighty Ducks. Talk about life imitating art!
Why The Mighty Ducks Became a Phenomenon
Very simply, this Disney franchise understood what young audiences wanted out of a sports movie: players they could relate to, an unlikely rise to prominence, and a zany trick play - the inimitable "Flying V" - to help these adolescent heroes to victory. Go Ducks!
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8 The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh
The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh was the brainchild of Gilbert Moses, a civil rights activist, theater director, and filmmaker during the '70s blaxploitation era. Moses brought that film genre's spirit to a classic underdog sports tale, using possibly the coolest man to ever live, ABA and NBA star Julius "Dr. J" Erving, as Moses Guthrie, the star of the fictional Pittsburgh Pythons.
How the Movie Used Astrology
Some teams rely on advanced metrics when building their squads - not the Pythons. They enlist the help of astrologer Mona Mondieu (Stockard Channing). Mona instructs them to build a team of players with the astrological sign Pisces - yes, this was the '70s - leading to an enormous turnaround and a shot at the title.
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7 Whip It
whip it!
Release DateApril 9, 2009DirectorDrew BarrymoreCastElliot Page, Marcia Gay Harden, Kristen Wiig, Drew Barrymore, Juliette Lewis, Jimmy FallonRatingPG-13Runtime111
Drew Barrymore hopped on the other side of the camera for Whip It, a different sort of sports film that used a stellar cast including Elliot Page, Juliette Lewis, and Marcia Gay Harden to tell the story of an underachieving roller derby team.
Why the Film Resonates
Page was on a serious roll in 2009, as he was still riding the high of a breakout role in Juno, then shot Inception and Whip It in the same year. In the roller derby epic, Page makes the perfect protagonist as Babe Ruthless, his nom de guerre as a formidable foe on skates, despite Ruthless' diminutive stature.
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6 Remember the Titans
Remember the Titans used one of film's greatest motivational voices, Denzel Washington, in the role of Herman Boone, a high school football coach tasked with integrating two different high schools' teams who differ racially and ideologically. The film is given the serious Jerry Bruckheimer treatment, with a super-heightened take on the underdog sports film.
Why Remember the Titans Still Resounds
The film isn't only a story of sports triumph, but an allegory on topics of race and class. The better an athlete's off-the-field story is, the easier they are to root for - and Remember the Titans is loaded with characters that give us a rooting interest.
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5 Moneyball
Moneyball
Release DateSeptember 22, 2011DirectorBennett MillerCastBrad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Robin Wright, Chris Pratt2, Stephen BishopRatingPG-13Runtime133
Moneyball took Michael Lewis' book of the same name and crafted a compelling film around the story of underachieving pro baseball player Billy Beane's (Brad Pitt) unorthodox approach to running the Oakland Athletics' front office. Pitt exemplifies the way a prominent sports figure can remain childlike thanks to his proximity to the game of baseball, as he munches sunflower seeds while wheeling and dealing his players like baseball cards.
How Beane's Best Efforts Couldn't Keep the Franchise in Oakland
A big obstacle for the small-market Oakland A's was overcoming their smaller payroll, which led Beane to innovate the statistically-minded way he built his baseball team. While that leads to an incredible 20-game winning streak in the movie, it would prove to be the A's biggest highlight in the last two decades, as they are now set to move to Las Vegas within a few seasons. The real-life Beane remains an executive and minority-owner of the team.
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4 The Bad News Bears
Bad News Bears
Release DateJuly 22, 2005DirectorRichard LinklaterCastBilly Bob Thornton, Greg Kinnear, Marcia Gay Harden, Sammi Kane Kraft, Ridge Canipe, Brandon CraggsRatingPG-13Runtime114
The Bad News Bears has been lauded by everyone from the Coen Brothers to Richard Linklater (who helmed the remake) for its incredible effect not only on sports films, but the indie movies of the entire '90s filmmaking generation. The film utilized an incredible young acting talent, Tatum O'Neal, who dominates the film's ragtag, potty-mouthed boys both on the field and off. O'Neal furthered her sports savvy when she married tennis star John Mcenroe in the early-'80s, but her career never quite reached the heights that Bad News Bears and Paper Moon suggested it would in the '70s.
How to Film Provides an Important Lesson
As coach of the Bears, Morris Buttermaker (Walter Mathau) is a prototypical washout. Despite his better judgement, when he prods his squad by only playing the best players, he's faced with an existential dilemma, and the little league's championship game hangs in the balance. In a way, he makes both the wrong and the right decision in the end.
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3 Slap Shot
We are here for Paul Newman's mid-'70s to mid-'80s run, which saw Newman begin playing characters his age in films like The Verdict, The Color of Money, and best-of-all, Slap Shot. This very-'70s take on a sports movie casts Newman as Reggie Dunlop, a seen-it-all veteran of the Charlestown Chiefs, hanging desperately onto his last precious years playing professional hockey.
How Slap Shot's Comedy Heightens its Drama
The film ties the laughs right into the plot, as a trio of brothers, the Hansons, join the struggling squad mid-season and reek havoc on the competition with vicious cross-checks and incredible on-ice chemistry. They also provide the film's greatest comic highlights, acting more like a pack of wild dogs than semi-pro athletes.
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2 Major League
Major League
Release Date2019-00-00Main GenresportGenressport, Comedy
Major League checks all the boxes of '80s sports movies at their best: the Randy Newman opening credits song, an abundance of swearing and locker-room humor, and the rise of a forlorn franchise to never-before-seen heights. Charlie Sheen, Wesley Snipes, and Rene Russo all give compelling performances. If this movie's story seems way too good for a sports movie, that's because David S. Ward, the incredible screenwriter of The Sting and Sleepless in Seattle was at the helm. The final showdown against the Yankees to potentially win the pennant is one of sports movies' greatest single scenes.
Why the Film Didn't Break the Franchise's Curse
Unfortunately for the Indians, the film didn't break the curse of winning exactly zero World Series since 1948, the longest streak of futility among active baseball teams (despite coming close in 2016). Now that they've changed their name to the Guardians and done away with the team's racially-insensitive mascot, maybe their karma will change. No matter what, they'll always have one of the most beloved baseball movies ever to rely on.
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1 Angels in the Outfield
Starring a young Joseph Gordon-Levitt in one of his earliest roles, Angels in the Outfield follows two foster children, Roger and J.P. Wanting his family back together, Roger asks his dad at a court hearing when that will happen, which earns him the sarcastic reply, "When the Angels with the pennant." The Angels at the time were the worst team around, so Roger prays for them to have some help from above - which they then receive. Heavenly angels descend to help the underdogs in what you might call cheating, but since it's a kids movie, we'll let it slide. The surprisingly stocked cast of this forgotten movie include Danny Glover, Christopher Lloyd, Tony Danza, Adrien Brody, and Matthew McConaughey.
The Angels Win, But That Isn't the Point
Divine intervention carries the Angels to the final game of the season against the Chicago White Sox, but the team goes on to win the final match on their own. They win the pennant, but that doesn't mean Roger's wish is fulfilled, because his father gave up custody before then anyway. He realizes that he didn't really want his dad, he just wanted a family, and by the end of the movie, he has come to understand what family means when he and J.P. are adopted by the Angels coach.
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