Sports Movies to Make You Shed a Tear
Sometimes you want a sports film that fills you with get up and go, sometimes one that makes you crack a smile or a laugh, but sometimes you want a sports film that leaves you in bits. There’s a specific sort of pleasure to be found in shedding a tear at a film and there’s something about the feats of great sportspeople that makes it so very easy. These are some of the greatest sport movies that will leave you feeling all of the feels. Tissues at the ready, let the floods begin.
Seabiscuit, 2003
There’s nothing like an underdog story to get the waterworks going and Seabiscuit might be one of the greatest underdog stories of all time. This film follows the true story of Seabiscuit, a diminutive racehorse that was often overlooked because of his stature. Much like Seabiscuit, his jockey Red Pollard has fallen on hard times too. He and his family suffered hugely during the Great Depression and Pollard set about becoming a jockey. He struggled to find work but when Seabiscuit’s new owner noticed the similarly defiant temperaments of his new horse and Pollard, he matched the two together as a sort of experiment. Little did he know that the duo he had just made would go on to become almost unstoppable. The pair win many races together and Seabiscuit really did become a beacon of hope for many animal and sports lovers during the aftermath of the Great Depression. There are too many tear-jerking moments to count in this film, but one that endures is when jockey Pollard proclaims in a voiceover, ‘You know everybody thinks we found this broken-down horse and fixed him, but we didn’t. He fixed us.’ I’m not crying, you’re crying.
The Karate Kid, 1984
Rarely can you get through a sporting films list without a mention of The Karate Kid. As well as being an 80s classic with a soundtrack to rival just about any other, it also teaches us some important lessons about discipline, self-belief and, in a way, the power of love. The Karate Kid tells the story of a New Jersey kid who moves to San Francisco, falls in love, gets beaten up, but most importantly learns to get back up again. With the help of his trainer Mr Miyagi, he grows strong enough to overcome his fears and fight better than most people in the ring today! Although the Karate Kid has long since retired (it’s hard to believe but this film was released almost forty years ago) it would be great to see him fight today’s greats. We can only imagine the odds for him to win would be very short indeed. If you want to place a bet on a fight, with or without the Karate Kid, then at the moment OLBG has curated a list of New Jersey sportsbooks offering free bets and deposit bonuses. It would be quite something to see the Karate Kid return to his hometown of New Jersey but failing that, the upcoming Cage Fury Fighting Championships might be a good second place.
Battle of the Sexes, 2017
In terms of great tennis viewing, it doesn’t get much better than Battle of the Sexes. This film was released in 2017 but was firmly based in the 1970s when a famous match between Billie Jean King (here played by Emma Stone) and Bobby Riggs (by Steve Carell) took place. Both actors received multiple nominations for their roles at the Golden Globes, the Critics’ Choice Awards and The Screen Actors Guild Awards. The film begins with Billie and Gladys Heldman confronting Jack Kramer in 1970. Kramer has organized a tennis tournament where, despite women and men bringing in equal ticket sales, the women’s overall prize is just an eighth of the men’s prize. When Kramer refuses to alter any of the terms of the tournament, Billie and Gladys set up their own tournament, the WTA, and sign 9 strong players. This causes Kramer to refuse any of them access to his tennis tournaments and sets up a long, difficult struggle for the female players. The film twists and turns through the tricky terrain of same-sex relationships, equal rights for women and the constant stresses that these athletes must put themselves through. It culminates in a match between Bobby Riggs and Billie Jean King. Those who are tennis fanatics will know exactly how this match ends, but for those who don’t know, we won’t ruin it. Suffice to say, this film is not only a sporting masterpiece but also an intensely emotional whirlwind.
