“Draft Day represents a negative trend worse than just a decreasing quality in sports movies — the action has left the field. Screenwriters increasingly feel the need to infuse drama into a sports situation that is dramatic enough.” — Michael Errigo
What ever happened to good sports movies? Last year’s batch of sports films included a dud about two aging men boxing each other (Grudge Match), a Jackie Robinson biopic that critic Peter Rainer of The Christian Science Monitor described as “TV-movie-of-the-week dull” (42) and some movie called Snake and Mongoose. 2012 was even worse. It was so bad, in fact, that I don’t even have a witty jab to make; the films’ names are funny enough: Trouble with the Curve, Here Comes the Boom and Playing for Keeps.
The most popular sports movies of the past five years haven’t even really been about sports. The Fighter (2010) deals with family and addiction, The Blind Side (2009) is about socio-economic class interconnections and Moneyball (2011) focuses on what happens in the offices above the field instead of what transpires on it.
Moneyball has even started a small trend of its own: movies about the front office dealings of professional sports. What started as a fine idea for a movie — Moneyball was nominated for Best Picture — has led to Draft Day, the Kevin Costner NFL epic that comes out tomorrow. If this sure-to-be failure doesn’t put an end to the fad, hopefully May’s Million Dollar Arm, about Don Draper searching for major league pitchers in India, does the trick.
Draft Day represents a negative trend worse than just a decreasing quality in sports movies — the action has left the field. Screenwriters increasingly feel the need to infuse drama into a sports situation that is dramatic enough. Obviously the American public loves the twists and turns that take place on the field, evidenced by the millions who tune in nightly to watch sports. Often, these fabricated emotional storylines just come off as cheesy and unnecessary (as with nearly all of We Are Marshall, for example).
It wasn’t always like this. 2005 gave us the likes of Coach Carter, Goal! The Dream Begins and The Greatest Game Ever Played, which were exciting, emotional and original. 2004 was even better, gracing us with Miracle and Friday Night Lights. The on-field/court/rink action was great enough to carry those movies, and any off-field drama was just extra.
Professional sports have become some of the largest and most lucrative entertainment industries in the world for good reason. The very best storylines in the wide world of sports are created authentically: an improbable star, a fight to the finish, a modern-day David and Goliath. The stories we see on ESPN are the same ones that should get us to the multiplex. Give us power, give us passion, give us fight. Save the sap for another genre.
