The magic of sports movies

The tragic death of Gene Hackman earlier this year brought to the front of my mind one of his most notable roles — the first time I actually remember seeing Hackman — as the stubborn, hard-nosed but highly inspirational basketball coach Norman Dale in the 1986 film “Hoosiers.”

I sat down to rewatch the movie, where Hackman plays a coach with a questionable past who lands in a dusty farm town in the middle of nowhere, Indiana, and takes over the down-on-their luck high school hoops team. It’s the kind of story that we’ve seen so many times in our moviegoing lives — town hates new coach; team starts winning; then coach’s spotty past comes to back to haunt him and things start to fall apart just before the town, team and coach come together to make a magical run to the championship. 

But as I watched, it occurred to me just what it was I found so intriguing about this simple type of storytelling in sports cinema, and why every time I watch these types of movies I get swept up and find myself rooting for the underdogs to pull off the upset, for the good guys to beat the bad guys while overcoming the odds to chase something bigger than themselves.

We all know how the story goes in sports movies. And when we see the dramatic finish with the last-second buzzer-beater that bounces around the rim in slow motion as the clock expires before the ball swooshes through the net, it still feels good every time. 

Real life can be messy, and in real life the ball doesn’t always bounce our way. Things fall apart, the favorite wins, and as anybody who’s played a competitive sport can attest, there’s often more failures than there are winning moments. By contrast, the simpler world of sports movies can be a comforting escape.

Growing up — back in dark days of DVD rentals — I would often find myself looking for a sports movie to watch. “The Mighty Ducks,” “The Sandlot,” “Rudy” and “Bad News Bears” were my feel-good flicks. I laughed at kid-friendly comedies like “Rookie of the Year” and “Little Giants.” I learned about how baseball was bigger than just a game with “A League of Their Own,” “Field of Dreams” and “The Natural.” 

These films taught me about life, history, race and social justice. Movies like “Remember the Titans” followed the familiar formula of the ragtag group of unlikely teammates coming together to win, but with the added layer of complexity that came with integration of sports in the early 1970s. 

While sports movies can be full of cliché and overused tropes, there have also been a few standout films that ventured past the tried-and-true overcoming-the-odds storylines. “Friday Night Lights” flipped the idea of a town being held together by high school sports, and showed what happens when things don’t always have a happy ending. “Love and Basketball” and “He Got Game” used sports as a way to explore family, relationships, and the pressures that come with being a highly recruited student athlete in America.

Sure, there’s plenty of sports movies that miss the mark, with most of them falling into the category of lazily done remakes — like the cash-grab trainwreck that is “Space Jam 2” — or unnecessary sequels of movies that never needed a follow up (I’m looking at you, “Air Bud” cinematic universe). But there’s still something to love about even these “bad” movies, and something comforting about the worlds they create.

Sometimes it’s better to be in these worlds, where Gene Hackman is Coach Norman Dale, leading Hickory High to the Indiana State Championship game. Where things end up as they should, and even when the chips are down, the underdog still has a fighting chance. So no matter how corny, simple or predictable they may be, these movies will always be my guilty pleasures.