A sports film is generally a film genre which makes use of sport as the central theme of the movie. It’s a fictional production in which an athletic event, sport, athlete, or fan of sport are heavily involved, and that rely heavily on sport for their main plot resolution or motivation. The genre has been around since the birth of motion pictures, and has only become more popular in recent years with the rise of award-winning films like Any Given Sunday, The Game, and Memento. Sports movies are known to be highly topical, often dealing with an athlete’s career, and their departure from professional sports. This allows for a much more intense connection to the sport than is possible with many fictional genres.
The main issue with this type of film is that they are usually based around an athlete who is one of the most well-known, and also one of the best performing athletes in their field. Due to this, the audience tend to be made up almost entirely of fans of that athlete, rather than people who may have little interest in sports. For example, if you’re watching the film version of a NBA playoff series, you really don’t care about how Michael Jordan is performing, and probably aren’t going to spend the entire film either. But on the other hand, if you’re watching the film version of a high school football game, it doesn’t matter how good Urban Meyer is, as he’ll probably just end up beating his team anyway.
Many people view sports movies as a form of pornography, as many portray athletes as nothing more than glorified sex kittens, and therefore don’t give them credit for the dedicated and hard work that they do. While the above statement is largely a generalization, the truth is that the majority of athletes aren’t glorified sex kittens, and often put in tremendous amounts of time and effort to ensure that they’re able to excel at their sport. Sports can make great subject matter, as they allow one to use their mind in ways that are generally not allowed in other forms of entertainment. So whether it’s true or not, sports can provide us with plenty of fodder for interesting stories and should be enjoyed by all.