People go to the movies for a variety of reasons. Whether it is to watch a true story, a work of fiction, a comedy or tragedy, movies are able to raise emotions in us which few other arenas in life are able to do. One of the other emotion-raising arenas is sport.

Sports movies can also be a source of fantasy, showing to the audience what they could have achieved if only their lives had taken a different turn. They can also inspire those with nascent sporting talent to strive to achieve their dreams. Are you one of those, who after watching a movie, rushed off to the athletics store to buy a pair of socks, particularly compression socks, to wear inside your sports shoes as you began your quest for sporting glory?

Here are the top 10 sports movies, starting from number 10:

 

10. Bend It Like Beckham
This soccer movie with a cross-cultural theme delighted American audiences on its launch in 2002. This masterpiece launched Keira Knightley as star material and demonstrated that sheer determination can help anyone in the mostly male dominated arena of sport – including young girls.

 

9. Eight Men Out
For those who like a mix of sport, history and politics, then the 1988 movie Eight Men Out is a classic. Starring John Cusack, the plot is about the 1919 World Series, which the Chicago Black Sox chose to throw.

 

8. Blades of Glory
Blades of Glory is a sports comedy about two ice skaters who have been stripped of their gold medals but find a loophole that enables them to compete as a double. Their efforts to develop a contest-winning display are hilarious.

 

7. Any Given Sunday
This 1999 football movie is all-absorbing, and as Keith Uhlich commented: Leave it to Oliver Stone to make you enjoy feeling like a tossed-around pigskin. Described as a testosterone-filled blitz, Any Given Sunday contains great cinematic effects and Stones own view of one of the cultural cornerstones of American culture.

 

6. Invincible
Invincible, 2008, is a sporting film that both entertains and inspires. Starring Mark Wahlberg, it is based on the true story of Vincent Papale, who battles into the world of pro football with Philadelphia Eagles. He faces an equally tough task winning the respect of his new teammates. As simple and authentic as the gritty South Philly environs in which it’s set, Invincible sends an uplifting and heartfelt message, packed with an athletic enthusiasm that shouldn’t be missed, was the critics consensus.

 

5. Breaking Away
Hailed as one of the top 10 sports genre movies, as well as one of the most inspiring by the American Film Institute, this 1999 offering about one boys obsession with cycle racing provides an escape from the boredom of everyday life for him and his friends.

 

4. Remember the Titans
Remember the Titans was released in 2000, and set 30 years earlier, when segregation was still the norm in southern schools. Set in the T.C. Williams High School in Virginia, this movie reflects the tension between white and black students and how, through the bonds of football, the community was able to bury differences. This is not just a movie about sport, but a social commentary, a history and a source of hope even in these turbulent days.

 

3. Million Dollar Baby
This 2004 Clint Eastwood-directed movie won four academy awards and is the story of how Maggie Fitzgerald played by Hilary Swank aspired to become a success in boxing, not normally a sport associated with women. Million Dollar Baby is yet another example of an inspirational movie from the sports genre.

 

2. Seabiscuit
Horseracing is so popular that no best sports movies list should ever omit a movie relating to the sport. This 2003 movie is the story of the ungainly race horse, Seabiscuit, and its Race of the Century meeting with Triple Crown winner, Man o War. It is a movie to set the blood racing!

 

1. Rocky
If there is to be a greatest sports movie of all time, it just has to be Rocky. Released in 1976, Rocky is the story of how Rocky Balboa (played by Sylvester Stallone) battles from being a part-time fighter to world champion. Describing the inspirational power of the movie, a review in the Hollywood Reporter claimed: For the course of its two hours we learn that, given the incentive, a man can transform himself from a bum to a worthy contender or perhaps more important, that America is still a place where a man can haul himself up by his own bootstraps provided he believes in himself and has the will to do so.
There have been many great sports movies, and there will be many more. Yet they will all contain these essential ingredients: a great story line, the ability to entertain, and crucially, be inspirational.