Sports Movies

the long version

"Sports and particular sporting events have been prominent subjects for American films from Edison's kinetograph shorts of the 1890s to the seemingly endless Rocky franchise. Yet, though we recognize the sports film as a profitable popular entertainment vehicle, these films do not preclude their function as grounds of discourse of defining issues in class, race, gender, and sexuality. Major cultural controversies are, in one form or another, ongoing components of the ever-changing montage of sports depicted in movies. The Sports Film argues that while sports films usually affirm athletic completion as meritocracy, they simultaneously point out the failure of society, in general, to operate in the same manner. Lester D. Friedman pushes forward his argument by discussing the history of the sports film and then focusing individual chapters on the most popular American sports: baseball, basketball, football, and boxing. Movies analyzed include A League of their Own, Remember the Titans, Million Dollar Baby, and more"--