Why is sports-related art so sucky? Is there something about the live nature of sports events that is antithetical to pre-conceived and plotted art forms? Is there something lowbrow and gladiatorial about sports that makes it unworthy material? Is it because fandom in sports requires an investment of time and a weighted interest in the outcome of a "pointless" game? Or is it because jocks (sports fans) and nerds (literary types) part ways early on in life when jocks worldwide torture and humiliate nerds in PE and on the playground?
Here are the only worthy examples of sports-related art I could think of:
1. Black Planet by David Shields
2. Raging Bull
3. Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby (now made into a BASEBALL movie w/ Jimmy Fallon and Gertie....????????????????)
4. The Houston Oilers old fight song (Houston OIL-ers...HOU-ston OIL-ers!)
5. Middlebrow's experimental 15-line Free Throw Sonnet (I DARE him to publish this on his blog)
Honorable mention:
1. Hoosiers (Havent' seen in about 15 years. Could be very cheesy now.)
2. Paper Lion by George Plimpton (haven't actually read)
I encourage the Front Porch readership to list their own examples of non-sucky sports-related art. Anyone who says "Rudy" will be removed from the list.
Thanks for listening.
The Management
9 comments:
Nike b-ball shoe commercials--esp. the one that played during the tournament last year. The syncopated beat of dribbling with Kevin Garnett taking slow monster steps around a stationary basketball. This is art.
I left a comment earlier about Ice Castles and the general bad-greatness or great-badness of Robby Benson sports movies, but it disappeared into the blogosphere. It basically went: Blindness, skating and Robby Benson. Also the movie where he plays a runner who wets the bed. Remember that one?
I haven't read A Fan's Notes, but have heard often that I should. So I will. Have you?
I dare you to call Field of Dreams cheesy!
I would also add John Updike's poem "Ex Basketball Player," and Sherman Alexie's poem "Defending Walt Whitman"
Haven't seen any of the Robby Benson movies, although I remember iconoclast teammate Tom Wilkowski speaking highly of "One on One" back in HS. Will put "A Fan's Notes" on my list, w/ Middlebrow's poetry selections. As for "Field of Dreams," well, it's been 16 years since I saw that, and it was borderline way back then. The closeups, the swelling music...I'd have to see it again.
Who or what is "Rudy"?
Rudy was a movie that came out 12 years ago about a small-town kid with limited talent who wants to play football for Notre Dame (and ends up being a practice dummy). To be perfectly honest, I've never seen it! (But it has to be manipulative and awful, it HAS to!)
You are soooo lucky you didn't call "Field of Dreams" chessy sir!
first post to your very cool blog. I love sports movies, in particular, so much that I can pretty much dig some enjoyment out of almost anything. The test is the re-viewing. Hoosiers is not cheesy, no way. You didn't categorically rule out kid sports, so I'm nominating the old Bad News Bears, with Walter Matthau (there's a remake a-comin, so watch out). Personal Best? Amazing. Rudy? Sucked the first time, though I'm pretty sure I cried.
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