The greatest sports movies hold their independent places, as both sports and movies are the two largest carriers of the entertainment industry. There are thousands of life stories hidden behind every live telecast of sports. You will find there a harmony of conflict and love mixed with hard-earned achievements. The following movies can present to you the best composition of sports and life.
Best Ever Sports Movies Worth Watching
Offside | 2006 | Iran | 7.3/10 IMDb | 74% RottenTomatoes Audience Score
The film tells the story of the girls who manage to get inside the stadium to enjoy World Cup football. The director Jafar Panahi and Shadmehr Rastin wrote the screenplay of the film.
Sima Mobarak-Shahi, Shayesteh Irani, Ayda Sadeqi, Golnaz Farmani, and Mahnaz Zabihi won the Best Actress award at Gijon International Film Festival. Panahi received the Silver Berlin Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. The film was officially selected in the New York and Toronto International Film Festivals.
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Chariots of Fire | 1981 | UK | 7.2/10 IMDb | 80% RottenTomatoes Audience Score
Hugh Hudson directed this British film while Colin Welland wrote its screenplay. The main context follows two athletes attending an Olympic race with entirely different principles. One of them is Scottish-Christian, and the other one is an English Jew.
Ben Cross, Ian Charleson, and Ian Holm star in the film produced by David Puttnam. The movie won Oscar in four categories including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay out of seven nominations.
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Shaolin Soccer | 2001 | Hong Kong | 7.3/10 IMDb | 84% RottenTomatoes Audience Score
This movie, directed by and starring Stephen Chow, is full of hilarious posture. Chow wrote the screenplay along with Tsang Kan-Cheung. The story follows a broken Shaolin squad, who reunites again to be the soccer champion by utilizing their super martial arts.
The film was awarded in Blue Ribbon Awards for Best Foreign Language Film and Hong Kong Film Awards for best picture. Chow and Wong Yat-Fei won the Hong Kong Film Awards for best actor and best supporting actor respectively.
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The Keeper | 2018 | Germany, UK | 7.3/10 IMDb | 87% RottenTomatoes Audience Score
This is the biopic of Bert Trautmann, a renowned German footballer. In this film, the director Marcus H. Rosenmuller focused more on real-life drama than sports. Nicholas J. Schofield and Robert Marciniak contributed to the script along with the director. David Kross played Trautmann in the film. John Henshaw won Tiantian Award for the Best Supporting Actor. Robert Marciniak won the Bavarian Film Award for Best Production.
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Kids Return | 1996 | Japan | 7.5/10 IMDb | 89% RottenTomatoes Audience Score
One of the two friends who dropped out of school tends to make himself a gangster while the other continues to grow up as a boxer. Takeshi Kitano worked on both the direction and the screenplay of the film.
Masanobu Ando was awarded in Japanese Academy Awards, Blue Ribbon Awards, and Yokohama Film Festival for starring in the film. Takeshi Kitano won the Blue-Ribbon Award, Nikkan Sports Film Award, and Japanese Professional Movie Award.
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Marathon | 2005 | South Korea | 7.7/10 IMDb | 88% RottenTomatoes Audience Score
The story of the film revolves around a talented young lad who overcomes autism and prepares himself for a 10km marathon race. Jeong Yoon-Cheol was the director of the film. The director Jeong, Song Ye-Jin, and Yoon Jin-Ho wrote the screenplay of the film.
Cho Seung-Woo got the Busan Film Critics Award, Grand Bell Award, Blue Dragon Film Award, and Golden Rooster Award for playing the lead role in the film. Jeong Yoon-Cheol won the Best New Director award in Grand Bell Awards, and Blue Dragon Film Awards.
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The Big Blue | 1988 | France | 7.6/10 IMDb | 93% RottenTomatoes Audience Score
This adventure drama, directed by Luc Besson, features the friendship and sporting rivalry between Jacques Mayol and Enzo Maiorca - two top world-record-holding freedivers.
Besson, Robert Garland, Marilyn Goldin, Jacques Mayol, and Marc Perrier wrote the screenplay. Jean-Marc Barr and Jean Reno were in the prime casts of the movie.
The film won the Cesar award for Best Music and Best Sound. Luc Besson won Academy Award in the National Academy of Cinema in France.
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Lagaan | 2001 | India | 8.1/10 IMDb | 93% RottenTomatoes Audience Score
Lagaan Once Upon a Time in India was the first attempt of Aamir Khan Productions. The film, directed by Ashutosh Gowariker and scripted by Sanjay Daima, was a commercial success in 2001.
The film story centered on an interesting context where the simple villagers took up the challenge of a Cricket match against the British Army on the condition of exemption of all taxes.
The film, starring Aamir Khan and narrated by Amitabh Bachchan, was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Movie.
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Raging Bull | 1980 | America | 8.2/10 IMDb | 93% RottenTomatoes Audience Score
The idea of this biographical masterpiece came from “Raging Bull: My Story” (1970), the memoir of Jake LaMotta. This film depicts the hidden tragedy of a classy boxer who reached the peak of his boxing career but lost his personal life in return.
The greatest influential filmmaker Martin Scorsese directed this sports film, scripted by Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin.
Robert De Niro won Oscar and Golden Globe as Best Actor for playing the lead role in the film. Thelma Schoonmaker won Oscar for Best Film Editing.
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Rocco and His Brothers | 1960 | Italy | 8.3/10 IMDb | 94% RottenTomatoes Audience Score
The main concept of this crime drama originates from II Ponte Della Ghisolfa, a novel written by Giovanni Testori. The story advances with five brothers struggling to start over their life. Two of them, Rocco and Simmons, get in a deadly conflict over a woman.
The director Luchino Visconti, Suso Cecchi D'Amico, Pasquale Festa Campanile, Massimo Franciosa, and Enrico Mediola made the screenplay of the movie.
This classic film received FIPRESCI Prize at Venice Film Festival and Bodil Awards in Denmark.
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Bottom line
Although these best inspirational sports movies belong to different nationalities, they all share the same spirit of sports. The Premier League players are chosen according to skill, not demographics. However, these movies deliver some inspiration. Life is more about keep playing to get the thing you desire rather than enjoying it.