Olympic Sports Movies

[arabiandoublefront]

So I just saw The Boys in the Boat today, and also having Miracle (2004) on the mind, I began to wonder why we haven't seen a movie about an underdog U.S. women's Olympic team yet. It's been almost 28 years since the Mag 7 happened and we haven't gotten a movie about that even though Miracle was only 24 years after 1980 (it seems like that Kerri Strug biopic is in limbo). I was also thinking that the 1976 women's basketball team would be a good choice because of the book Inaugural Ballers by Andrew Maraniss.

 

[RedBirdie]

I can only imagine how awful a Mag 7 movie would be. Hollywood never gets gymnastics right, and the liberties screenwriters would probably take to make it vaguely interesting....shudder.

Miracle is unusual in that it's actually a great movie (most sports movies, imo, aren't) and hockey people absolutely love it. Plus, it's the Miracle on Ice. Mag 7 may have been underdogs--debatable--but that team had zero business being in the conversation about medals, let alone knocking off the Soviets and then winning gold. It was such an utterly insane and improbable achievement.

 

[makam]

The way they mess up figure skating movies would not bode well for gymnastics.
(Stick It gets a pass because they went weird and owned it and I respect that)

 

[MaryClare]

These kinds of movies always rely on lazy stereotypes. Not every Eastern European sports coach is an ice cold sociopath who smiles maybe twice a decade. Just most of us