5. This Sporting Life (1963)
Rugby league
Never before has the screen exploded with such raw emotions
Director: Lindsay Anderson
Cast: Richard Harris, Rachel Roberts, Alan Badel, William Hartnell, Colin Blakely, Vanda Godsell
UK
134min
B/W
OUR top 50 has had more sugary moments than a Christmas stocking, so it is a welcome antidote that the top five begins with a dour kitchen-sink drama that has more grit scattered over it than a motorway in December. This Sporting Life, like the other four films on this page, is a masterpiece. Based on the novel by David Storey, Harris plays Frank Machin, an angry young man playing rugby league in a northern mining town in the 1960s. He lodges with Mrs Hammond (Roberts), a widow whose husband was killed in an accident at Machin’s employers. Machin, a local celebrity for his rugby exploits, would like a try with the widow but his impulsive and angry temperament, barely kept in check on the rugby field, as well as her lack of passion, refusing to surrender her love to another man who could leave her, hold him back.
The rugby scenes are beautifully shot, with use of the slow motion adding beauty to Harris’s lithe athleticism. He lives on the edge of barbarism and it is not just contained to the field of play, as his callous squashing of a spider, whose blood seeps down a pristine wall, shows. Yet he is not always the bully. In one scene, Machin is supposed to be roughed up behind the scrum, so the director asked Derek Turner, a real rugby player with a bit part, to make the contact look real. Turner did that, thumping Harris so hard he was knocked out and filming for the day was abandoned.
For those who know Harris only from his appearance as Professor Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter films, this film shows how great an actor he was. The role came easily to him, having played rugby to a high standard before contracting tuberculosis at the age of 19, but he excels not just at the physical side of action. His turbulent relationship with Roberts earned them both an Academy Award nomination. This film is notable as the screen debut of Edward Fox and it also brought William Hartnell to the attention of Verity Lambert, first producer of Doctor Who. PATRICK KIDD
4. Rocky (1976)
Boxing
His whole life was a million-to-one shot
Director: John D. Avildsen
Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, Burgess Meredith, Thayer David
US
119min
Colour
Three Oscars
EVEN now, nearly 30 years after the release of Rocky, sportsmen and women around the world go for their early morning run with the stirring theme tune blaring in their iPods and imagine themselves sprinting up the steps of Philadelphia’s Art Museum.
But Rocky is far more than an inspirational tale about the power of the human spirit and the rise of the underdog. It is also a sensitive and powerful study of introversion. The eponymous hero is a self-conscious mumbler, brought to life by Stallone in a performance demanding comparison with Marlon Brando in his prime. Adrian (Shire), the girl who works in the local pet shop, is shy almost to the point of muteness.
The ironies of their clumsy romance are sympathetically examined; the pause before their first kiss a particularly memorable moment. The rousing climax, in which their embrace in the centre of the ring overshadows the announcement of the judges’ scoring of Rocky’s attempt on the world heavyweight title, shows the importance of this strand to an otherwise muscular narrative.
Some have interpreted Rocky’s defeat by Apollo Creed as a pop at Hollywood’s cloying sentimentality, but this is to underestimate the liberal sprinkling of sugar throughout Stallone’s script. He loses the fight but he wins the girl and achieves his stated ambition of being on his feet at the final bell.
This is an unabashedly feel-good movie. It is unfortunate that the original Rocky is often confused with its increasingly desperate sequels, something that has tainted its reputation. Let us not forget that the original was both a popular and critical triumph: it repaid its flimsy $1 million budget more than a hundred times over at the box office and beat Taxi Driver to the Best Picture Oscar in 1976. It still rates as one of the most uplifting fairytales in cinematic history. MATTHEW SYED
3. When We Were Kings (1996)
Boxing
The untold story of the Rumble in the Jungle
Director: Leon Gast
Documentary
US
89min
Colour
One Oscar
MANY of the films in our list are based on a true story, but this documentary is perhaps about the greatest sports story of them all. It is the tale of two rivals at the peak of their powers in 1974: Muhammad Ali is 32 and thought to be past his best, but his ambition cannot be underestimated; George Foreman is ten years younger and the world heavyweight champion. Between them stands Don King, the promoter par excellence who finds a backer in Mobutu Sese Suko, the dictator of what was then Zaire and “archetype of a closet sadist” in the words of Norman Mailer, one of the fight’s chroniclers.
The stage is set for one of the finest fights in boxing history, when Ali soaked up brutal punishment from Foreman, dancing to the ropes and letting himself be hit over and over, before bouncing out and unleashing a devastatingly fast hammer blow on his younger rival. The “rope a dope” tactic seemed suicidal and almost definitely contributed to Ali’s later ill health, but as the means for a twist in a great tale, it works brilliantly.
But this is more than just a boxing film. When We Were Kings tells the tale of that whole summer of 1974, of Foreman’s eye injury, which meant the fight was pushed back a month, of the build-up of giant retinues, of Ali’s charm offensive with the citizens of Zaire. His marches through the streets, whipping up enthusiasm for him, setting himself up as the heir of Africa against Foreman’s Mr USA, the constant shouts of “Ali bumaye”, or “Ali, kill him”.
This is also a chronicle of Zaire under Mobuto and of the fantastic concerts laid on by King, with performers such as James Brown and B. B. King flown out to add to the colour. The original When We Were Kings film, which was delayed for 22 years because of contract negotiations, was supposed to be simply the tale of the concert, the “African Woodstock”. The injury to Foreman in training meant that the director decided to take in the fight too.
The story of the fight and the build-up is told through the commentators who were there and working with the camps, men such as George Plimpton or Mailer, whose book of that summer, entitled The Fight, would be a worthy contender for the best sports book. PATRICK KIDD
2. Chariots of Fire
Two men chasing dreams of glory
Director: Hugh Hudson
Cast: Ben Cross, Ian Charleson, Ian Holm, Nigel Havers, Nicholas Farrell, Cheryl Campbell
UK
123min
Colour
Four Oscars
THE British are coming . . . second in your poll. It may be a story of devotion and pluck and athletic glory. It may have a fantastic Vangelis soundtrack. It may even star Derek Pringle, the former England all-rounder, in a cameo role, but the tale of the 1924 Olympic Games gets only the silver medal in your estimation.
There’s no shame in that. Colin Welland’s story is about two British athletes, a devout Scottish missionary and a Jewish student at Cambridge, the son of immigrants. Both compete for their dignity: Eric Liddell (Charleson) runs in the 400 metres to please his God after refusing to take part in the 100 metres when the heat is held on a Sunday; Harold Abrahams (Cross), his rival at the sprint, runs to prove his worth to the anti-Semites.
The film is unabashedly patriotic and class conscious, but this provides the spur for Abrahams to fight for acceptance. The prejudice is not just a question of birth or wealth, but of approach. One of the wonderful scenes is when Abrahams discusses what drives him with his college masters, who are appalled by his deviation from the amateur ethos. “You’ve hired a professional coach, you’ve adopted a professional attitude,” Lindsay Anderson says with scorn.
David Puttnam, the producer, is said to have been looking for a story in the fashion of A Man for All Seasons, about people putting conscience ahead of fame. He found the perfect peg when by chance thumbing through an Olympic reference book.
For a historical film, there seem to be remarkably few factual errors, although the character of Lord Lindsay is invented and Liddell knew long before the Games that the 100 metres would be on a Sunday. But that would have made a worse story. PATRICK KIDD
