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DEL.ICIO.USTake 10: Best high school sports movies
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Around Take Ten Headquarters, if we’re not watching sports, we’re probably catching the latest movie. Yes, we’ve been to Oscar parties. And yes, we may have dressed up like Humphrey Bogart for Halloween last year. We confess. So with the Atlanta Film Festival starting this week, we have the perfect excuse to combine our two favorite things.
Vote for your favorite! Check our photos from the Take 10 movie list. Then pick or pan Jeff’s list. Photos: Rate Take 10’s favorite films
These are the top 10 high school sports movies of all-time:
10. America Brown (2004) This is an independent film about a West Texas high school football star who doesn’t know where to go with his life after his older brother dies, so he takes a bus to Brooklyn to talk to his school’s last great player, who is now a Catholic priest.
9. Friday Night Lights (2004) It’s not as good as the TV show it spawned, but it isn’t bad. Billy Bob Thornton does well as the small-town Texas high school team’s gruff coach, and even country music star Tim McGraw shows he can act in this one, playing an abusive father who wants his son to be a star player.
8. Hellfighters (2007) When he sees there isn’t a high school football team for kids in Manhattan, former NFL player Duke Fergerson tries to assemble a team from different high schools on the island. This documentary looks at their struggles to piece together a team, become eligible to compete and what happens when the different kids join together.
7. He Got Game (1998) You watch this movie and wonder why it’s the only time NBA star Ray Allen has starred in a film. He plays the nation’s top-ranked high school basketball player with an imprisoned father (Denzel Washington) trying to reduce his own sentence by directing his son toward playing for Big State.
6. Finding Forrester (2000) It’s hard to believe Rob Brown was just 16 when he played Jamal Wallace, a high school kid who could play basketball but was an even better writer who finally got some direction from the reclusive William Forrester (Sean Connery).
5. Remember the Titans (2000) Denzel Washington plays the coach of a new D.C.-area football team formed when a white and black school were integrated into one in 1971. It avoids being preachy but still gets across its message.
4. Go Tigers! (2001) This documentary is like the real-life “Friday Night Lights,” looking at a football season at a Masillion, Ohio, high school. It looks deeply at the players, coaches and community on and off the field; seeing it all up close is pretty fascinating.
3. The Basketball Diaries (1995) It’s dark, disturbing and mildly depressing, three qualities we love in a movie. Before “Titanic” became the biggest scourge ever on teen-age boys trying to go on dates, an unknown Leonardo DiCaprio played a high school basketball player addicted to drugs and spiraling out of control.
2. Hoop Dreams (1994) The best of three documentaries on this list, Hoop Dreams follows William Gates and Arthur Agee, talented high school basketball players living in the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago. You watch them through all four years of school, trying to earn a college scholarship. Great stuff.
1. Hoosiers (1986) Even on a list of non-high school sports movies, this one might end up No. 1. Gene Hackman, Dennis Hopper, small-town Indiana basketball, a great underdog story. It should be illegal for a high school sports fan not to enjoy this movie.
Vote for your favorite! Check our photos from the Take 10 movie list. Then pick or pan Jeff’s list. Photos: Rate Take 10’s favorite films
Go on. Take Ten. What’s your favorite high school sports movie? Do any of these not belong on the list? What should we add? Here’s your chance to show what a big movie nerd you really are.
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Comments
By Kurt Aschermann Jr.
April 9, 2008 9:19 AM | Link to this
Jeff, good list my friend. Couple questions, though:
By Kurt Aschermann Jr.
April 9, 2008 9:33 AM | Link to this
Ahh, I see….HIGH SCHOOL sports movies.
Well, Major League should be on there anyway. ;0
By Glenn LaFollette
April 9, 2008 10:24 AM | Link to this
Jeff, this is ridiculous. Where are the non-football, non-basketball movies? All the others are fine, but at the end of the day you can’t ignore Lady Bugs. You’ve got Rodney Dangerfield, soccer, that kid who was on Seaquest dressing up as a girl and you’ve got Rodney Dangerfield. These are all things high school kids go through. Rodney Dangerfield was my physics teacher and haven’t we all cross-dressed at some point? Com’on.
By SPRINGSDAWG
April 9, 2008 10:27 AM | Link to this
johnny be good
By SPRINGSDAWG
April 9, 2008 10:27 AM | Link to this
johnny be good
By SPRINGSDAWG
April 9, 2008 10:27 AM | Link to this
johnny be good
By wilson35
April 9, 2008 10:29 AM | Link to this
Varsity Blues???
By LongBlueLine
April 9, 2008 11:16 AM | Link to this
Friday Night Lights not as good as the show? What about the amazing book? It goes book, movie, show; even though the show shouldn’t even really be included.
By Haywood Jablowme
April 9, 2008 11:26 AM | Link to this
Where is the “hollywooded up” revisionist history football film “Rudy” ? I figured that anything on film about the myth of Notre Dame would have made an AJC list…..especially if Terrence Moore had any input at all with the above article. Oh, and what about “The Longest Yard” ? That Paul Crewe (the Burt Reynolds version) was one hell of a clutch player!
By Haywood Jablowme
April 9, 2008 11:44 AM | Link to this
Oh, sorry, you meant High School movies….well, part of “Rudy” was also a mythological account of his High School days, too.
By AP
April 9, 2008 12:10 PM | Link to this
How bout Varsity Blues? or if you want a more sentimental one but maybe a little less budget Facing the Giants, even filmed here in Georgia, and then what about Gridiron Gang about the boys that were in Jail, another great movie, there are three football ones, what about Teen Wolf does that even get a mention?
By hurricane
April 9, 2008 12:32 PM | Link to this
Cabrini Green housing projects were in Chicago, not New York. They were the same units that the show Good Times was derived from.
By C'mon Jeff
April 9, 2008 12:32 PM | Link to this
You missed my favorite sports movie of all time. The “Pistol”. If you haven’t seen it you need to watch it.
By Jeff Haws
April 9, 2008 12:59 PM | Link to this
Yes, as some of you have realized somewhat late, these are high school sports movies. And I didn’t particularly like Varsity Blues, so it’s not on here. It’d probably be No. 11, though.
hurricane-
Yeah, you’re right about Cabrini Green. “Hoop Dreams” takes place in Chicago. I’ve seen that thing about a dozen times, so I clearly knew that; I must have put New York down because I had just been reading about “Hellfighters” and got it mixed up in my head. Thanks for pointing that out.
By AJC Sports
April 9, 2008 1:08 PM | Link to this
We noticed the Cabrini Green geography was off as well, hurricane. It’s been fixed. Thanks.
By Eric
April 9, 2008 2:15 PM | Link to this
Varsity Blues - I say it was a 10! The Rookie - High School baseball coach throwing 98 mph in blue jeans during a major league tryout! Sand Lot - kids playing baseball where ever they can find a spot.
I am sure there are many more!
By Jeff Haws
April 9, 2008 2:56 PM | Link to this
Eric-
Man, I love The Sandlot, even to the point of irrationality. Reminds me of my childhood playing ball in my backyard. On a list of ALL sports movies, I’d probably put it near the top and be called crazy for it.
Problem is, I don’t think it’s a high school sports movie at all. Even if one or two of those kids were supposed to be in high school (I’m thinking they were middle schoolers), it all took place over the summer when school was out. It definitely was just kids playing on their playground and had nothing to do with high school. Unfortunately. Otherwise, I might have put it in over Hoosiers.
The Rookie is a good one to point out … I still don’t think it belongs on this list, but I like the way you’re thinking. I’m not sure I would have thought of that one, actually, but I think that could definitely be called a high school sports movie.
Good stuff, Eric.
By Frank R
April 9, 2008 3:00 PM | Link to this
How could anyone forget about Samual L. Jackson’s performance is “Coach Carter”
By GatorGuy
April 9, 2008 3:15 PM | Link to this
How about All the right moves?
By noneya
April 9, 2008 3:21 PM | Link to this
As always with AJC readers some of you missed the point of the list. It is the Top 10 High School Movies. Finding Forrester is excellent as well as Hoop Dreams and Remember the Titans. Hoosiers is definitely at the top of any movie list. Another good one is a documentary on a high school girl’s basketball team out of Washington State named “The Heart of the Game.” Ludacris narrates. It’s excellent.
By Jeff Haws
April 9, 2008 3:26 PM | Link to this
Frank R-
I find Coach Carter to be a bit formulaic, but it’s not bad to catch on TNT or wherever when it’s on. If this were high school basketball movies only, it would be on there.
GatorGuy-
Perhaps it’s an anti-Tom Cruise bias, but I’m not a big fan of that movie. I don’t think he had discovered Scientology by that time, though.
By GatorGuy
April 9, 2008 3:35 PM | Link to this
Jeff- I was 10 when that came out (24 years ago!) and Lea Thompson was topless. It was the best thing ever!
By dan man
April 9, 2008 3:47 PM | Link to this
Hoosiers is without question the best high school movie. It’s realistic about the head coach’s short comings and Gene Hackman was perfect for that part. I also liked how the movie detailed how the community and team struggled initially with a new coach and his system early on, but pulled it together to win a championship down the stretch. As a former athlete, I can identify with that a lot more than I can with some cheesy feel good half-time dialogue. And the movie stayed true to the time period,( unlike Remember the Titans where the players looked like they were playing in the 60’s as oppossed to the early 70’s when most players had afro’s and long hair). I’m a former football player, and I like the action in Remember the Titans, but it’s too wholesome and feel good for me at times. And I liked Friday Night Lights( the movie and TV show) but it focuses more on the high school drama and less on the action. In Hoosiers, the actual games are given the attention they deserve and each one is different. Again, as a former athlete I can identify with that. I’m not a basketball guy, but as far as sports movies go, Hoosiers is by far the best.
By Jeff Haws
April 9, 2008 4:07 PM | Link to this
dan man-
Well-said. I definitely agree with you on Hoosiers.
By Long Time Fan
April 9, 2008 4:33 PM | Link to this
Hoosiers and Friday Night Lights are the best! The scene in Pistol where he is shooting in the rain had an unbelieveable impression on my son who will play college ball next year! Hoop Dreams is so depressing but it is a must see, just as is All The Right Moves. Both deal with reality in a big way. Remember The Titans, filmed at Sprayberry High School in Marietta is not true to the story in parts but my son loves it. Coach Carter is great because it celebrates a situation where a high school coach emphasizes academics over winning and that doesn’t occur too often any more and young people are harmed by it!
By Veteran Fan
April 9, 2008 4:43 PM | Link to this
We have all forgotten Radio! The situations in the school could occur anywhere. My wife who has never played sports loved the movie!
By Bill
April 9, 2008 6:30 PM | Link to this
Vision Quest,
High School Wrestling, great story line, some great lines used in wrestling. “Sorry to inform you Otto, Wrestling isn’t a team sport!” Great Soundtrack and of course the Hollywood ending with a Lateral to win by pin.
Football, how about All the Right Moves starring a young Tom Cruise and Sean Penn as PA football players trying to get out of a dying PA steel Town
By D-Originator
April 9, 2008 7:14 PM | Link to this
“The Heart Of The Game” should be up there with the other documentaries. All high school girls should check this out.
By Sea Hag
April 9, 2008 8:46 PM | Link to this
You forgot to mention that you dressed up like Indiana Jones last Halloween.
I thought the documentary about Masillion was creepy.
By joel
April 10, 2008 7:55 AM | Link to this
what about junction boys?
By James D
April 11, 2008 12:37 PM | Link to this
How about Vision Quest?
By Shamrock Shooter
April 13, 2008 1:07 PM | Link to this
“All the Right Moves” starred Cruise and CHRIS Penn, not Sean.
By biggun
April 14, 2008 4:15 PM | Link to this
What about “Vision Quest”…Wrestling needs a little love here too!
By Ryan
April 15, 2008 11:51 AM | Link to this
“All The Right Moves”…..Tom Cruise’s first feature. Great story set in a western pennsylvania steel mill town. Go to Blockbuster and rent this movie. You will not be dissapointed.
By yo
April 15, 2008 7:41 PM | Link to this
“Radio”..true story and the best.
By jc
April 17, 2008 1:06 PM | Link to this
Miracle…Story about the 1980 US Hockey Team……..
By PunchyMcGee
April 28, 2008 7:58 PM | Link to this
How can you leave out Vision Quest?