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The 50 Greatest Sports Movies
We rank the very best sports films
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Page 7 of 50 |
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Lagaan (2001)
DIRECTOR Ashutosh Gowariker
STARS Aamir Khan, Gracy Singh, Rachel Shelley, Paul Blackthorne
Despite employing the tried-and-tested (and tested and tested) formula whereby a ragtag bunch are transformed from crap misfits into a cohesive unit, Lagaan differentiates itself by using cricket as the sport du jour. Oh, and by taking place in 19th Century India. Starring Aamir Khan (the Hindi actor, not the boxer), it's a Bollywood epic – just shy of four hours, so epic is the key word – which sees the peasants of a poor village playing a cricket match to escape paying their food taxes (or "lagaan", see?). That's when they're not chasing hens or bursting into big song-and-dance numbers, that is, but behind the familiar tropes of Indian filmmaking is a truly gripping story.
Read Empire's review
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| The Stats |
THE SPORT
Cricket
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THE TEAM
The peasants of a poor Indian village.
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DOCUMENTARY?
No.
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DEFINING MOMENT
Bhuvan accepting the captain's impromptu (and very risky) lagaan bet.
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KEY TACTICS
Forget key tactics, this bunch are still learning how to play the game.
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Page 7 of 50 |
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Have your say Agree with the list? Which sports movie would you add to the list? Register or login now to have your say.
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| 1 | See Also
Karate Kid, The Waterboy, The foot fist way, Hot rod, Caddy Shack, The mighty ducks, coach carter, blades of glory, mean machine, leatherheads, the ringer, nacho libre, kicking and screaming, baseketball, remember the titans, brians song, don king: only in america, cinderella man, million dollar baby, somebody up there likes me, the boxer, knuckle, bend it like beckham, fever pitch, zidane Read MorePosted on Saturday September 15, 2012, 18:42 by bnicholson50 | | | | | 2 | RE: What the Hell!?
l largely an excuse for Chaplin to show off his legendary slapstick skills and rubbery physical abilities while poking fun at sports clichés and underdog stories, but it's still more entertaining than most of the films it skewers.
ow exactly does Chaplin, in 1915, skewer films that are very very far from being made and poking fun at sports clichés that do not yet exist? Read MorePosted on Wednesday July 25, 2012, 00:42 by Evil_Bob | | | | | 3 | RE: Rocky - third place
BASEketball should totally be in here. Okay it's not a real sport, but it is a sport movie. And it's funny as shit wise a pretty damn solid list. (Rocky 2-4 should be included as well, but maybe that's being a bit greedy...) Read MorePosted on Tuesday July 24, 2012, 13:55 by Whistler | | | | | |
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