From Wimbledon champions to Indy 500 winners to gold medal sprinters, at the very top there is a small margin of difference.
The same thing applies to the best movies.
It gets as competitive and difficult as picking your fantasy baseball team or predicting a Super Bowl winner in October.
I should know. Over the course of six years, viewing hundreds of movies and interviewing scores of filmmakers, the magic that the best films deliver is amazing and trying to settle on five is certainly a challenge.
The best ones look even better with each viewing thus bumping one you thought was among your five favorites. Try it.
After you come up with your Starting Five check out our new Celebrity Starting Five section. Over the years some of the leading figures in Sports and Hollywood have selected their favorite sports movies…… and believe me they had a tough time because they like so many of them. Compare and contrast their top picks with yours and tell us what your Starting Five are.
chariots of fire
raging bull
slap shot
caddyshack
bull durham
You’re right this is harder than I thought and I’ll probably change it again but here goes my 5-
Rocky
Bull Durham
Bad News Bears
Hoosiers
Field of Dreams
Grand Prix
LeMans
Hoosiers
Rocky
Field of Dreams
Hollywood does baseball well; Here are my 5-
Pride of the Yankees
Field of Dreams
Bull Durham
The Natural
Mr. Baseball
Spent my lunch hour pondering my 5- still pondering
Hoosiers
Field of Dreams
Rocky
Bull Durham
Chariots of Fire
My top 5
Breaking Away
Slap Shot
Major league
Bull Durham
Rocky
Dennis you got to be kiddin’ me. Major League Top 5? get outta here! Its not even the Top5 of BASEBALL films.
Chariots of Fire
The Natural
National Velvet
Cool Runnings
Brian’s Song
Sports movies begins and ends with Breaking Away!
Rocky
Hoosiers
Eight Men Out
Enter the Dragon
The Longest Yard
Boxing baby-
Body and Soul
Raging Bull
Requiem for a Heavyweight
The Set Up
Champion
Boxing has been well represented in Hollywood
The Longest Yard (original)
Bad News Bears (original)
Slap Shot
Major League
Hoosiers
Hoosiers
A League of Their Own
Rocky
The Natural
Bull Durham
Rocky
Slap Shot
Brian’s Song
Heaven Can Wait
The Longest Yard
Rocky
Raging Bull
The Longest Yard
North Dallas Forty
Major League
Rocky
The Hustler
The Longest Yard
He Got Game
Hoosiers
Dude, nobody chose Rudy?! come on
Rudy
Hoosiers
Major League
Seabiscuit
Caddyshack
I skew a little older but these are still among the best, check them out-
Body and Soul (Garfield is great)
Horse Feathers (Marx Bros always a laugh)
A Day at the Races (again Marx Bros mayhem)
The Harder They Fall (Bogie’s last film)
This Sporting Life (Richard Harris in the best rugby film)
Rocky
Pride of the Yankees
Major League
Cinderella Man
Hoosiers
1) Hoosiers
2) Field of Dreams
3) Raging Bull
4) Breaking Away
5) Slap Shot
1. The Longest Yard
2. Eight Men Out
3. Raging Bull
4. Heaven Can Wait
5. When We Were Kings
1) Hoosiers
2) Field of Dreams
3) Bull Durham
4) Breaking Away
5) Rocky