The reason for this isn't to be glib or to be a jackass, but to sort of point out that I really don't have a specific type of movie that I will dismiss based solely on genre. There are certain genres, admittedly, that I tend to gravitate toward (caper films, 40's/50's horror films, noir/detective, romantic dramas, fantasy epics), but there's no genre that I dismiss out-of-hand. Even genres that I don't particularly gravitate toward such as gross-out comedies or biopics have something interesting to say on occasion, as movies such as Bridesmaids and The Social Network both proved quite royally. The reality is that most genres are interesting, and have something fascinating to say about their subject if done well.
There is, however, one caveat to this rule, in my opinion, and that's the sports film genre. My brother and I were discussing at-length (via text) what our favorite sports film is, and we both kind of fudged our answers, picking either a film that is a sentimental favorite (I believe he picked The Natural, which is one of my mom's favorite movies) or one that has little to do with actual sports if you go below the surface (Raging Bull, which is admittedly a boxing movie but isn't remotely what you'd consider part of the sports genre). This isn't because I personally dislike sports. I was talking with my friend Justin on Friday and said that I would be a really good sports fan if I decided to make the time commitment-I'm highly competitive, love cheering on a team (though usually it's an actress or a political party rather than those donning a jersey) and I enjoy the sports I do watch immensely (principally the Olympics and Wimbledon). However, the sports movie genre plays too little with form to make it particularly compelling to me.
It says something perhaps about my own personal biases that I wouldn't consider Raging Bull, a film that is assuredly about boxing, a sports film, but that's mostly because the film is really about one man's spiral into an abyss. It's not the uplifting, running-through-the-sand-Chariots-of-Fire sort of movie we picture with a sports film. A sports movie is supposed to uplift according to our cinematic psyche, it's supposed to get us to cheer for the underdog. Field of Dreams, Hoosiers, Pride of the Yankees-these are classic sports films. Even films that don't have 100% happy endings like Rocky end up going with the traditional underdog who rises to the top formula. There's rarely any play with this formula, and apart from something like Raging Bull, they oftentimes don't become about something more.
The question here is why? Is it because sports film fans are less discerning than others? I have sincere doubts about this, considering the amount of hours that a sports fan can put in dissecting a specific team trade or referee call the morning after a game. Is it because studios are too afraid to play with this format for fear of alienating the audience? I mean, this could be true though we've seen at least some plays on almost every other format in the past thirty years, including once stalwart film prototypes like action-adventure and comic book films.
It's a difficult question to ask, and one worth asking because the sports film in many ways has started to mimic another immovable film genre: the western. Like the western, the sports film has been heavily reliant on a specific formula for decades, and like the western, it's starting to die off in American cinemas. Most sports films of this decade, with the exception of Moneyball, have completely disappeared from the public consciousness (even those like 42 which made a significant amount of money). The films don't really have a champion outside of Kevin Costner, who is hardly a major Box Office draw anymore and whose baseball films have become so interchangeable you'd be forgiven for not being able to tell them apart anymore. And really, Costner is the end of the line there, much like John Wayne who kept getting offered roles in Westerns even after the "Western was dead."
So like the western, the sports drama must dissect itself a bit. We saw that certainly with Raging Bull and to some extent with Moneyball, but it needs to go further. We need someone to do what Clint Eastwood did with Unforgiven and turn the genre on its head. Perhaps Clint himself could team with Costner and create a sports anti-hero at the center of a movie. The ingredients are all there (there are less-than-noble ways to reach the top), someone just needs to do it. And soon, because this is a genre both in desperate need of a makeover and one that is on the filmic endangered species list.
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