Weekly Poll Results: Best Football Movie
Last week’s poll was a battle of pigskin pics, and Film Junk readers decided that the #1 football movie is the inspirational Rudy starring Sean Astin, followed very closely by Remember The Titans starring Denzel Washington. Peter Berg’s Friday Night Lights placed third, which isn’t bad, but I kind of expected it to get a few more votes, especially because of the popularity of the TV show. Oliver Stone’s Any Given Sunday and the original The Longest Yard rounded out the top 5. Brian’s Song was way down at the bottom, although I’m guessing a lot of people simply haven’t seen it? I hear it’s a classic. Do you concur with these results?
1. Rudy — 23.5%
2. Remember The Titans — 21.2%
3. Friday Night Lights — 14.2%
4. Any Given Sunday — 13.3%
5. The Longest Yard (1974) — 7.5%
6. Jerry Maguire — 6.6%
7. The Program — 5.8%
8. The Replacements — 3.1%
9. We Are Marshall — 2.7%
10. Brian’s Song (1971) — 2.2%
Comments (5)
I don’t know, I have to go with FNL on this one. The cinematography and the score are awesome and the action sequences are downright wicked. Seeing this movie while a high school athlete, I also think it’s got to be the most realistic of those on the list. One of my favorite sports films, period.
Posted by Matt on September 2nd, 2009Damn, no love for Wildcats, huh?
Posted by Stormy on September 2nd, 2009With Rudy it’s a case of you either love it or you hate it. It also has to do with if you’re a Notre Dame fan or not. I think Friday Night Lights is the best just because it covers a real story and it captures the essence of high school football in West Texas perfectly and the adaptation from the book is about as good as you can get. It strays very little from the book and doesn’t go for the fake fairy tale ending. It doesn’t glamorize or softsoap it. Plus the performances are all very good, with Billy Bob as the coach being one of his best roles.
Posted by Maopheus on September 2nd, 2009With regard to Brian’s Song, I’ve never watched it but it’s always regarded as being one of the best TV movies ever, not just for sports. The story of course was heart-wrenching and emotional and it helped of course that the movie came out only a couple years after the real Brian Piccolo died so a lot of people knew about the story. I think the movie was admired not necessarily because of the football but for the portrayal of the relationship between the two main characters of Brian and Gale Sayers.
On what planet is “Jerry Maguire” a football movie?
Remember the Titans isn’t THAT good.
Any Given Sunday is an abortion.
Rudy is a pretty near perfect film and it has nothing to do with whether you are Notre Dame fan, or even a football fan.
Why isn’t “Necesarry Roughness” on the list? Kathy Ireland, Sinbad… Come on!
Posted by Shut-Up Ed on September 2nd, 2009I guess “Facing The Giants” isn’t mainstream enough.
Posted by Tomas on September 3rd, 2009Leave a Reply