# 1 - The Lowdown

Welcome to my newsletter, here's the game plan.

Welcome to SportsMovies82, a newsletter about movies about sports.

Now, this may come as a surprise (or maybe not. Maybe you don’t know me at all!) Those of you who may be familiar with my work would know that throughout my career I have been making a name for myself as a Teen Film Scholar/Expert. From doing a deep dive into teen film scholarship for my thesis about Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird (2017), to briefly running my own genre column and co-running a website dedicated to publishing works exploring youth on screen, teen film is a genre I feel very passionately about. However, as I got older, I always knew I couldn’t focus on teen film forever... But I do love a genre.

Sports bring me a lot of joy. I have always grown up around it and have been a passionate AFL fan for years, but it was this past year when I realised sports were making me feel more than film currently was. Who knew! [i]

I have since embraced this love tenfold.

In many ways, shifting my attention from film to sports, and inevitably sports films, makes a lot of sense. Sports, like film, is all about narrative. As you learn more about a sport and the teams, each player has a story you can become invested in and root for; there is a common goal with obstacles along the way; something to fight for (respect, a long-awaited win, a championship); an enemy in the opponent. It’s passion and despair, hopelessness and bated breath, the thrill of a final minute shoot-out, the adrenaline against the clock. To anyone who says they can’t get into sport, I quote modern bard Archie Andrews: “That means you haven’t known the triumphs and defeats, the epic highs and lows of high school football.”[ii]

Why SportsMovies82?

The name SportsMovies82 is reminiscent of early internet culture where chatroom names and blogs would be something pretty simple yet an obvious signifier of the owner (ie ShopGirl) and mostly include a number for further differentiation and name availability (ie NY152). SportsMovies82 therefore is exactly what it says on the tin: immediately you know sports movies will be discussed (also I had no other ideas).

Having a number is also part of the sporting tradition. For many popular sports, athletes play with a number on their jerseys, or in the case of motorsports, on their car, bike, or helmet. Therefore, I too must have a number! And I chose 82 for a reason.

A couple of weeks ago, my dear friend Ivana introduced me to the sports movie, Slap Shot (1977). Directed by George Roy Hill (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting) and written by Nancy Dowd (who also wrote Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains!)[iii], the film is about a failing local ice hockey team who are about to go bankrupt. I won’t tell you too much more because I would like to dedicate an issue to it one day, but it was while watching this film that Ivana and I got to talking about what it is about sports movies (and by extension, team sports) that we love so much. (It was here that I got the idea for the newsletter!)

The film also stars Paul Newman, whom we equally gushed over, and I love splendidly as an actor, but it was while I was watching that I was reminded that Paul Newman also had a very prominent car racing career.

It was while filming the movie Winning (1969), in which he plays a race car driver, that Newman started to learn how to race cars and get into car racing. Starting later in life (he was around his 40s), Newman worked hard and demonstrated incredible determination and passion for the sport. He won several National Championships racing in the SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) and in 1979 raced and came second in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, one of the most gruelling and preeminent endurance races in motorsport. In 1995, he drove in the 24 Hours of Daytona at the age of 70 and became the oldest driver to win the race. In 2007, Newman competed in his last race at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut, a motorway he spent most of his time, in a 700-horse powered GT-1 class Chevrolet Corvette. He numbered his car 82, to reflect his age. What. A. Guy.

When I learned of this, 82 became the perfect way to symbolise the intersection of movies and sport, by honouring Paul Newman, an actor I adore, and motorsport, which I also adore.

Sidenote: You can learn more about his racing career in the documentary Winning: The Racing Life of Paul Newman which I found available here.

The Aim of the Game

My wish for this newsletter is to function as a sort of blog. Each issue will be a fortnightly foray into a different “sports movie”, where I write down my thoughts and feelings about each film. These things will be what emotions were stirred? Did I laugh, did I cry? Were there any moments or scenes which stood out or were particularly powerful? Is the film powerful at all? And what does the world of the film and the sport say about political and social issues such as race, gender, sexuality, class, ect? Sometimes, I will also invite my friends along to talk about some of their favourite sports movies, or if the sport featured is one they are a particular fan of.[iv]

The aim of this newsletter is not only as a fun way to engage with my equal love of movies and sports, but also to shed light on the genre which is largely missing from any kind of serious or academic analysis or exploration. It is a lot like teen film in a way. While teen film scholarship is plentiful in the academic space, as a genre it is rarely treated seriously by general audiences (or critically). Yet, I have always maintained that teen film is an important genre to help as look at what values are being represented to young audiences, and what they reflect about politics and society at the time of the film, and now.[v] Sports movies can do the same.

I promise I won’t always try to be so academic about it. For the most part I might just be like “Yeehaw, I had fun!” which is admittedly a common reaction of mine. But as a self-proclaimed Genre Scholar it’s important to establish intentions and definitions.

What IS a “Sports Movie” Anyway?

When it comes to defining genres, I like to be fairly loose, rather than dig into the nitty gritty. Therefore, I feel comfortable adopting the definition from Emma Poulton and Martin Roderick in their 2008 edited collection Sport in Films, “films and documentaries in which sport, a sporting occasion, or an athlete is the central focus.”[vi]

Cool Runnings? Sports movie! Rocky? Sports movie! Ice Princess? Sports movie! A League of Their Own? Sports movie! White Men Can’t Jump? Sports movie! Remember the Titans? Sports movie! Rush? Sports movie! Bring It On? Sports movie! The possibilities are quite simply endless.

Everyone loves a sports movie. People are always saying to me, “I love sports movies!” so obviously nothing truer has been said. If you are one of these people, please feel free to subscribe to receive all of my newsletters direct to your inbox. I’ll be glad to have you on the team!

Maybe one day we’ll get jackets.

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[i] It probably helps that my AFL team, Carlton (Go Blues!), was actually doing well after a long time of not doing well. Never forget the pain of the 2018 season!

[ii] One of the greatest lines to come out of modern television. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.

[iii] The fact that a rough and tumble ice hockey movie was written by a woman was huge for us. Not that it should be, but as we work more to de-stigmatise sport as something that’s by/for/about capital ‘M’ Men, we cheered!

[iv] Manifesting that one day I might be able to talk to actual professional athletes about their favourite sports movies. This is a dream I have had for over 5 years now.

[v] If you are interested in this and would like to explore the subject further, please feel free to check out Grow Up, a website I co-founded all about exploring depictions of youth on screen. It has been archived on WordPress and can be found here.

[vi] Poulton, Emma., & Roderick, Martin. (2008). Sport in films / edited by Emma Poulton and Martin Roderick. London; Routledge.