Metacritic’s Highest-Rated Sports Movie Has One Of Dennis Quaid’s Earliest Roles

Throw a bunch of movie buffs together in a room and ask them to arrive at a consensus regarding the top 20 list for any genre, and voices will be raised before too long. In the end, if these people are grown-ups, they will find common ground on widely beloved classics and maybe throw a bone or two to an offbeat favorite. Throw a bunch of movie buffs who also happen to be passionate sports fans together and ask them to name the 20 greatest sports films of all time, and punches might just get thrown.

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For most people, sports movies are supposed to be inspirational, stand-up-and-cheer entertainments. They’re rigidly formulaic underdog stories in which lovable losers pull together to win the big game against seemingly unbeatable juggernauts. As a cinephile who lives and dies with my favorite sports teams, I fall for this formula all the time — especially when the rousing sports flick in question is about one of my teams (e.g. “Major League”). But the best sports movies are those that are about more than winning and losing. The big game component may still be there, but these films eschew training montages for quietly effective character beats. And sometimes the victories are small or about losing with screw-it-all moxie. (You’ll find no better riff on the former than Ron Shelton’s golf classic “Tin Cup.”)

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So, keep this in mind when I tell you that review aggregator Metacritic’s list of the top sports films doesn’t include presumed locks like “Rocky,” “Hoosiers,” and “The Karate Kid.” Even non-formulaic greats like “Bull Durham,” “Field of Dreams,” and “The Wrestler” are nowhere to be found. That said, its list is very respectable, and there’s a part of me that, on the right day, might tell you its top non-documentary feature is my favorite sports movie, too.

With a remarkable Metascore of 98, Metacritic’s top sports movie is Steve James’ brilliant documentary “Hoop Dreams,” which is about so much more than high school basketball in ways that are uplifting and downright heartbreaking. Likewise, in terms of narrative fiction features, Metacritic’s top 10 includes such all-timers as Martin Scorsese’s “Raging Bull,” Robert Rossen’s “The Hustler,” and Steven Zaillian’s extraordinary “Searching for Bobby Fischer.” But at number two, seven points behind “Hoop Dreams,” is Peter Yates’ “Breaking Away.”

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A funny, sharply observed comedy about Christopher (Dennis Christopher), a charmingly oddball Bloomington, Indiana kid who’s obsessed with bicycling and all things Italian, Yates’ movie touches on class warfare, strained father-son relationships, and the desire to, well, break away from a constrictive situation and vigorously live a life on one’s own terms. Christopher and his townie best friends (Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern, and Jackie Earle Haley, all early in their acting careers) often get in scraps with snobbish students from Indiana University, which leads to our hero and his crew of “Cutters” (a pejorative that makes light of the locals’ work in the limestone industry) getting invited to compete in the school’s Little 500 bike race.

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“Breaking Away” hits most of the obligatory notes moviegoers expect from a sports movie, but, until the finale, it does so in a sideways manner. I’ve seen this film many times, and what I remember most vividly is the camaraderie between the Cutters and the brusque back-and-forth between Christopher and his dad Ray (Paul Dooley, who’s superb as a father who believes his son might’ve lost his mind).

Steve Tesich’s Oscar-winning original screenplay is a gem, while Yates’ direction is surprisingly understated coming from the man who gave us “Bullitt” and “The Hot Rock.” It’s an absolutely lovely movie that will leave you beaming (and wishing Tesich, who died far too young at the age of 53 in 1996, wrote more screenplays). Best sports movie ever? I’d throw a punch or two in its defense.