A sports film is usually a fictional film genre which makes use of sports as the main theme of the movie. It’s a hybrid production where a sport, fan of sport, or athlete are heavily involved in the story, and that rely on sport for some extent for their major plot resolution or goal. It’s not entirely unlike a documentary about a particular sport or race, but in the case of sports movies the main interest is in what sports people and fans are thinking, feeling or doing while the film is happening. It’s a mixture of reality and fiction.
Sports movies can be both realistic and completely fictional, depending on how strongly they depict a certain sport or athlete. A real sports story will tend to show close relationships between players, teams, coaches and spectators. A fictional sports film will tend to show characters whose actions are motivated by personal gain or even revenge. This makes the audience have to guess at what is reasonable for a character to do.
Sport is an ever-changing and often very popular subject. Some people would say it’s an unending, never-ending soap opera, where all stories that may have happened many years ago are still happening today. This article only intends to cover a small but important part of sports-related literature that is relevant to the minds sports fan.