By David KalanThe Daily Northwestern
I may be a collegiate sportswriter by day, but I’m something of an Oscar junkie by night.
I’ve seen each Academy Awards as far back as I can remember. I still wish Billy Crystal was the host, try to forget David Letterman once was and am still angry “Titanic” won instead of “L.A. Confidential.”
Don’t even get me started on Martin Scorsese not having a statue while Kevin Costner does, or the academy’s bizarre obsession with Clint Eastwood. You’ll hear more than you want to.
In fact, I’m kind of surprised you’re still reading.
But if you are, then allow me to deliver a sports-related twist to this years version of Hollywood’s “best.”
This isn’t easy. It’s especially not easy when a countdown of “The Greatest Sports Movie of All Time” appears in some magazine at least two or three times a year.
Sometimes you feel like you’re just beating a dead horse, and I’ve done that far too much this quarter.
But if I have to, I guess we’ll start with “Rudy.” This was one of my favorites, an undeniable all-time great starring Samwise Gamgee as a courageous Hobbit who scraps and claws his way onto the Notre Dame football team.
“Was.” I watched this movie for inspiration before a certain football game last quarter and the results were, shall we say, less than stellar. I haven’t watched it since.
This past Oscar season didn’t give me anything to replace it either. It’s been a sub-par year for movies in general – how else does Adam Sandler’s “hit” “Click” garner an Oscar nomination. So given that, how am I supposed to find a sports movie to replace “Rudy?”
There’s “Rocky Balboa,” which I admit I never saw, but the premise appeared, well, ridiculous. I could talk about “Glory Road,” or as some call it: “Remember the Titans with basketball,” but the historical inaccuracy makes it a less appetizing choice.
On second thought, maybe I should stop trying to replace “Rudy.” After all, how can people not tear up, when Rudy tackles Gollum to win the Rose Bowl while Touchdown Jesus destroys Sauron and slays an army of Orcs.
It’s a classic moment in cinema, up there with Dorothy clicking her ruby slippers together, Michael Corleone giving Fredo the kiss of death or Optimus Prime whimpering out a last “Rosebud” as he drops and shatters his snow globe.
Unfortunately, this year has been devoid of any of those classic moments in the sports genre. Unless “The Departed” can be re-edited with a scene involving soccer hooligans, 2006 will more or less have been a lost cause.
Hopefully Hollywood gets it right next year.
Sports Editor David Kalan is a Weinberg senior. He confuses football and epic wars for supreme universal power every Friday. Reach him at [email protected].
