Sport/Sport Drama History Research

The History of Sport/Sport Drama Films

A Sport Film revolves around a sport setting, event, or an athlete. These films will centre on a single sporting event, in my case, football that carries significant importance. Sports films traditionally have a simple plot that builds up to the significant moment of the sport. This genre is known for using film techniques to build anticipation intensity and show the progression that of a person who aspires to be a star in the game. Sport films have a large range of sub-genres, from comedies to dramas, and are more likely than other genres to be based true-life events. My particular film would be labelled as a Sports Drama, this will use dramatic elements into a sports storyline. These films tend to examine the more intense aspects of the sporting world. With more dramatic elements, Sports Drama tends to appeal to a more mature audiences as it takes more looking into to, to fully understand the events occurring. Sports Drama will often examine not only the rise, but the fall of the particular subject as well.

1920-1950

The first ever film based on football was called The Winning Goal, made in 1920, was based on an important football games between two fictional teams. This was filmed at the Brentford Stadium, Griffin Park. Although it was the first know football film to exist, there is little information on this specific film.

There were significantly large gaps between films that followed on. This could be due to the lack of popularity for Sport films or more generally, films were not as common during this time period. A film, The Arsenal Stadium Mystery, released in 1939, was, as the film suggests, set in Arsenal's stadium. At this point, Arsenal were the dominate side in the old first division so logically, basing a film on the top side was the most logical decision to make for Director Thorold Dickinson. This specific film was filmed with a game between Arsenal playing against a fictional, amateur team, The Trojans, played by Brentford players. A Trojan player dies on the pitch of poisoning and it is up to Detective Inspector Slade to solve the problem. This was the first crime-comedy in a sport film of its time.

1951-1980

The scarcity of sport films continued until 1971, where there were only 3 football films within 1951-1971 but after this time between 1976-1980, 4 films were released, at this point, this was the most films released based on football ever in a given time period. One film released in
1953 was called The Great Game which was one of the first ever Comedy-dramas based on football. It involved the chairman of a British club being penalized for approaching a player from a rival team illegally. Again, this was shot at Griffin Park, Brentford, which appears to be a popular venue to film football-based films.

During a short period where football films were being released quite rapidly, the film Yesterday's Hero was released in 1979. This film was based on an ex-footballer attempting make a football comeback despite his alcoholic addiction. He is signed by the Saints (Southampton) when a first team striker gets injured by the wealthy pop star owner. Turner, the main character, is signed by the third division team and helps to get them to Wembley where they play 'Leicester Forest' in the final. His is trying to overcome his alcohol addiction by this point to be able to make the final. The cup final at Wembley uses footage from the Southampton v Nottingham Forest league Cup Final. The film is currently being shown by TalkingPictures TV, which is on freeview.
cup final at Wembley uses footage from the Southampton v Nottingham Forest league Cup Final.

1981-2016

By this point, the football genre films were making a huge break through and during the time 1981 to 2016, 78 football films had been successfully released in the film industry for people to view. One example, released in 1981 was Escape to Victory, this was the first war based sport film.
This is about allied prisoners of war who are interned in a German prison camp during the Second World War who play an exhibition match of football against a German team. The film was directed by John Huston and starred Michael Caine, Sylvester Stallone, Max von Sydrow, Daneil Massey and Pelé
. Also many Ipswich Town players featured in the making of the film. They find that the match is an opportunity to escape to Paris as this match was only being played for Propaganda to emphasis on German strength and capability.
 She is infatuated with football but her parents have forbidden her to play because she is a girl. She joins a local women's team, which makes its way to the top of the league.She is infatuated with football but her parents have forbidden her to play because she is a girl. She joins a local women's team, which makes its way to the top of the league.Another film, which I have seen personally, was Bend it Like Beckham, released in 2002. This is a comedy-drama based on two teenaged girls in England who try out for football. This shows the ethical issues concerning both the lifestyle that one of the women is part of as well as women joining sports that are stereotypically for men. The film's title refers to the football player David Beckham, and his skill at scoring from free kicks by curling the ball past a wall of defenders. It follows the 18-year-old daughter of Punjabi Sikhs in London. She is loves football but her parents have forbidden her to play because she is a girl. She joins a local women's team in secret, which makes its way to the top of the league. 


Another film called Becoming Zlatan is a 2016 Swedish independent coming-of age sports documentary about Swedish international player Zlatan Ibrahimović. The film was directed by brothers Fredrik and Magnus Gertten and follows Ibrahimović through his former years with football clubs Malmo FF and  Ajax all the way to his break through with Juventus in 2005. Zlatan then becomes arguably one of the best players in the world at the peak of his career. This, by this point, Is one of many reasons as to why this film had significant hype due to the achievements Zlatan Ibrahimovic  has had in his career.