Thursday Movie Picks: Female Althetes

This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is films about Female Athletes. Not going to lie, this is thrown together because I accidentally posted next week's theme this morning. So here's what I very quickly came up with.


1) Bring It On
- The essential early 2000's cheerleading movie. I still have a soft spot for this. For me personally at the time, it made Cheerleading look interesting, which is something I didn't think possible for me. 


2) Love & Basketball
- Sanaa Latham's part of film certainly qualifies here. I still love this. It's one of the best teen dramas out there.


3) Brittany Runs a Marathon
- I don't care if Brittany isn't a typical athlete, it takes A LOT of athleticism to run a marathon. I think Gillian Jacobs is great in this. It's a very sweet little film.
 

Comments

  1. AHHH! Love and Basketball! I chose that this week too. It's so underrated.

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  2. I've only seen Bring It On and I must admit that was reluctantly though I did enjoy it once it started. Not nearly as stupid as I anticipated.

    I've heard of the second and intend to watch it someday but the list of those sort of films is very long and it hasn't made its way to the top yet!

    The other I don't think I know. I'll have to look into it.

    I've recently happened upon my first pick and it inspired me to look for older films about the theme. There don't seem to be a plethora but I did pretty well even coming up with a TV movie I remember watching as a kid that interrelates!

    Girls Can Play (1937)-Ambitious cub reporter Jimmy Jones (Charles Quigley) covering the sports beat meets Ann Casey (Julie Bishop) player on an all-girl softball team sponsored by local drugstore owner Foy Harris (John Gallaudet). Jones thinking he smells a story about women in competitive sports pursues Ann, there’s a story alright but it’s not the one he thinks. Using the team as a mask of respectability Harris runs a bootleg operation from the back of his store. With the girls out on the pitch and Jones digging for dirt team catcher Sue Collins (Rita Hayworth) learns too much and pays the price. Lower case Columbia B has a shadow of the future A League of Their Own, but nothing is done with the idea. It does provide a glimpse of future star Hayworth, still a brunette, working her way up before the studio transformed her into one of the premiere love goddesses of the Golden Era.

    Hard, Fast and Beautiful (1951)-When teenager Florence Farley’s (Sally Forrest) skill as a tennis player begins to attract attention, her manipulative mother Milly (Claire Trevor-easily stealing the picture), pressures her to join the competitive women’s tennis circuit over the objections of Florence’s father Will (Kenneth Patterson). Florence's fame and success grow and so do her mother's ambition and chicanery. Look at the mid-century women’s sports world was both written (Martha Wilkerson) and directed (Ida Lupino) by a woman…the ONLY film directed by a woman in all 1951!


    Pat and Mike (1952)-College athletic director Pat Pemberton (Katharine Hepburn) decides to enter some professional women’s golf matches to see how she’ll do. She excels until her domineering fiancé, Collier Weld (William Ching), turns up and distracts her. But before that happens sports manager Mike Conovan (Spencer Tracy) sees her talent and offers to train her, and she turns pro. After realizing that Pat stops trying when Collier is around, Mike works to keep them apart especially when he takes a shine to her himself. Written specifically for Hepburn by Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon because of the star’s athletic skill the film also features many of the top women athletes of the day including top golfers Betty Hicks, Helen Dettweiler and Babe Didrikson Zaharias.

    Babe (1975)-Speaking of Zaharias, considered one of the greatest athletes of all time, this TV biopic follows her life (enacted by Susan Clark) from just before she won two gold medals in the 1932 track and field Olympics through her dabbling and excelling in baseball and basketball, her courtship and marriage to professional wrestler George Zaharias (football star Alex Karras), her decision to pursue golf, her ascension to the top of that game and finally being felled by cancer at age 45. Susan Clark (who won an Emmy for her performance) and Karras fell in love and married after the film remaining together until Karras’s death in 2012.

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    Replies
    1. Birgit picked Pat and Mike too. I'll have to look into that. I'm afraid I haven't seen any of your picks.

      I love that you enjoyed Bring it On. I can see how that would look stupid to anyone who wasn't a tween/teen girl at the time.

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  3. Argh, Brittany Runs a Marathon never got a major cinema release here and then I completely forgot about it! That's going onto the watchlist now :)

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  4. You know how much I adore Love & Basketball, so 'nuff said about that. Bring It On is a fun one I've watched several times with my daughters. I haven't seen Brittany Runs a Marathon, but I keep scrolling past it on Hulu, so I'm pretty sure I'll stop on it one day soon.

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    1. It's worth it! I saw it in theaters and it's a nice feel good movie.

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  5. Brittany Runs a Marathon is a film that I really do want to see as I heard great things about it. Bring It On is a film that has its moments though my sister dragged me to see it as she loved cheerleading and was a cheerleader. I hate the way film treated punk rock and still do.

    I love Aligator Loki and I hope he and Throg (Frog Thor) helps out in the end as long as Aligator Loki and Throg don't fight each other. I think Loki's had enough intense sibling fights as I think he does miss Thor and playing pranks on him as I'm sure Thor misses those pranks as well.

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    1. Yeah, punk rock was pretty...light in that lol. It was pop punk, let's be honest.

      Alligator Loki is my new favorite Loki.

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  6. Love & Basketball is one of the most popular choices for the movie project my students do. I should really watch it one of these days...

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  7. Well, I haven’t seen any of these but I have heard of the first 2. At least, for the 3rd pick we both chose a movie about a girl running.

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    Replies
    1. You should check out Brittany Runs A Marathon. It's sweet!

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  8. I haven't seen any of these but at least they all are on my watchlist already.

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  9. Fun topic for a list! I might do a similar post that's not a TMP. Man, I REALLY need to see Love & Basketball soon, I love Gina Prince-Bythewood's work.

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  10. Bring it On is an absolute classic. Watched it in college probably more than we should have...and probably for different reasons than you did. Long love the Dush...just.

    I haven't seen your other two picks and I am a failure because L&B is straight up beloved and I haven't seen one minute of it.

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    1. You really need to check it out. It still holds up really well. It's on Hulu.

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  11. Running a marathon is athleticism on a different level. I have seen the first two but for the life of me I can't remember Love & Basketball.. I'm sure I've seen it (love sports movies) but like.. no recollection. I'm sure if I put it on I'll instantly remember it.

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  12. Bring It On - yeah...I think it made cheerleading looked interesting because it showed the competitive side rather than just being a side show.

    Hey I like the new look. White background improves readability.

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