Athletics (track and Field)
Title | Year | Genre | Event(s) | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
College | 1927 | Comedy | Silent film with Buster Keaton trying multiple sports. | |
Olympic Games | 1927 | Comedy | Our Gang children's version of the Olympics. | |
Million Dollar Legs | 1932 | Comedy | Shotput | W.C. Fields fable of team from "Klopstokia" competing in 1932 Olympic Games. |
Jim Thorpe - All-American | 1951 | Biographical | Decathlon | True story of the famed Native American athlete, starring Burt Lancaster. |
The Bob Mathias Story | 1954 | Drama | Decathlon | Biographical film on two-time Olympic gold medalist Bob Mathias. |
Geordie | 1955 | Comedy | Hammer | Story of Scotsman out to get to the Olympic Games |
It Happened in Athens | 1962 | Comedy | Marathon | Jayne Mansfield in story set at 1896 Olympics in Greece. |
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner | 1962 | Drama | Distance running | Acclaimed film from U.K. starring Tom Courtenay. |
Billie | 1965 | Comedy | Sprints | Patty Duke as a fictional athlete who competes with boys in high school. |
Walk, Don't Run | 1966 | Comedy | Race walking | Final film of Cary Grant, set during the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. |
The Games | 1970 | Drama | Marathon | Ryan O'Neal and Michael Crawford as fictional distance runners. |
The World's Greatest Athlete | 1973 | Comedy | Track | Disney tale of a jungle boy who becomes a star athlete. |
The Loneliest Runner | 1976 | Drama | Marathon | Made for TV, written and directed by Michael Landon. |
See How She Runs | 1978 | Drama | Marathon | Made for TV |
Crossbar | 1979 | Drama | High Jump | Made for TV |
The Jericho Mile | 1979 | Drama | Mile | Made for TV about a prisoner given a chance to qualify for the Olympics. |
Running | 1979 | Drama | Marathon | Michael Douglas as fictional Olympic distance-running hopeful. |
Goldengirl | 1979 | Sci-fi | Sprints | A scientifically enhanced girl (Susan Anton) trains for the 1980 Moscow Olympics. |
Chariots of Fire | 1981 | Drama | Sprints | True story set during 1924 Olympics. Four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. |
Graduation Day | 1981 | Horror | Track | Slasher film about members of school's track team being murdered. |
Personal Best | 1982 | Drama | Track | Mariel Hemingway in fictional story of women's track and field. |
Running Brave | 1983 | Drama | 10,000 m | Biographical film on the life and career of Billy Mills, starring Robby Benson. |
On the Edge | 1985 | Drama | Trail running | A distance runner (Bruce Dern) fights for amateurs' rights during California's Dipsea Race. |
The Jesse Owens Story | 1985 | Biographical | Sprints, long jump | True story of legendary 1930s athlete Jesse Owens, portrayed by Dorian Harewood. |
Cracked Up | 1987 | Drama | Track | A high school athlete has a serious problem with cocaine. |
Run for Your Life | 1988 | Drama/Thriller | Marathon | Italian-British production starring David Carradine. |
The Four Minute Mile | 1988 | Biographical | Mile | Record-breaking run of Roger Bannister, made for television. |
Across the Tracks | 1991 | Drama | Track | Brad Pitt and Rick Schroeder as brothers who compete in high school track and field. |
Pentathlon | 1994 | Thriller | Pentathlon | The life of a modern pentathlete (Dolph Lundgren) is in danger. |
Higher Learning | 1995 | Drama | Track | Fictional story of college students, with Omar Epps as track athlete. |
Run for the Dream: The Gail Devers Story | 1996 | Biography | 100m H | True story of hardships and success of great U.S. female athlete. |
Prefontaine | 1997 | Biography | Running | True story of Oregon middle distance runner Steve Prefontaine. |
Without Limits | 1998 | Biography | Running | Another version of life and death of Steve Prefontaine. |
Endurance | 1999 | Drama | Distance running | Biographical film about Haile Gebrselassie. |
The Long Run | 2000 | Drama | Ultramarathon | Story of the Comrades Marathon, an annual 55-mile foot race in South Africa. |
Pumpkin | 2002 | Comedy | Christina Ricci in story about a developmentally challenged youth. | |
Hitler's Pawn - The Margaret Lambert Story | 2004 | Documentary | High Jump | True story of Gretel Bergmann, who was not permitted to compete in 1936 Olympics for being Jewish, then replaced by an athlete who turned out to be a man. Later dramatized in film Berlin 36. |
Four Minutes | 2005 | Biography | Mile | Made for TV. Chronicles the successful quest of Roger Bannister to break the four-minute barrier in the mile. |
The Ringer | 2005 | Comedy | Johnny Knoxville bad-taste spoof of Special Olympics. | |
Saint Ralph | 2005 | Drama | Marathon | A 15-year-old boy attempts to run in the 1954 Boston Marathon. |
Terry | 2005 | Documentary | Road running | Made for TV. Documents the Marathon of Hope, the 1980 attempt of cancer patient and amputee Terry Fox to run across Canada. |
Berlin 36 | 2009 | Drama | High jump | Top athlete Gretel Bergmann is excluded from Berlin Olympics for being Jewish. |
Salute | 2008 | Documentary | Multiple events | Australia film looking back at 1968 Mexico City Olympics. |
Run Fatboy Run | 2007 | Romantic comedy | Marathon | David Schwimmer-directed comedy about an out-of-shape British man who enters a marathon. |
The One Man Olympics | 2008 | |||
The Runner | 2009 | Ultra Trail | ||
Into the Wind | 2010 | Documentary | Road running | Made for TV as part of ESPN's 30 for 30 series. Another look at Fox's 1980 Marathon of Hope, co-directed by NBA superstar Steve Nash, who had followed Fox's run as a young child in Victoria, British Columbia. |
Marion Jones: Press Pause | 2010 | Documentary | Sprints | Made for TV as part of ESPN's 30 for 30 series. Chronicles the career of Marion Jones, her 2007 admission of performance-enhancing drug use, and subsequent prison sentence. |
The Robber | 2010 | Drama | Marathon | German film about an Austrian bank-robbing runner. |
Paan Singh Tomar | 2012 | Drama | Steeplechase | Indian film based on the true story of an athlete Paan Singh Tomar. |
9.79* | 2012 | Documentary | 100 m | Made for TV as part of ESPN's 30 for 30 series. A look back at the final of the men's 100 metres at the 1988 Summer Olympics, in which Ben Johnson set a world record but was disqualified after testing positive for steroids. |
Fast Girls | 2012 | Drama | Sprints | British film about two women sprinters. |
Read more about this topic: Sports Films