Five Movies To Get You In The Olympic Spirit

There is an epidemic spreading across Canada and it has me greatly concerned. With the Olympics now upon us, I fear many Canadians are suffering from a condition that medical experts call Olympics Hype Deficiency (OHD). OHD occurs when you find yourself not completely jacked for the upcoming Winter Olympiad.

The leading cause of OHD is often a lack of television network promotions in the weeks and months leading up to the games. Perhaps if CTV and TSN had bothered to let us know that the Olympics were coming to Vancouver this February, we would not be in this state.

How can you tell if you suffer from OHD? It's easy, just name aloud the Jamaican born member of Canada's bobsleigh team. I'll wait, go ahead.

Any time now.

I'm sorry but since you didn't immediately name Lascelles Brown, I'm going to have to conclude that you are not sufficiently jacked for these Olympics.

To cure what ails you, I suggest the five movies that will get you in the Olympic spirit. I should note that these are not necessarily the five best movies involving the Olympics. Munich (2005) for example is an excellent movie but not a real spirit booster. This movie will make your Olympic spirit want to crawl in to bed with a tub of Chunky Monkey ice cream and not come out for three weeks.

So here in ascending order are the five movies to get you in the Olympic Spirit:

5. BLADES OF GLORY (2007)

This is not a great movie. Heck, I'm not even sure if this is a good movie. But it is fun and certainly captures the drive and desire of making it to the Winter Olympics. Will Ferrell and Jon Heder are very funny and are complimented by excellent supporting performances by real life husband and wife comedy duo Will Arnett and Amy Poeller. I thought Jenna Fischer gave an underrated and overlooked comedic performance in this movie.

4. THE CUTTING EDGE (1992)

If you love figure skating movies and Blades of Glory is just a little too silly for you, watch The Cutting Edge with D.B. Sweeny and Moira Kelly. Sweeny plays Doug Dorsey, a former hockey player driven out of the game after colliding with figure skater Kate Mosely (Kelly) at the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics. As training begins for the 1992 Games, Mosely can't find a partner who will work with her and Dorsey is relegated to playing semi-pro hockey. Mosely's coach tracks down Dorsey and convinces him to be her partner and get one last shot at Olympic Glory. Can the spoiled skater and gruff hockey player find a way to work together to achieve their dreams both on and off the ice? You pretty much know the answer but it is a decent film if you are a fan of the sport.

 

3. COOL RUNNINGS (1993)

With Canada boasting an actual Jamaican bobsledder on our 2010 team, how can I not include Cool Runnings on the list. Many people fondly recall this movie as the funny true-life account of the Jamaican bobsled team that competed at the 1988 Calgary Winter Games. This movie has even more sentimental value for me in that I consider it to be John Candy's last really good film. Candy played the coach who was charged with taking a group of novices who had never seen snow before and turning them into genuine Olympic bobsledders. This movie was better than I expected at the time and still holds up more than 15 years later.

 

2. CHARIOTS OF FIRE (1981)

This film is to Olympic movies as the Rose Bowl is to college football games. The grand-daddy of them all! Had we been on the cusp of the Summer Olympics, this may have found its way to the top of the list. And while this will do nothing to get you pumped for snow boarding, hockey and figure skating, it is a beautiful movie about the Olympic Spirit of sportsmanship within competition. It tells the true story of two British sprinters at the 1924 Olympics. Eric is a devout Scottish Missionary who runs because he knows it pleases God. Eric is Jewish and runs to escape prejudice and cement his place in society. The crux of the film involves Eric's dilemma about running on a Sunday. He runs to please God but he won't run on the Sabbath. This is an excellent blend of sports, racial tensions, and human drama. If you have not seen this movie, do so soon.

1. MIRACLE (2004)

I know, I know. It's blasphemous to promote a movie about the Americans winning hockey gold but the truth is, this is a really good movie. If this movie can't get you pumped about the Winter Olympics then you will never be cured of your OHD. Kurt Russell takes on the role of Herb Brooks, the tough and demanding coach who led a group of college kids in one of the greatest single game upsets in hockey history. This movie does a nice job of illustrating the biggest challenge the Americans had which was overcoming their tribal differences. In the late 1970's there were only two American hotbeds of hockey – Boston and Minnesota. The Boston kids and the Minnesota kids didn't much like each other and getting them to play as one cohesive unit was Brook's biggest challenge. If you haven't seen it, now is the time to give this a look.

 

That's it I've done all I can do to combat OHD. The rest is up to you. I do see a day when OHD is no longer hanging over us like a dark cloud. I see a day when everyone from coast to coast is sufficiently jacked about the Olympics. Why am I so optimistic? Well, to answer Al Michael's 30 year old question...yes, I believe in miracles.

 

Think I've left a classic off the list? Feel free to tell me all about it in the comments box.