What we love about sports movies isn’t just the battle on the field but when a team or player overcomes adversity to win the game. Let’s face it, there’s a reason people root for the underdog and it’s because we’ve all been down and out at some point in our lives and search for reassurance everything is going to turn out okay in the end. When tensions rise and the stakes get raised, we always remember the scene where everything turns around. So if the most recent Mercury in Retrograde has you licking your wounds, watch some of our favorite movies with pivotal scenes to inspire a course correction.
‘Any Given Sunday’
Not only regarded as one of the best locker room speeches of all time but also one of the most inspirational speeches in a movie ever is given by Al Pacino as Coach Tony D’Amato in Any Given Sunday. Pacino gives his speech before one of the most important games of the season as the relationship between the players is crumbling. Pacino is somber as he relates “life’s a game of inches. So is football.” While most of us won’t be professional athletes, the speech resonates as we all have choices in life whether to keep fighting or let go. Our collection of inches don’t amount to first downs but they do amount to a promotion, owning a house, raising children and just being the best version of ourselves. Get inspired on any day of the week.
‘Rocky’
As the first measures of the musical score come through the speakers, you know the Rocky training montage with your eyes closed. Even the story of how Rocky got made is inspiring! Struggling actor, Sylvester Stallone, with only $106 in his bank account and having to sell his dog to pay the bills – held out on the offer of $360,000 for just the script in order to also star in the film. The studio gave in and with a small budget of $1mil (which is small by movie making standards), Rocky went on to receive nine Oscar nominations and three wins. Put on your sweats and shadowbox while watching this classic.
‘Braveheart’
Not all sports players look to a locker room speech or training montage as their go-to inspiration before hitting the field, just ask former quarterback Jordan Palmer. When fans wrote in with questions for DIRECTV Studio’s Game Day Advice, Palmer shared how in high school, he would always watch the same scene from Braveheart before a game. Palmer would come home from school and his mom would have the VHS tape queued up and ready for him. Want to know what scene? You might be surprised. Haven’t seen the whole movie yet? No better time than now.
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