SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
We're just a few weeks away from the torch being lit over Milan and another Olympic winter games. And if you want to get in the mood beforehand, why not watch a movie?
(SOUNDBITE OF ICE SKATING)
PFEIFFER: Will Leitch is a sportswriter and host of the movie podcast "Grierson & Leitch," and he's with us to share his picks for best winter sports movies. Hi, Will.
WILL LEITCH: Hello. Thank you. I'm excited. I'm already carrying my proverbial torch.
PFEIFFER: Well, I'm excited, too, because I've been watching trailers all morning to remind myself of all the great sports movies out there. And I wonder if you can go through with us a bit sport by sport. So let's say ice hockey. What comes to mind?
LEITCH: Well, the fun of hockey as both a subject for a movie and, of course, as a sport is it's both inspiring and also incredibly violent. And so hockey...
PFEIFFER: (Laughter).
LEITCH: ...Is able to give us both of those things in movie form. Probably the most famous hockey movie, and I would say the best hockey movie, is, of course, "Slap Shot"...
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UNIDENTIFIED NARRATOR: Paul Newman, Coach Reggie Dunlop, in this supercharged world of hockey...
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UNIDENTIFIED NARRATOR: ...Invites you to meet the crazies who make it that way.
LEITCH: ...Paul Newman's ode to the Rust Belt minor league hockey teams, directed by George Roy Hill. It's a wonderful film, with the famous Hanson brothers that are always getting in a fight. It won't remind you of Olympic hockey, I would say, but it certainly will make you definitely appreciate the game and also appreciate your teeth...
PFEIFFER: (Laughter).
LEITCH: ...Which is a big part of any kind of moviegoing experience. But for the more, like, Olympic hockey experience, the most famous hockey movie, and I think one of the best ones, is "Miracle," which is, of course, about the 1980 U.S. hockey team - Kurt Russell.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "MIRACLE")
KURT RUSSELL: (As Herb Brooks) I got no time for quitters.
NATHAN WEST: (As Rob McClanahan) You want me to play?
RUSSELL: (As Herb Brooks) I want you to be a hockey player.
WEST: (As Rob McClanahan) I am a hockey player.
RUSSELL: (As Herb Brooks) Think that will get them going?
NOAH EMMERICH: (As Craig Patrick) Oh, yeah.
LEITCH: People love a certain arc for sports movies. The scrappy underdogs all get together, and at first, they struggle, and they even kind of battle with each other a little bit, but then they come together as a team and all win the big game. And there's really - in real life, the canonical example of that is, of course, the - is the '80 U.S. hockey team.
PFEIFFER: You know, you mentioned Paul Newman, and that's making me think of a different movie that involves Paul Newman's sidekick, Robert Redford. This is this 1969 movie "Downhill Racer," about downhill skiing. Is that one that sort of falls into your best of list?
LEITCH: It's a wonderful film. And it's funny - the late, great Roger Ebert famously called that the best movie ever made about sports without really actually being about sports.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "DOWNHILL RACER")
ROBERT REDFORD: (As Chappellet) Eighty-eight?
GENE HACKMAN: (As Claire) Yeah, you'll be starting in the sixth group. It's the best we can get for you. Should be higher, but that's all we can do for you right now.
REDFORD: (As Chappellet) What's the point of even racing?
HACKMAN: (As Claire) Same as always. You try to win.
REDFORD: (As Chappellet) Starting 88th, I'll be in ruts up to my knees.
HACKMAN: (As Claire) Probably.
LEITCH: It's a very kind of underappreciated Redford performance. You know, he's obviously - was this, like, very classic movie star, but there's something kind of aloof and fascinating about his character and the way he plays him in that movie. And I think it speaks to the sport, right? Like, the idea - we get excited about these sports and these team sports and everyone coming together.
But the movie kind of really captures how kind of lonely being an athlete can be and how kind of isolating it is and how that desperate need to win can kind of erode at your soul but still help you win. And I think it's definitely the best skiing film that you'll find going into these Olympics.
PFEIFFER: Figure skating tends to have had a fair amount of movies made after it. What are your favorites in the figure skating world?
LEITCH: There are two that are actually quite different but I think both very enjoyable. More recently, I think, "I, Tonya" is probably the really fun one. I features a terrific performance by Margot Robbie as Tonya Harding.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "I, TONYA")
MARGOT ROBBIE: (As Tonya) Hey, how do I get a fair shot here? - 'cause I'm up at 5 every morning working my a** off. Does someone want to just tell me to my face, you're never going to give me the scores I deserve?
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As judge) We also judge on presentation.
ROBBIE: (As Tonya Harding) Well, you know what? If you can come up with $5,000 for a costume for me, then I won't have to make one. Till then, just stay out on my face.
LEITCH: One of the best things about that movie is, at the time, when we were all watching that when Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan thing happened, it was just kind of funny 'cause it was like, wow, this is, like, mobsters involving figure skating. This very dainty sport is suddenly - has people getting hit with crowbars and there's guys named Gillooly.
But one of the things that's great kind of about that movie is it gives you the context of, like, sure, you might only think about figure skating once every four years, but this is the entire lives of all of these people. They take it extremely seriously. And obviously, the stakes get incredibly high, particularly when it comes to the Olympics.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE CUTTING EDGE")
MOIRA KELLY: (As Kate Moseley) Toe pick.
LEITCH: Another great one is "The Cutting Edge," which is actually this great contrast between this classical figure skater played by Moira Kelly and this tough hockey player who's no longer playing sports, played by D.B. Sweeney.
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KELLY: (As Kate Moseley) Would you please put me down? Oh, you cretin.
D B SWEENEY: (As Doug Dorsey) Guess that move needs some work.
LEITCH: They actually become figure skating partners, and he learns to become graceful and a better person and realizes that ice skating is more than just hitting guys with your stick.
PFEIFFER: (Laughter) Another movie that tends to be really beloved for a lot of people was "Cool Runnings," the true story of the Jamaican bobsled team.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "COOL RUNNINGS")
DOUG E DOUG: (As Sanka Coffie) Feel the rhythm, feel the rhyme, get on up, it's bobsled time. Cool runnings.
PFEIFFER: What are your thoughts on that one?
LEITCH: One of the fun of the Winter Olympics is this idea that, like, sure, someone's going to win the gold. Someone's going to win the silver. Someone's going to win the bronze. We're all going to have these champions. But the fun of the Olympics, too, is a lot of times the people that don't win, but it's just kind of remarkable that they're here in the first place, and they're getting this moment to shine. I think "Cool Runnings" tells that story very well. The Olympics - to be there is such an achievement. It's incredible that you're there, and I think "Cool Runnings" does a really terrific job of kind of showing that.
PFEIFFER: It also shows us how a sport that a lot of people aren't familiar with works. I mean, we all may know the basics of football and basketball, but suddenly, we were learning the intricacies of bobsledding and how to train for it and what it involves. So it's a little window into more of a niche sports world.
LEITCH: And one of the most fun things about the Olympics in general is we can have sports that we've never seen before, and at the end of the two weeks, we're experts.
PFEIFFER: (Laughter)
LEITCH: We know everything about the sport.
(LAUGHTER)
LEITCH: And then we will forget all of it until we watch it again four years later. And that is a wonderful, wonderful thing about the Olympics.
PFEIFFER: Will, is there a sport that has not gotten the big-screen treatment that you think would make a good movie?
LEITCH: I feel like luge. Luge is a...
PFEIFFER: (Laughter).
LEITCH: Like, it's a little similar to bobsledding. And it's a hard thing to do, right? It's a hard thing to really dramatize 'cause you're just one person on a sled going very, very fast. The idea of speed and the solitude of that is actually pretty dramatically rich. We've seen it a lot with like, auto race movies. We've never really seen it for luge in a lot of ways. And that - every time I watch that sport, I'm like, wow, they're going so fast, and they're so alone. How scary that must be.
PFEIFFER: One of my NPR colleagues, an editor, Melissa Grey, talked about, maybe could you imagine a movie about zamboni drivers? You know, not exactly - it's not exactly winter sport, kind of winter sports adjacent. What do you think about that one?
LEITCH: It sure feels like that is a straight-to-Netflix Adam Sandler comedy waiting to happen.
PFEIFFER: (Laughter).
LEITCH: Doesn't it? Doesn't it feel like that would be a great one? And maybe he's a little bit too intense. You could go - also go the darker direction and have, like, a very intense method actor play, like, a slightly psychotic zamboni driver who's obsessed with a hockey player. But I think zamboni - it's hard to be too serious about a zamboni. I think you probably need an Adam Sandler kind of, like, wacky comedy to do that. But yeah, I would enjoy that. I don't know how exciting a zamboni race would be, however.
PFEIFFER: Yeah.
LEITCH: I feel like that would...
PFEIFFER: Yeah.
LEITCH: That would be a hard thing to dramatize in a truly exciting way.
PFEIFFER: That's sportswriter and film critic Will Leitch. Will, thank you so much.
LEITCH: Of course. Thank you for having me. Enjoy the Olympics.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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