It looks like the weather is going to be nice this weekend…if you don’t count Sunday as part of the weekend. The spring brings so many different weather patterns to the Pacific Northwest that it’s always a good idea to have a backup plan.
A movie sounds good. And something tells me that you would like to see something with a sports and leisure theme. You’ve seen Field of Dreams so many times that you’re starting to pronounce The Great American Pastime with a distinctively James Earl Jones accent (“Beesbul”), and you’ve already planned your summer vacation to Dyersville, Ohio. Now you want to see something you haven’t seen before.
We at FishDuck.com have just what you need; seven movies with a sports and leisure theme, and a distinct Oregon connection. That way, on the off-chance that you don’t like the movie, you can at least look for local sights.
Drive, He Said: Filmed On Campus, Including Extensive footage in and around Mac Court. Sports and Leisure Theme: Basketball
Jack Nicholson’s debut as a director, this stars William Tepper as Hector, a star athlete who gets lucky overandoverandoverandover…
5 Milk Duds out of 10.
The Great Race, filmed in part in Gearhart. Sports and leisure theme: Auto Racing
Tony Curtis, Natalie Wood (at her most fetching) and Jack Lemmon set out to race cars from New York to…Paris?
6 Milk Duds
The Legend of Tillamook’s Gold, filmed in Tillamook, Manzanita, and Vernonia. Sports and Leisure theme: Treasure Hunting.
Suzanne Marie Doyen plays Julie Kimbell, who encounters a wise Native, and a helpful Roosevelt Elk (and really, aren’t they all just awfully helpful) and obstacles real and imagined as she does what so many young teens do, hunt for buried treasure in the Tillamook Burn.
5.75 Milk Duds
Bongwater, filmed in Portland. Sports and leisure theme: Getting High
Luke Wilson plays David, who falls for Serena, who falls for her weed 538 times a day. Andy Dick co-stars, so it has that going for it too.
2 Milk Duds
Point Break, Filmed at Ecola State Park in Seaside. Sports and Leisure Theme: Surfing
Keanu Reaves hangs at least 10 (maybe as many as 16) to catch surfing bank robbers.
6.5 Milk Duds
Personal Best, Filmed at Hayward Field and various sites in Eugene. Sports and Leisure Theme: Track
Mariel Hemingway plays Chris Cahill, star track athlete and candidate for the Olympic Team. Her life and passion, on and off the track, makes this one of the best on the list.
7 Milk Duds
Kansas City Bomber, Filmed in Portland. Sports and Leisure Theme: Roller Derby.
Raquel Welch skates. ‘Nuff said.
6.25 Milk Duds
Without Limits, filmed in Coos Bay, Cottage Grove, Heceta Head, and Springfield. Sports and leisure theme: Track, Olympic Games.
Billy Crudup plays Steve Prefontaine, the legendary miler who competed in the 1972 Olympics and was favored in 1976 before dying in a car accident in May of 1975. The film does a good job capturing the passion that “Pre” brought to the track, as well as to life off the track.
8 Milk Duds.
The blue skies and warm days are right around the corner…or maybe the corner after that. Until then, dim the lights. “Sssshhh, the movie’s starting.”
Related Articles:
Kim Hastings is a 1984 graduate of Northwest Christian College. He cut his journalistic teeth as sports editor of a paper in his home town of Fortuna, CA, and, later as a columnist for the Longview Daily News in Longview, WA.
He saw his first Oregon game in 1977 and never missed a home game from 1981 until a bout with pneumonia cut his streak short in 1997. He was one of the proud 3200 on a bitterly cold night in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1989 for the Independence Bowl, and continues to be big supporter of Oregon sports. He is an active participant on the various Oregon Ducks messageboards as “TacomaDuck.”