{"id":2541,"date":"2016-08-19T15:49:12","date_gmt":"2016-08-19T19:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.avengingforce.com\/?p=2541"},"modified":"2016-08-19T15:54:09","modified_gmt":"2016-08-19T19:54:09","slug":"five-by-friday-top-five-olympics-movies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.avengingforce.com\/?p=2541","title":{"rendered":"Five by Friday: Top Five Olympics Movies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to Five by Friday!<\/strong> This week we’re riding high on the Rio 2016 Olympics, so we’ve decided to celebrate by counting down our top five Olympic movies. As it turns out, there aren’t a lot of them, so this week’s Five by Five is a list we compiled together.<\/p>\n

\"Five<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Join us in the comments or on your own blog\u2013we\u2019ve even provided a graphic for you, which you can either save to your own space or link from tinypic using the following HTML code:\u00a0<a href=\u201dhttp:\/\/avengingforce.com\u201d><<\/em>img src=\u201dhttp:\/\/i59.tinypic.com\/2d9318w.jpg\u201d><*\/a>\u00a0<\/em>Just remove the asterisks, and you\u2019re all set!<\/p>\n

5) Chariots of Fire<\/h2>\n

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This classic Olympic story follows two runners representing\u00a0Great Britain\u00a0in\u00a0the 1924 Olympics held in Paris, France. Eric Liddell\u00a0is a devout Christian\u00a0who runs for the glory of God,\u00a0and Harold Abrahams is an English Jew who runs to overcome anti-Semitic prejudice. For these two athletes, their convictions and beliefs are just as important to them as their commitment to their sport, and they inspire the world as representatives of Great Britain. And who doesn’t love the title track?<\/p>\n

4) Eddie the Eagle<\/h2>\n

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Released just a few months before the 2016 Rio Olympics,\u00a0Eddie the Eagle<\/em>\u00a0is based on the true\u00a0story of Michael “Eddie” Edwards and his rocky journey to compete as a ski jumper in the\u00a01988 Olympic Games in Calgary (the same Games which are featured in two of the other picks on this list). Unlike most Olympic stories, the tale of Eddie is not one of physical excellence and athleticism, but of pure, unwavering determination. He chose ski jumping not because of any particular aptitude\u00a0for it, but simply because no one else from Great Britain was doing it, and so he figured he had a decent chance of making it to the Olympics with very little training. While the story does feel a tad familiar, hitting many of the same beats as gold standard\u00a0Cool Runnings <\/em>(which it actually acknowledges in a fun little Easter egg), it successfully captures the spirit\u00a0of optimism and enthusiasm that makes that\u00a0movies so enjoyable. With endearing performances from stars Taron Egerton and Hugh Jackman,\u00a0Eddie the Eagle<\/em>\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>a charming little movie that is a delight to watch — especially if you ever find yourself\u00a0nostalgic for the inspirational sports movies of the ’90s.<\/p>\n

3) Unbroken<\/h2>\n

\"Unbroken07\"<\/p>\n

Another movie based on a true story, Unbroken follows\u00a0USA Olympian and athlete Louis “Louie” Zamperini. \u00a0Louie was a distance runner who\u00a0qualified for and competed in the 1936 Olympics\u00a0in Berlin, Germany just prior to the start of WWII. When the US joined the war, Louis joined up and flew\u00a0bombers for the Air Force. Sometime in 1943, his bomber crash landed in the ocean and he somehow survived in a raft for 47 days\u00a0before being captured by the Japanese and\u00a0sent to a series of prisoner of war camps. Though the Japanese try everything they can to break his spirit, Louie has the heart of an Olympian and a spirit that refuses to bend.<\/p>\n

2) The Cutting Edge<\/h2>\n

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The only film on this list not based on a true story, but the second that features the 1988 Olympics in Calgary. It’s a charming romantic comedy that forces spoiled figure skater Kate Moseley (Moira Kelly) to work with a former Hockey player, Doug Dorsey (D.B. Sweeney), to put together a figure skating routine that can compete at the Olympic level. Kate and Doug both feel cheated out of an Olympic medal, having come close only to lose it at the last minute at the 1988 games. Kate’s such a brat that she has alienated anyone who might be a logical choice to partner with her for a pairs routine, so her coach finds Doug and convinces him to come out of retirement and try his hand at figure skating. The two of them just barely squeak into the 1992 Olympics… and of course, they fall in love along the way.<\/p>\n

1) Cool Runnings<\/h2>\n

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Is there any Olympic movie more perfect than Cool Runnings<\/em>? This movie tells the true story of the Jamaican Bobsled team at the\u00a01988 Olympic Games in Calgary\u00a0(the final story from this Olympics to make our list). When a top Jamaican runner fails to qualify for the summer Olympics due to an accident on the track, he organizes a crew of four to compete as Jamaica’s first bobsledding team. Facing ridicule from seemingly all angles, they persevere, and while they may not have medaled, they absolutely warmed everyone’s hearts and showed them that putting your mind to something and keeping your head held high can get you pretty damn far. John Candy as Irv Blitzer is phenomenal as well. This movie’s a must-watch for anyone who loves sports films, Olympic or not.<\/p>\n

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Welcome to Five by Friday! This week we’re riding high on the Rio 2016 Olympics, so we’ve decided to celebrate by counting down our top five Olympic movies. As it turns out, there aren’t a lot of them, so this week’s Five by Five is a list we compiled together. Join us in the comments […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2546,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Five by Friday: Top Five Olympics Movies","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[475],"class_list":["post-2541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-five-by-friday","tag-olympics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.avengingforce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/The-Cutting-Edge_612x380_0.jpg?fit=612%2C380","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Vfwz-EZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.avengingforce.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.avengingforce.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.avengingforce.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.avengingforce.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.avengingforce.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2541"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.avengingforce.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2556,"href":"http:\/\/www.avengingforce.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2541\/revisions\/2556"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.avengingforce.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.avengingforce.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.avengingforce.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.avengingforce.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}