It’s Women’s History Month and, in the world of sports, there are some amazing women who deserve to be honored for their successes, such as Babe Didrikson, who achieved a great deal of success in golf, basketball, and track and field. She paved the way for women athletes back in the 1930s, winning two gold medals in track and field at the 1932 Summer Olympics, before turning to professional golf and winning 10 LPGA major championships. What about Wilma Rudolph, Serena Williams, Billy Jean King, Martina Navratilova, and even young Mo’Ne Davis? The list goes on and on.
This Women’s History Month, I’m using my space on Get More Sports to honor these women. Whether it be through movies, books or just a profile on someone who deserves it, it’s time to give a shout-out to the women athletes who have made a difference in the world of sports.
So let’s start Women’s History Month off with five movies with strong women. Now these women can be fictional or the movie may be based on a true story. The movie may also just kick ass and give women such much-needed girl power. Either way, they deserve to be watched:
A League of Their Own: One of my favorites, A League of Their Own is a 1992 comedy-drama that starred Geena Davis, Tom Hanks, Madonna and Lori Petty. The film was a ‘fictionalized account of the real-life All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. If you click here, you can see a virtual scrapbook filled with articles, photographs, interviews, and statistics of the actual women who played professional baseball from 1943 through 1954. The movie is fantastic and in 2012, A League of Their Own was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.
Whip It: Whip it good — sorry, it’s the 1980s in me. I love, love, love this movie. Drew Barrymore nailed it in her directorial debut back in 2009. Ellen Page stars as Bliss, who wants to be on a roller derby team. These women are beasts. Bliss is a rebellious teen who finds the team and ultimately finds herself.
Bend It Like Beckham: Ah to dream to play soccer professionally like her futbol hero David Beckham, Jess struggles with parents who just want to hold her back. Of course, there are some serious decisions to be made and Jess, like many other female sports characters, needs to find out who she really is and decide what she wants to do. Great movie, especially for the younger set.
Dangal; One of the newest in the bunch, Dangal is a 2016 Indian Hindi-language biographical sports drama film that stars Aamir Khan as Mahavir Singh Phogat, who taught wrestling to his daughters Geeta and Babita Kumari. Geeta goes on to become India’s first female wrestler to win at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, while her sister wins silver. This is the highest grossing Hindi film domestically and the second highest grossing Indian film of all time. It’s also a well-made, inspirational movie. It’s a must-see.
Girlfight: Actress Michelle Rodriguez kicked ass both literally and figuratively in this sports movie where she played a Brooklyn box who steals money for lessons. Some women just get off on the wrong foot, but this boxer finds her way back.
Shadow Boxers: Speaking of boxing, there are some great documentaries about women in sports and this one, which debuted in 1999, is one of them. Women can fight and director Katya Bankowsky created this documentary about Lucia Rijker. Rijker was followed for three years while she worked toward the championship. FYI, Rijker eventually took a role in the movie as one of Hilary Swank’s opponents in Million Dollar Baby.
Listen up Hollywood: One thing I realized while writing this article was that there aren’t nearly as many movies to choose from with female characters who play sports as I had hoped there would be. These movies, except for Dangal, are more than a decade old, if not more. There are so many great stories to tell. We need more.
