The Big Debate: The best sports biopic ever

Dan Morris: Rush is in pole position

I’m not a sports fan – certainly not an F1 fan. Or at least I wasn’t, until this sublime little flick from Ron Howard found its way onto my plate.

Starring man-of-the-moment Chris Hemsworth and fellow Marvel alumnus Daniel Brühl, 2013’s Rush told the thrilling tale of the 70s racing rivalry between F1 stars James Hunt and Niki Lauda.

With superb performances by its leading men, the fiercely competitive relationship between Brit Hunt and Austrian Lauda was brought spectacularly to life in an action-packed thill ride focussed around the 1976 F1 season.

As the cocky, hedonistic and roguish Hunt, Hemsworth was spectacular.

As the clinical, pedantic, perfectionist that apparently was Lauda, Brühl was even better.

With fantastic sequences including a portrayal of the notorious 1976 German Grand Prix and the harrowing accident it involved, Rush was a perfect flick for the big screen.

But the thing that, for me, makes it the greatest sports biopic of all time is that the way that it sold the passion and daring of these two drivers actually turned me on to a sport I had previously had absolutely no interest in.

If any film can do that, it’s done its job well.

With a cast completed by Olivia Wilde, Alexandra Maria Lara, Pierfrancesco Favino and Natalie Dormer, Not only is it my favourite sports biopic, it probably cracks my top-ten movies of all time. Feel the rush.

Matt Panter: Chariots of Fire is iconic

I’m just not into cars, I’m afraid. They are a means of getting from A to B and, in my case, not parking particularly straight at the end of the journey. So motorsport and any films about it – Rush, Senna, Ford v Ferrari – are not my thing.

As a boxing fan, I think the obvious choice would be to say Raging Bull, chronicling the life and career of the middleweight boxing champion, Jake LaMotta.

Any film directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Robert De Niro has to be considered great and one recent study by AceOdds.com revealed it as the highest-rated sport biopic of all time, with an 8.1 rating on IMDB.

It is a classic but I’m going to throw another sporting film into the mix that didn’t make the study’s top ten – Chariots of Fire. And why not, seeing as we are fast approaching the 2024 Olympics in Paris. Chariots of Fire, which won best picture at the Oscars in 1982, was set in 1924, again in Paris.

Based on the true story of Eric Liddell, a devout Scottish Christian, and Harold Abrahams, it’s a brilliant story of how the sprinting pair overcame challenges to emerge as gold medallists.

Ben Cross and Ian Charleson are excellent as Abrahams and Liddell while Ian Holm is outstanding as Sam Mussabini, Abraham’s running coach. And who can forget the sequence of athletes running on the beach to the music of composer Vangelis. An iconic piece of music for an iconic film.