Sports movies are feel-good films of today

Uplifting films were once a Hollywood staple, back in the olden, golden days. The studios often turned out films that were optimistic, hopeful, cheering ... even spiritual.

In this more cynical age, however, such films are few and far between, and when they do come along we sometimes embrace them even when they don't really deserve it. A movie isn't necessarily good just because it's clean or positive.

On the other hand, sometimes it's just nice to leave the theater feeling up instead of down.

Most films that give us a boost these days come from independent filmmakers. Generally, the studios don't bother.

The one exception being the sports film.

Major movie studios generally steer clear of religion — except to look askance or to ridicule. And a positive view of faith is allowed in some period pieces ... as if to suggest that we were so much more naive back then, whether it's 20 years ago or 100 years ago.

But the religion of sports — worshiping at the altar of the football, the baseball, the golf ball, etc. — is apparently acceptable. And such films are usually based on true stories.

In fact, two are in local theaters right now:

• "Forever Strong" is about a high school star rugby player (Sean Faris) with a chip on his shoulder who learns life lessons after being thrown into detention for a drunken-driving offense. And the story is built around a local institution, the Highland High rugby team and its inspiring coach Larry Gelwix (Gary Cole).

• "The Express," a biographical film about Ernie Davis (Rob Brown), the first black football player to win the Heisman Trophy, only to be brought down by leukemia before he could begin a professional career. The story is also about his tough but fair coach (Dennis Quaid), who learns lessons about racism along the way.

Both films are replete with the usual stereotypes and sports cliches, and "The Express" also gets bogged down with overused modern filmmaking techniques that jostle the camera, juxtapose grainy black-and-white footage with bleached-out color ... and other distracting "artsy" gestures.

But both are also feel-good movies that offer some hope about the human condition and the world around us.