One movie in recent memory was Jerry Macguire. Now, the movie itself ranks in my top favorites of all time. But the soundtrack that accompanied it was pathetic. Sure, the music on the soundtrack fit the movie well, but I HAD TO hear the music WHILE watching the movie! If I heard the song on the radio, it was just another song to me!! There were no score tracks, and that's just plain pathetic! There were key moments in the movie that had some instrumental, such as the piano piece when Jerry runs back to find Dorothy after Rod's winning game touchdown, that should have been on the soundtrack.

We musn't forget Chariots Of Fire. That's a classic. There are some other Olympic scores, too, but the only two which come to mind are 16 Days Of Glory and Cool Runnings.

I don't think that sports movies need to have songs. It all depends on what type of sports movie it is. If it's meant to have emotion and get more than your adrenaline in gear, then they usually require good scores. Something like Waterboy or lots of basketball movies don't really require any emotional help. That's my opinion, anyway.

By the way, James is right on track about the quality of sports movies equating with the decency of the score. After all, at the heart of any movie is a great story. So, for instance, I'm sure that the great ones weren't lining up to compose "Weekend at Bernies" or "Maid To order" or the like. Why should they score "The Waterboy"? They're all the same type of movie, albeit about different subjects.

I think it's when a sports movie is embedded in another genre that most gets itself presented as musically unchallenging to score (or too challenging as a score would unnecessarily fall by the wayside in some cases), that the movies listed here are filled with song album presentations. It would be great if those uninspiring inspired by albums would only occur in the instances of these films as opposed to those films with the idea that they "think we can sequence better" as far as music goes.

I tend to like Kevin Costner's older movies, like back in the days he starred in Bull Duhram and Field Of Dreams. It will be interesting to see how his 3rd baseball movie is. I have a feeling it will be good.

As for Mr. Poledouris, I would expect a beautiful, thematically rich score. He's on new ground with a sports movie, but Basil has a lot of range and inventiveness.