Somehow, through the course of starting the night at Comerica Park and stopping at the bar to watch the second half of the playoff game, the conversation veered to figure skating movies. Well, it started with the mere mention of figure skating; I steered it toward chatting about film.
The topic: What’s the best movie about figure skating?
The answer: The Cutting Edge (natch).
- When I finish this post, I just might watch it again. That is, if I owned the DVD. Who am I kidding? I own it…
I mean, it could be argued that since Ice Castles was the first, it’s the best by some (I’ve never seen it, but after watching this video featuring its theme song, I feel like I have to).
Some tidbit facts about Ice Castles:
- There’s a remake coming out next year to coincide with the 2010 Winter Olympics.
- Star Lynn-Holly Johnson went on to be a Bond Girl to Roger Moore in For Your Eyes Only.
- Co-star Robby Benson almost won the role of Luke Skywalker in some movie I don’t recall, but he did voice The Beast in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. He also directed episodes of Friends, apropos of nothing.
- It’s also a song by Ween.
Arguments for The Cutting Edge:
- It was awesome.
- It was funny.
- It was heartwarming.
- It spawned a trilogy.
There really need to be five movies to tell the full story.
According to Wikipedia, there have been only 7 films about figure skating, while
- skiing gets 9
- surfing gets 11
- wrestling and ice hockey get 14
- (and oh yeah – cheerleading, skateboarding, and rodeo also get 7)
Forget the major leagues and any kind of racing, and you realize Hollywood hasn’t explored other sports all that much. Especially when you consider that the 14 ice hockey movies include the Mighty Ducks trilogy, a second Slap Shot film, MVP: Most Valuable Primate, and The Guru – heaven help all ice-skating related works.
5? Can one of them have her skating with the primate from Most Valuable Primate?