I’m not a sports person, but to me Barry Levinson’s The Natural perfectly encapsulates what baseball is about—and makes me believe that what happens on the diamond is magic.

After intense tryouts, wrenching roster cuts, and a motivational speech for the ages, our team of Top 10 Sports Movies is ready to go for the gold.

I take comfort in knowing that film noir—a genre that has existed for almost 100 years—has seen it all before. So here are few timeless, hard-won lessons and the noir films that illustrate them.

By all cinematic standards of today, this film is not only masterfully conceived—it is among Shyamalan’s very best.