Slap Shot is a great hockey comedy. It's a hilarious, vulgar, completely wild joyride through the trials of a failing 70's steelmill-town based, utterly amateur hockey team. Failing, that is, until their players resort to pure violence in an attempt to keep their franchise alive.
Paul Newman plays the womanizing player/coach who, after a series of embarassing losses (including one to a visitng team's center who's flat drunk) needs to work with a 3 brother gang of misfits, who all look alike and have an incredibly aggressive style of playing.
Chaos insues when Newman's character decides to finally play these "goons" with his other teammates, and he watches as the fan base increases when they proceed to physically demolish without any love for the game the opposing teammates in an series of hysterical scenes that combine the best in hockey photography with hilariously explicit dialouge and violence. The shot of the goon's nonchalanty skating past the visitor's box and smacking each of them in the head with their sticks is classic.
This action scenes in this movie is everything you wished your NFL highlight tapes to be. The DVD itself is excellent quality, including the true film soundtrack (copyright limitation prevented some of the songs from appearing on the VHS and cable versions).
Extra bonus features are pretty nonexistent just some scene selections and generic Actor Profiles that were prelevant in the first generation of DVDs created a couple years ago but the quality and entertainment value of the movie more than makes up for these shortcomings.
Ask hardcore hockey fans (the kind that are familiar with the Montreal Maroons or that understand that present-day hockey is virtually figure-skating compared to the seventies) what their favorite sports movie is, or ask hockey pros what their favorite sports movie is; probably more than half the time, you'll hear "Slap Shot". Some "serious" sports films suffer from self-importance or a lack of realism; try watching a good war documentary for actual life-and-death situations. Thankfully, "Slap Shot" doesn't take itself terribly seriously yet still manages to paint an accurate, believable picture.
Sure, the humor is rude and crude, but necessary to paint a somewhat accurate picture of `70's minor league hockey (surely these guys weren't discussing Plato or speaking in blue-blood accents). It may be offensive to uninitiated people (e.g. people who don't watch hockey or team sports in general), but the humor is oft-hilarious for hockey fans.
Paul Newman plays crafty, alternately obnoxious and charming player-coach Reg Dunlop, leader of the mediocre minor league Charlestown Chiefs (though in reality the movie was filmed in Johnstown, PA). Fearful that the team is going to fold (now that the big mill in town is closing), Reg concocts a scheme in which he'll find a way to make the team better and profitable in the hopes that the yet-unknown owner will opt to sell the team rather than disband it.
What eventually generates interest and success in the team is their change to a rough-and-tumble style of play, mercilessly beating on opponents (a la the typical style of play for many `70's teams), largely thanks to the infusion of the three Hanson brothers (who in real life actually were minor-league bruisers), who also provide much of the humor in the film. Michael Ontkean plays Ned Braden, the Ivy Leaguer who is a skilled scorer and naturally is unhappy with the fight-first direction of the team. His dysfunctional relationship with his young alcoholic wife serves as a subplot and also reminds Reg of his own unhappy marriage, largely due to his hockey life.
The film is full of fantastically funny moments: Reg's disbelief upon seeing the Hanson's for the first time ("They brought their f**kin' toys with `em!"), the players being forced to do a fashion show that goes awry when one of the players strips, the great Strother Martin as the cheapskate conniving general manager, the French-Canadian goaltender having hallucinations after being pummeled with shots, the Hansons starting a fight before the national anthem even starts, etc.
This is definitely one of the best sports films ever made (both in terms of comedy, and strangely, realism); don't expect anything highbrow, though, "THIS IS HOCKEY!" as the Chiefs rug-adorned announcer yells as the Chiefs are mercilessly pummeling their opponents.
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I have just received (and watched) the DVD version of "Slap Shot", and I thank the powers that be for restoring the original sound track to the movie. The generic music that was released on VHS took the heart out of the movie. With the restoration, and the excellent digital quality of the movie, my favorite film is complete. Now, a full 5 stars only because I can't give it 10.
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Think about all the movies that were made during the 1970's whose storylines actually occurred during that same time. It'll probably take you a long time to come up with a relatively short list. Next, think of how many of those movies still get shown (albeit in an edited format) in regular rotation on network, local, or cable TV. There really aren't many of them, are there? "Jaws", "Saturday Night Fever", and the James Bond movies that Ted Turner runs during his semi-annual "Bond Marathons"...and that's pretty much it. Except, of course, for the timeless gem that IS "Slap Shot". This movie really has everything...violence (presented in a format that most people outside of Canada and the Northeastern US weren't used to seeing at the time), profanity (even Wayne Gretzky admitted in his autobiography that he tends to "turn the air a little blue" during games), drunkenness (by players and fans both on and off the ice), Canadian accents ("Two points, eh!"), bad hair ("WHY DO YOU WEAR THAT RUG?"), REALLY BAAAD clothes (they had to have raided the set of the last "Superfly" movie for some of those duds), bad cars (Reggie's Pontiac LeMans...who ever came up with the notion that vinyl tops were EVER cool?), a '70's soundtrack (thankfully and blissfuly restored to the DVD) that would do Quentin Tarantino proud, and of course SEX (yes, that's Ralphie's mom from "A Christmas Story" in bed with Paul Newman, topless, discussing her lesbian affairs. That's enough to curdle the blood and land a kid in therapy for years). At the time this movie was made, violence in hockey at all levels had reached epidemic proportions. At the top levels, superstar Bobby Hull staged a personal one-game strike in the WHA against the level of violence that was being permitted, and the Philadelphia Flyers had made it to three straight NHL Stanley Cup Finals (winning twice) while playing the most physically abusive style of hockey in memory (has anyone besides me noticed how closely Tim McCracken's Syracuse team uniforms at the end of the movie resemble the Flyers' outfits at that time?)...and of course in the lower league levels of the pro game there was far less scrutiny and things were only magnified as players anxious to do anything for a big-league call-up would in fact do things very similar to those captured in this movie. Yeah, okay, but what's all that really mean? Nothing of consequence. This is an entertaining movie, pure and simple. Hockey season isn't really hockey season until you get together with some friends, wrap your mitts 'round a few brews and watch this movie as it starts to get cold outside. For those of us living outside the NHL's (very limited) influence from the time the Atlanta Flames (look for their logo in the movie on an advertisement poster) left up until the NHL started to expand again in the early 1990's, this WAS pro hockey. The 1980 Miracle On Ice Olympic team was something diferent...somehow other-worldly in comparison...but the two are mutually exclusive outside of NHL markets as being the lasting impression of a fantastic sport. On a personal note, in 1994 the Atlanta Knights (now sadly defunct) were winning the International Hockey League's (ALSO sadly defunct) Turner Cup Championship in their home arena, The Omni (yes, this is gone, too). Richard Adler, Knights VP, had hired this guy "Claude the Happy Trumpeter" (from Quebec, I think) to wear a Knights jersey, blow his horn, and lead cheers during the Playoffs. Early in the 2nd period of the clinching game, he announces himself with a fanfare, runs down the aisle to the plexiglass, throws himself up against it...and crashes through to the ice below, knocking himself out. The game was delayed about twenty minutes as they collected him off the ice and replaced the panel he'd shattered (he was okay...he came back near the end of the game wearing a neckbrace; it was hilarious). All I could think of, other than trying to keep from spilling my beer and pissing myself with laughter, was that the whole thing was just so utterly "Slap Shot"-esque...and that somewhere Up There, Strother Martin had to be smiling.
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it truly is considered one of the greatest sports movies of all time. LOL!!!
Slap Shot is about the Charleston Chiefs of the American Federal Hockey League, a minor league Hockey system. The Chiefs are in financial debt and rumors are that the team is about to be sold, attendence is bad, and the mill is about to close for good.
so Paul Newman, coach/player comes up with the perfect way to draw people and interest in the team, put on a show. He starts by saying things about one of the goalies wife, and this leads to the first awsome brawl of the game.
with the addition of the Hanson brothers, the movie gets awsome. the hanson brothers play so brutal, you'd be glad they were on your team. they hit, hook, spear, slash, and beat the crap out of opposing teams, which starts to lead to a fan following and a booster club.
Newman turns one of the soft spoken players into Killer, a blood mess like one of the fellas called him. he puts a bounty on the opposing coach, and starts a rumor that the team is about to be bought out by a florida retirement group.
they make it all the way to the title game, and then that's where i really don't understand it. they get into a huge fight, and the one guy that won't fight cause he wants to play it straight, starts to skate around undressing, leading to the opposing team hitting the ref getting disqualified. i don't really understand that whole part, but other than that, the movie is awsome.
it really captures the realness that these minor league hockey teams go through, like helping out with fashion shows.
Slap Shot is a great movie, i hope they another hockey movie in the near future as great as slap shot.
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"Look Who's Talking" is probably my favorite film with Kirstie Alley, my favorite film with John Travolta (though "Grease" comes close) and my favorite film with Bruce Willis (though I'm not exactly a fan of his). It's funny, it's romantic, it's got some innovative special effects, a couple of car chases, and John Travolta even gets to fly a plane (which he must have really enjoyed at the time!).
