Miracle
Besides obviously being the greatest upset in the history of organized sports, The 1980 U.S Olympic Hockey Teamâs triumph over The Soviet Union in Glens Falls, NY was made out by many to be some kind of major cultural milestone, a shifting of the tide that many feel boosted both American patriotic pride and set the initial pieces in play for the eventual fall of Communism and The Soviet Union itself a decade later. And while all that can be argued as being exactly the case, at the end of the day all it really was simply was just a situation where you had a sports team widely considered to be the absolute best in the world at what they did who just happened to be Russian (and to prove it they were known to regularly trounce various teams of NHL All Stars in exhibition games which in and of itself was an intimidating fact) taking on a bunch of completely underdog kids (keeping in mind that many of the Russian players were fully mature men who had played together for anywhere from 10 to 15 years), most of whom were handpicked from various college and minor league programs and were then whipped into shape by a coach determined to beat The Russians at their own game by ironically utilizing many of their own training and discipline techniques. That coach was Herb Brooks, a guy who was known in social situations to be kind of a withdrawn type (unlike his social butterfly wife) but while coaching his players on the ice was a taciturn, uncompromising perfectionist when it came to getting the best out of his guys. Before dying in a car accident in 2003, he served as a consultant for a film about the Olympic win that was released in 2004, and as far as getting factual accuracy right while still being a compelling piece of work, this has often been cited as being just that as well as easily making any respectable list of the greatest sports movies ever made. In the role of Brooks, we get Kurt Russell in a career defining performance from a guy who was always best known for his âtough guyâ roles finally showing us not only what a superb, quality actor he is, but also a completely immersive one as well, nailing Brooksâ Minnesota accent as he disappears into the real life character so much so as we donât even really recognize him anymore. Playing a hardass who knows that heâs gonna have to put these guys through absolute hell in order to stand any kind of a real chance on the world stage of hockey, Russell proves that spending most of his screen time in a suit and tie while putting his players through their paces still doesnât stop him from projecting his usual level of intensity onscreen, with Brooksâ designing of a game plan that was considered to be a âhybridâ of both the Canadian and Russian styles more or less revolutionizing the sport forever along with him instilling it into his team to make them ready to play in only about 6 months of prep time, knowing exactly what he was doing right from the outset all the way down to the psychological atmosphere that he conveyed onto the players, which included allowing old college rivals to fight it out during practice so that they can move on together as a team and of course the old classic bit of having a younger assistant coach (Noah Emmerich) hanging around to serve as the playersâ supposed surrogate friend and confidante while still taking his marching orders from their feared head coach who uses the fact that the players trust him to that very purpose. But on top of Russellâs powerhouse, Oscar worthy performance, director Gavin OâConnor made an incredibly daring decision when it came to the casting process of the actual actors on the team itself. Wanting to stress authenticity and the most realistic depiction of hockey ever seen on film, OâConnor filled even the most key roles all with non actors who while photogenic, were cast based almost entirely on their proficiency in the game of hockey itself, thus making sure that the characters were clearly the ones that we saw playing on the ice (including one who was the actual son of a player portraying his father on screen) while presumably during their more dramatic scenes they were coached up by either the director or Russell himself (no stranger to directing actors since he was said to have entirely performed that duty during the filming of Tombstone) and the result is an interesting mix of either having certain characters get lost in the shuffle or actually become more prominent in the story usually because of some interaction they have with Brooks. As everyone aware of that historic game knows, the true superstar and MVP there was none other than Jim Craig, the goalie whose unbelievable performance (especially in the way that The Russians mercilessly pounded him with the puck in the last 10 minutes as The Americans held onto the lead) and literally endless amount of saves throughout the game wrote him into an instant place in the annals of sports legends and as an American hero in the eyes of those who saw the game. As ably played here by Eddie Cahill, the script smartly singles him out early on as being one of Brooksâ âspecial casesâ who would seem to not have his heart into being part of this whole thing but yet sticks around until the glorious end in many ways because we realize that his coach really does believe in him that much. In some ways itâs funny watching Emmerich playing the trusted assistant after connecting him so strongly with the disingenuous best friend who was really just an actor in The Truman Show, especially with the many disagreements that heâs shown having with Brooks (you almost half expect him to discreetly put his foot out and trip up one of his own players during the big game) and the sanitized, PG rated script clearly does not reflect in the dialogue the often profane world of hockey for what it really is, but elements of the coaching process particularly in the steel willed determination of a head coach whom after watching his team tie Norway in an exhibition game considers it to be such an embarrassment that he almost cruelly puts his players through drills long after the game is over shows the stark contrast between coaches who do so in order to either make âfriendsâ with their players or to make themselves the center of attention and those coaches who will do whatever they have to do in order to just WIN, and damn any players who donât like it because having them walk away and quit the team is exactly what that coach wants with those who donât like his methods. It is in those more in depth moments of what a coach has to put his team (and himself) through in order to be successful along with Russellâs rousing locker room speeches (which are nearly every bit the equal of Al Pacinoâs thunderous speeches in Any Given Sunday) that makes this film stand apart from many others in its subgenre, even as they cast a capable actress like Patricia Clarkson as Brooksâ wife and then seemingly generate some marital conflict between them over his ever growing obsession with making his team great just in order for them to give her something to do, but as the film smartly reflects on some of the worldwide political discord going on at that time (including the Russian invasion of Afghanistan and the ongoing gas shortage back then) and uses it to show just how âimportantâ this game was to millions of Americans back then (and indeed, some of the miraculous defensive play towards the end of that fateful game seems to have at least been partially spurred on by the extremely partisan crowd), one canât help at least as an American to feel some sense of pride at how our team performed en route to the gold medal (and funny enough probably explains why the business at the box office for the film outside The U.S. was virtually dead). But it was to Brooksâ credit in keeping everything in perspective as far as his own motivations were concerned, barely caring anything for the actual politics but instead having such a great amount of respect for The Russians and their winning, almost unbeatable style of hockey that spurred him on to bring it right back at them and thus cement his own place among the great coaches of all time (which he did) and managed to pull off a win that regardless of the nations involved, still represented one of the most unbelievable events in the history of sports to this very dayâŚ
9/10