Slap Shot
The great sports movies, or in particular, the great sports comedies, donât really seem to have a set pattern. Some can be the wild comings and goings of crazy characters in a sports setting (Caddyshack), some can be films focused on one or two characters on a given team (Bull Durham), and some can be about how a down on its luck team pulls together to win it all (Major League). This 1977 film, without question the greatest film ever made about the sport of hockey (only Miracle comes close), pulls off one of the trickiest feats of all, as it focuses more on the feel and atmosphere of what it was like to play on a minor league hockey team in the 1970s rather than the fictional teamâs ups and downs or win-loss record. To achieve this, several real life players were in the supporting cast, the script was written by the sister of a real life pro hockey player, and well respected, Oscar winning director George Roy Hill, and all time Hall Of Fame Movie Legend Paul Newman were brought in on a project that some might have felt was beneath them. As such, the movie employed the use of profanity that by 1970s standards (or even today) was incredibly dense and vulgar, bringing to light the often overlooked fact that hockey might be the last truly legitimate âmanâs sportâ, a game where pantywaists and prima donnas are not allowed in any way, shape, or form. This is also reflected in the (very) large surplus of anti-homosexual and anti-gay slurs throughout the movie (with the most outrageous being reserved for Newman himself in an unforgettable moment involving the team owner), a factor that has caused many to label it as being politically incorrect in this day and age, notwithstanding the fact that those who have been around these players and their locker rooms can attest to the notion that these guys really DO talk like that. As for the cast, Newman gives perhaps the most laid back and likable turn of his legendary career (and of which he later stated that this was his favorite role, his favorite film, and that he had the most fun of his career making it) as player / team coach Reggie Dunlop, a lovable fuckup perfectly at ease with the fact that he never made the big leagues over the course of a long career, and when it comes down to needing to win a few games, resorts to every trick in the book to get the job done, from playing head games with his opponents to throw them off to in essence sanctioning the team to use âgoonâ tactics which is to get as rough and dirty as possible with the opposing team, with the charge being led by the newly acquired trio of the legendary Hanson Brothers, three seemingly dorky guys who happily tape tinfoil on their fists in full view of the others and let loose during games with a brutal, mauling style that earns them an equally large following of both loyal fans and venomous haters. That the three actors were indeed real life mini phenomenons in the world of minor league hockey and actually employed those tactics as well is what makes them so hilariously amazing to watch, a three man wrecking crew whose popularity beyond and because of this movie led to them being the only returning cast members for the diminishing in quality sequels, albeit in smaller roles. The rest of the cast is a smattering of both well known and one shot actors, including Strother Martin as the blustery, old (and much hated) General Manager of the team, Michael Ontkean as the teamâs best player in terms of talent who refuses to use cheap tactics, Lindsay Crouse as Ontkeanâs super cute but unhappy and sexually frustrated wife, Brad Sullivan as the veteran benchwarming scrub who talks big about his long in the past sexual exploits, M. Emmet Walsh as the shifty sportswriter who always believes and writes up Newmanâs lies, and Melinda Dillon (Ralphieâs mom in Christmas Story) doing nudity as the super sexy chick Newman hits up for one night while on the road. As said, the other cast members who make up the team are more âtypesâ than fully realized characters (some only get a couple of lines), but when the time comes for them to be used for a big laugh, come through perfectly. The plot so to speak is just a day to day account of the team membersâ various antics and drama, from outrageous appearances on sports talk radio shows to the marriage problems between Ontkean and Crouse to Newmanâs attempts to learn who the owner of the team is so he can negotiate a sale to his run ins with his ex wife to the various references to an almost mythical badass player named Oglethorpe. All in all though, it really is more about the atmosphere of that particular world of sports, from the nearly empty arenas populated only by the playerâs wives and a smattering of loyal fans, to the super masculine, testosterone driven attitude of literally every player we meet, to the final assertion that these guys, while not making a lot of money and probably never going to the NHL, are still pretty content with their lot in life by the fact that they get paid to play a game they love. As much a celebration of a bygone era where men were not afraid to be strictly men and little else as it is one of the most hilarious, profane, and over the top comedies ever made (observe the âfinal gameâ which is just one big nonstop brawl), this is living proof that masterpieces can sometimes come from the strangest placesâŚ
10/10