Slap Shot

This movie is so fun and any hockey lover should watch. It’s a classic

GREAT FLICK!

Nancy Dowd wrote this masterpiece, and George Roy Hill directed the film. Perfectly cast, and funny as any film can get, Slap Shot is both a piece of history of the 1970 and a perfect satire of that time in the U.S.A. But more than a mere time capsule, the film is fun to watch, with sympathetic characters and many small touches that may go by the way the first time you watch the film but reveal themselves on further viewing. Not PC at all, and that's all for the good.

Yes, it was the 70s and things said then would not go over well today.Yes, it is funny with great action and likeable characters.Will rewatch every couple of years.

"Slap Shot" (1977) has long since achieved cult status among hockey fans -- something I was reminded of the last time I was in Quebec City, when I entered a hockey memorabilia store and saw T-shirts for all the fictional teams presented in the film -- the Broom County Blades, the Hyannisport Presidents, the Long Island Ducks, et al. Director George Roy Hill, who had worked so productively with Paul Newman in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1969) and "The Sting" (1973), resumed his collaboration with Newman for this grim but energetic comedy that chronicles the misadventures of a minor-league hockey team."Slap Shot" tells the story of Reggie Dunlop (played by Paul Newman), a player-coach for the Charlestown Chiefs of the fictional Federal League. The team trudges from one Northeastern mill town to another with a marked lack of success, both on the ice and at the gate. The steel-making city of Charlestown faces the closing of the local steel mill, and seems to be on the same path to oblivion as its hockey team. Dunlop's most reliable teammate, Ned Braden (played by Michael Ontkean), is an educated man who could seek other career paths, but wants to hang on to his hockey career; his wife Lily (played by Lindsay Crouse) is bitter at being stuck in Charlestown, and seems to be on a long slow slide into alcoholism. The team's director, Joe McGrath (played by Strother Martin), is quietly selling off the team's assets, and Dunlop's ex-wife warns him that there won't long be a hockey team in a town where people can't afford to go to the games.Dunlop, who has no intention of skating gently into that good night, takes action to try to preserve his own hockey future and that of his team. First, he floats to journalist friend Dickie Dunn (played by M. Emmet Walsh) a rumor that the Chiefs are to be bought and relocated to Florida; and quicker than you can say "Saint Petersburg Chiefs," the rumor takes off. Second, and more importantly, Dunlop hires goon players with a reputation for exceptionally rough physical play -- most notably, the Hanson Brothers, three look-alike young men whose seemingly childlike ways (their favorite hobby while on the road is playing with electric train sets) stand at variance with the over-the-top violence that they perpetrate during games. And as the Chiefs begin brutalizing their opponents on the ice, the team begins doing better at the gate.The film is popular among hockey fans in large part because of the authenticity of its hockey sequences. Director Hill is said to have remarked that it would be easier to teach skaters to act, rather than trying to teach actors to skate; accordingly, the hockey sequences move with the sport's unique combination of speed and toughness. Newman and Ontkean look just as confident on the ice as NHL/WHA veterans Jeff Carlson, Steve Carlson, and David Hanson, who play the Hanson Brothers. I have a hunch that the popularity of "Slap Shot" may also stem from its winking attitude toward hockey violence. The film was made at a time when hockey teams with a physical, violent style of play were achieving great success -- most notably, the mid-1970's Philadelphia Flyers, the "Broad Street Bullies" who pummeled more skill-oriented teams on their way to the 1974 and 1975 Stanley Cup championships. Fighting in hockey is, theoretically, illegal and punishable by penalties; but there are still plenty of fans who go to a hockey game in hopes of seeing a fight, and such was even more the case in 1977. "Slap Shot" captures well the hockey community's paradoxical attitudes regarding the sport's violence.Another of the strengths of "Slap Shot" is the manner in which it utilizes on-location filming. Johnstown, Pennsylvania, has been a hard-luck city, in many ways, ever since the catastrophic 1889 flood; and Hill skillfully situates his hockey players within a failing industrial setting. The city looks like a grim and hopeless landscape of despair, reinforcing the film's tone and theme; and viewers who know Johnstown will note how Hill includes many real-life Johnstown landmarks such as the "Morley's Dog" statue at Market and Main. It would be understandable if Johnstown's civic leaders were not pleased with the way their city was presented in "Slap Shot"; but the city had other things to worry about in 1977, as the city endured still another terrible flood that killed 85 people and caused $300 million worth of damage. I suppose the makers of "Slap Shot" were lucky that they wrapped up their work on the film and got out when they did.It is interesting to return to this film now that 35 years have passed, in part because cultural norms have changed so much over time. Back in 1977, there was a great deal of hand-wringing over the amount of foul language in the film --perhaps in part because the film was written by a woman, Nancy Dowd, whose brother had played for the real-life Johnstown Jets of the North American Hockey League. To be sure, there is plenty of bad language in the film; but in the early 21st century, when a single sequence from a Quentin Tarantino film can contain more bad words than all of "Slap Shot," concerns about the bad language in this film seem downright quaint.My chief reservation with regard to this film relates to the ending. As is so often the case with sports movies, the dramatic climax is a championship game; the Chiefs are pitted against their arch-rivals, the Syracuse Bulldogs, who have stocked the team with every enforcer and goon they can find. Dunlop, meanwhile, has exhorted his players to play clean for this game, to play "old-time hockey." What happens then? Suffice it to say that a disillusioned Ned Braden takes his own independent action that brings the film to an abrupt and unexpected conclusion. Whatever Dowd may have meant for the film's resolution to do in terms of satire or comedy, it comes out of nowhere, and it simply doesn't work.Nonetheless, "Slap Shot" gets in plenty of perfectly good shots on goal, and it hits its targets more often than it goes wide of the pipes. In some ways, the film seemed downright prophetic; life imitated art in 2010, when the Johnstown Chiefs of the East Coast Hockey League ended their 22-year run in Johnstown. Unlike the movie's Charlestown Chiefs, whose rumors of a southern relocation were only a pie-in-the-sky hope, the real-life Chiefs really did move south -- to Greenville, South Carolina, where they now play as the Greenville Road Warriors. Local newspapers here in Central Pennsylvania made much of the parallel between the dramatic action of "Slap Shot" back in 1977 and the fate of a real-life Johnstown hockey team in 2010.If you are a hockey fan, chances are you have already seen "Slap Shot," and enjoyed it. If you are a hockey fan and have not seen "Slap Shot," then you should.

If you like hockey you’ll love it

Yes its about a hockey team in a small market. But its not really a hockey movie. This is a scathing take down of American society at the same time its a fun hockey movie. It's about corporate shut downs and plant closures and how the lives of people and businesses (like the hockey team in this movie) are just at the whim of callous, thoughtless millionaires. It's a little sad and depressing at the same time that the hockey scenes are a fun free for all. Great casting and Newman was amazing as always. Directed by the great George Roy Hill of Butch Cassidy and The Sting fame. In other words, there's a lot going on beneath the surface of this film and it is elevated beyond simply a "hockey movie." Artists like this wouldn't just make a "hockey movie."

This review is for the Slap Shot blu-ray.A classic film, still fresh and funny to this day, as well as very realistic. Evokes a lot of sadness, too, re: small industrial towns with their industries going out of business (sound familiar lately?), and the ripple effects on interdependent people and businesses.[PLOT SPOILER ALERT]Truly a poignant film throughout, a quality which, for some reason, is generally not discussed-- as this movie revolves around an aging hockey player-coach with a dead marriage, the failing marriage of his young best player, that player's overall philosophic unhappiness with life (same for his alcoholic wife), the "we're going nowhere" feelings of basically all the players on the team (if not the league), false hopes of a new beginning for the team in another town under financially viable new owners, and more. This movie is about way more than just the funny (and violent) deeds of the Hanson brothers.One of the best 1970s films, which is saying a lot. Great cast-- Paul Newman (in one of his best roles), Strother Martin, Michael Ontkean (also in one of his best performances), Lindsey Crouse, Jerry Houser, and M. Emmett Walsh, among others. Stays fresh and relevant with every viewing.The blu-ray picture is excellent for this time period. As is the sound. The extras are the same as on the 25th Anniversary edition DVD.Highly-recommended blu-ray on all fronts!