Slap Shot (1977)

Best movie ever!

A Masterpiece!

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

For the life of me, I have no idea why Slap Shot is a famous movie. It's so incredibly dated! I'm really sorry, Paul Newman, but you've made so many other better movies; if I write one bad review, I hope you'll understand.Newman plays a hockey player and coach in this utterly 70s sports movie that seems to be both spoofing itself and taking itself entirely too seriously. The players and fans get into brawls during games, in order to gain attention and popularity. It's really silly. Maybe forty years ago, it was supposed to be funny, but it isn't anymore. And since it's also a pretty lousy sports movie, I can't really think of any reason to recommend it, even to Paul Newman fans. If you want to watch a Paul Newman sports movie, try Somebody Up There Likes Me instead.

Fierce and unapologetic, helmed by a tough mother like George Roy Hill and scripted by a woman (yeah!), this is a hockey movie for those who love hockey and also those who have no idea what hockey is much about aside from the fights- and believe me there are lots and lots and lots of fights here. When it ended my wife (who has become a hockey fanatic over the past few years) commented on how it's a movie where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts: it's not a terribly quotable film, but you leave having gone through a full experience.Slap shot is grimy and sometimes very sleazy, and with the exception of Harry S Truman from Twin speaks, the Chiefs follow coach/player Paul Newmans lead: we got to get people seeing this team again and win some (bleep) games, so he goes for a sort of nihilistic approach: screw it! Get in fights! Rile up the refs! Get the audience involved! Then maybe the team won't be folded and shut down by the owner but rather sold to some Floridian.There even is an arc for Newmans character somewhere in the midst of what is a precursor to Animal House, a raucously anarchic studio comedy, only they're out of college and working class dudes who don't mind getting some teeth knocked out or getting a lip sewn up post (or dying) game-play. It's extremely slight though and if anything the players overall desire to get the hell out of their current state (i.e. they try to play 'old fashioned' hockey without uh violence and then when they hear from blustery p'd-off old Strother Martin there are NHL scouts in the stands, that's all that registers from the managers motivational speech so BACK TO THE CREAMING THOSE BASTARDS!) makes it that much funnier.There are stretches here where the laughs aren't plenty - it's much a 70s movie that way - but much of this is so hysterically spot on because it is all about behavior. Sure, the players on their bus (plus some local girls following on another bus) mooning some angry rival team onlookers is one thing, and that can be funny. But Hill is smart as a director to let so much of it be about the personalities of these players - those three brother goons who play with their electric train set and seem more like one entity with three heads and pairs of glasses are a prime example - and also how Newman does a lot with just a look or a reaction, how he interacts with his friends girlfriend as she drives at top speeds in her van, how he is both 'don't give a f***' but giving a f*** at the same time for what counts.Did I mention how wonderful Newman is here? Kind of? I must say again that he is the heart and soul of this movie, a true star who continues (maybe at this point caps off) a career of anti establishment I-do-things-my-way forces of nature like the Hustler and Cool Hand Luke. He can be brash and crude as this guy, but damn is he charming and clever and a character only a complete stiff upper lipped being couldn't get behind.Slap Shot is a great comedy for the reason that we as the audience see all the truth that is there, in this case the dirty, foul mother and scabrous lives of (semi) professional hockey players, and that they are not in on the joke of themselves. And if my wife was somewhat correct that on a first viewing its not the most quotable thing ever, there's a constant energy to nearly every scene where the comedy is big and bold and brutal and unapologetic. I love that kind of comedy, and in a blue collar 70s milieu that is deep down, at the end of it all, political too (working class vs the rich, a town closing a plant so jobs gone, how will they go to hockey games, etc).

Slap Shot (1977): Dir: George Roy Hill / Cast: Paul Newman, Strother Martin, Michael Ontkean, Jennifer Warren, Lindsay Crouse: Hilarious hockey comedy about taking chances. Paul Newman plays Reggie Dunlop, an older coach and hockey player whose team, the Charlestown Chiefs are at a losing streak. Dunlop is manipulative and uses various tactics to ensure a win, including making remarks about a goalie's lesbian wife. Eventually he hires the three Hanson brothers as a trio of goons who delight in brawling on the ice. This sparks interests from fans as well as a winning streak. George Roy Hill hit big with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting and here again directing Newman at his best. As Dunlop Newman struggles in balancing the future of his team with his wife. Strother Martin plays the team manager who is about to cut the team loose until Dunlop brings on his newest brand of manipulation. Michael Ontkean plays Ned Braden who desires to be a real hockey player and avoid the antics his coach pushes him to do. Jennifer Warren plays Dunlop's wife who is tired of her husband's antics and inability to balance time with her. Lindsay Crouse plays the depressed wife of Braden. She has resorted to drinking and steering clear of Dunlop's advances. While the humour is questionable in terms of the merits, the film succeeds in showcasing a harmless sport becoming a media frenzy brawl. Score: 9 / 10

To be completely honest, "Slap Shot" would've charmed me simply for being a hockey movie. We could do with more of those, without Emilio Estevez. But it earns its place among the better (best?) sports movies not for having underdog skill, a committed dream or thirst for winning, but for dabbling in the gutters of blue humor and distilling the sport down to its most low-brow of beer-guzzling violent fun. The closest thing I can think of to compare this to is "Major League", which is a compliment unto itself.Even if you don't like the sport, the movie is absolutely worth your time for an unusually profane (and always likable) Paul Newman and for the psychotic Hanson brothers.Thoroughly entertaining.8/10