Slap Shot

Other Titles:	View 1 Title
Year:	1977
Country:	USA
Language:	English
Genre:	Comedy, Drama, Sports
IMDB:	IMDB Page
Rating:	8.2 Rate
Collection:	Seen It Wishlist
Community:	13 Have Seen


Director	George Roy Hill
Selected Cast	Paul Newman as Reggie 'Reg' Dunlop
	Strother Martin as Joe McGrath
	Michael Ontkean as Ned Braden
	Jennifer Warren as Francine Dunlop
	Lindsay Crouse as Lily Braden
	Jerry Houser as Dave 'Killer' Carlson
Producer	Robert J. Wunsch
	Stephen Friedman
Writer	Nancy Dowd

On DVD & Blu-ray World

LaserDisc

Slap Shot - MCA DiscoVision - USA (1978)

VHS

Slap Shot - MCA Home Video - USA (1990)

DVD

Slap Shot - Universal - USA (2002)

DVD

Slap Shot - Universal - UK (2002)

DVD

Slagskott / Slagskott: Andra Perioden - Universal - Sweden (2004)

Images

Comments and Reviews


Magic Marmalade 25th Nov 2024		Rated 9/10 Are you not entertained!?! Yes sir, very much I am! If you go into this expecting a pretty standard Hollywood, inspiring underdog sports movie, you may be disappointed, as although the elements are there, this is not what this movie is about... not really. In fact, it is only superficially a sports movie, let alone an Ice Hockey one. ...You could almost call those elements a "Macguffin", as this setting only serves to set the stage for a cynical, acerbic, bitingly satirical piece of social commentary. In tone, and what's clearly under the surface here, it is to Ice Hockey and sports, what M.A.S.H. is to war movies, and it has the exact same satirical humour and sensibility about it, so if you liked M.A.S.H. for those reasons, you'll like this. And what it is satirical of, is a trend, particularly in American culture of the time where they were on the cusp of becoming more sensationalist, shallow, superficial, and indeed cynical, in moving away from the purity of ideals to chase the Yankee dollar by pandering to an ever more shallow and fickle public. A small industrial American town, discovers that the local mill, around which it's existence is essentially built, is being closed down, and with the it, the local half-assed hockey team, pretty much the only other thing the town seems to live for, to make their lives there in any way bearable, is to fold too... ...The over the hill player / coach, senses shenanigans regarding some background, higher up exploitation and manipulation of the situation, and begins to manipulate the situation himself, to combat these predetermining forces. He does so by abandoning a more straight up, pure form of the game, and opting instead, to wind up his players, and turn it more in to a violent spectacle, (The acquisition of three semi-psychotic brothers really helps this plan!) tapping into the local frustrations, to satisfy the more basic elements of the crowd's nature... and make the team so popular that the dark financial and economic forces can't shut them down. And so this, appropriately enough, has Paul Newman playing his patented "Hustler" role again, working the angles, playing everyone against each other, almost attempting a sport set "Sting", albeit, for the locals own sakes, and resorting to dirty tricks to do so. This is, naturally, very cynical (the point), very violent (The necessary means to the point), and is decidedly un-P.C... (This last point may be taken at face value by some, regarding the litany of homophobic slurs all throughout the film as the product of a "less enlightened time", but they couldn't be more wrong, as this is entirely self aware, even though it does these things deadpan, and never offers a hint that it is doing so as part of the cynicism, it is proven in the sublime and brilliant finale) ...I can only conclude that this has probably never been more relevant than now, and not just regarding sports, but even in the worlds of economics, and (heaven forbid :) politics. This will chime more with a modern audience than the audience of the time when it was released, and it is an audacious, witty, acidly funny, subtle piece of pure brilliance. Not just an Ice Hockey movie. ✔︎ Helpful Review?

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