Slap Shot

"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.

I like to have hardcopies of movies in case of events that prevent them from being available electronically, power outage, streaming outage, etc. this is a classic movie and I’m glad I have it on hand

One of the top Sports movies of all time, comedy from start to finish, so many great performances throughout the entire movie.

What the 40/40 anniversary of slap shot for me and my son putting on the foil coach

It's a classic

I remember watching this (highly edited) as a kid on TV. It's even better now.

We watch it every year. Kids have even dressed as the Hansons for Halloween. A classic.

My favorite sport comedy of all time.

Contrary to the opinion of other reviewers I find that this 1977 film has dated badly. The excessive swearing which presumably gives the film its 18 certificate no longer has the shock ability to tickle the ribs that it had then. Now it seems so repetitive you wonder if the characters actually learnt basic English. Then there's the violence. Is it really Tom and Jerry style? Somewhere in the plot someone says that children imitate what adults do. Does this sort of ice hockey provide a good example to anyone at all, let alone children? During the pandemic I've watched very many old films, ones I remember from long ago and despite their many qualities, there remains the casual attitude of men towards women. Not the comic banter in which the women often have the upper hand, but as in this film where women expect to be picked up after the game and then dumped.The plot quickly becomes boring since the same scenes and dialogue are repeated with only slight variations. Paul Newman finds the occasional spark in a dirty style unusual for him whilst Michael Ontkean steals the show at the very end in one of the film's calmer and more amusing moments.

An all-time classic. I don’t think it’s necessary to write more than that. One of the most iconic sports movies.

I found this film so funny when i watched it as a Teenager. Now, it's not so funny, and comes across as a bit of a B Movie. Strange how Paul Newman agreed to do it, but he said afterwards, that he really enjoyed making it.

Sports comedy from 1977, starring Paul Newman as the ageing player coach (Reggie Dunlop) of a small professional ice hockey team, in a blue collar town.It's rude, it's very crude in places, but it is funny. Newman is very good indeed as the lovable rogue, player-coach, who will do just about anything to keep his team going. This is a proper comic turn from the charismatic actor and shows what he can do.I called it a sports comedy and it is, of sorts. It's themed around small-time ice hockey and if you enjoy the sport, I'm sure it will raise a lot of knowing smiles, but it also works as a comedy because Newman is just so watchable.I was surprised how much I enjoyed it. Worth a look.

It's testimony to the quality of this film that it still stands up to scratch many years on.You certainly do not have to be a Ice Hockey fan to like the film, but you need to not worry about a good deal of swearing. Newman himself was quoted as saying he rarely swore until he made this.For most people you only have to mention The Hansons, three ice hockey playing brothers who Newman keeps benched until one memorable game he unleashes them and the team effectively stops playing 'old time hockey' and plays to the animal in the crowds.Weirdly its the clothes, cars and hairdos that are dated more than the characters and story. Nice little feature about the REAL Hansons - the three brothers were played by two brothers and a friend who were all actual hockey players (it should have been just the three brothers but one of them got a contract in the Major Leagues).Good fun, slightly silly, bit too much swearing for the kids, but a nice release.