Posted on 02/25/2022 9:24:35 PM PST by nickcarraway
When Slap Shot was released on Feb. 25, 1977, it was a middling success.
Despite mostly negative reviews that tended to focus on what they saw as the film's glorification of violence, it eventually went on to earn $28 million at the box office against a $6 million budget. In the following decades, its popularity exploded as it became a textbook example of what makes a cult-classic movie.
The film was conceived of by screenwriter Nancy Dowd, whose brother Ned was playing for the Johnstown Jets minor-league hockey team in Pennsylvania. Her access to this world gave the film an immediate feeling of authenticity. She had him carry a tape recorder when he was around his teammates so she could get the feel of the way they talked. She used several real-life minor-league hockey events – from fights that took place before the game started to players going into the stands to fight fans – to spice up the screenplay.
Director George Roy Hill cast Ned in the film (as one of the main antagonists), along with several of his hockey teammates, all of which gives the proceedings a sense of realism that shines through the comedy.
The movie's plot is centered on Reggie Dunlop (Paul Newman), an aging player and coach of the Chiefs, a minor-league hockey team in the fictional town of Charlestown in New England. When Dunlop gets news that the town's steel mill is going to close, he knows that the resulting economic devastation is going to force the team to be sold, ending his career and that of many of his players. In a desperate attempt to prop up the popularity of the team, he starts giving playing time to the notorious Hanson brothers (played by actual minor-leaguers) who wrap their knuckles with tinfoil before every game to give them an edge in the fights they inevitably start.
This new, violent style of hockey disgusts the Chiefs' best player, Ned Braden (Michael Ontkean), but it delights the fans, and the team's popularity surges. Things change when Dunlop finds out that the owner plans on folding the team anyway, despite this newfound popularity, to take the tax write-off. Suffering a crisis of conscience, Dunlop decides to go back to trying to win by skill instead of fisticuffs, only to realize that the Chiefs' main rival, Syracuse, has brought in a bunch of fighting goons for the championship game, including the notorious Ogie Ogilthorpe, played by Ned Dowd.
Predictably, the final game descends into an all-out brawl. Revolted by this, Braden decides to derail the fight by doing a striptease on the ice, in one of the most famous scenes in sports-movie history. Outraged, the Syracuse captain gets into a fight with the referee, which results in Syracuse getting disqualified. The Chiefs win
Like virtually every cult-classic movie, Slap Shot abounds with great lines. Some of these are bawdy, like Steve Hanson's expletive-laden reminder to a referee that he's trying to listen to the national anthem. Others are sly, like an opposing team's radio announcer (Paul Dooley) telling his listeners during a brawl that if only he could, he, too, would be fighting the marauding Chiefs players.
Quote one of these lines to a fan of the film, and they'll come right back at you with two more; it's exactly this kind of endlessly repeatable dialogue that enables some movies to outlast their original moments and become beloved by later generations of viewers.
The second element of the film's cult success is the fact that it has great characters, embodied by talented performances. Newman was at the moment in his career when he would increasingly shift from playing young heartthrobs to playing aging curmudgeons. His down-and-out character here anticipates his later roles in classics like The Verdict or The Color of Money, but with a comedic turn that was always an underrated part of his abilities.
The rest of the cast rises to the occasion as well, including the hockey players - a tribute to Hill's ability to work with actors, even amateur ones. Every character manages to feel both slightly outrageous and somehow true-to-life, which, like the great dialogue, allows the film to bear repeated watching, an essential element of cult-movie success.
Plus, the film convincingly sells its setting. The world of minor-league hockey and the gritty, blue-collar existence that characterized so much life in the '70s are both incredibly well-realized. The comedic action and zany characters are foregrounded against real-life struggle. The people in the film are surrounded by economic devastation, and many of them have no life options outside of hockey.
Yet at the same time, they're not pessimistic about their situation. Mostly, they just want to drink some beer and play their sport. This makes the world of the film feel fully realized, a place that one can dip into again and again, and find oneself immersed.
All of this has allowed Slap Shot to reach massive stature among a certain strand of movie fans, and it often places high on lists of best cult movies. Not bad for a film that started with a screenwriter chronicling her brother's minor-league hockey experiences.
“NEVER PLAY ‘LADY OF SPAIN’ AGAIN!!! “
“You get sent to the penalty box…you feel shame…”
LOL!!
Well, that brand of hockey was more fun and polite than the Euro/US NCAA influenced garbage we have had in the NHL the last number of years.
Other good hockey films from that era include Face Off (1971) and The Mystery of the Million Dollar Hockey Puck (1975).
Awesome
I don’t think I’ve ever watched it from start to finish
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Prolly because you’re relatively young and didn’t have to pay to see it in a movie house.
After watching hockey under the covers on my tube fired table radio for a couple of years, I finally got to see my Rangers in person at MSG 2/8/56. Once in high school I saw many games from the side balcony, after games we would wait on 49 St. to get autographs and talk to players. Would often ride the subway home with Johnny Wilson and his wife. He even took me into the lockerroom to give me a stick after a Sat. matinee. I had blue seats in the new MSG through most of the 70s and 80s.
The 92 strike ended my love affair with the NHL and the NY Rangers and when they finally won The Cup in 93-94, I just didn’t care anymore.
Moved to WV in early 02 and started following the Pens (I finally got cable) but stopped once the NHL went woke...haven’t watched a game since.
I tell you this to see if my creds come up to your standards of a “serious fan” while still saying, I loved “Slap Shot”
Eddie Shore. Old time hockey.
Maybe it’s an age thing. I became a hockey fan in the 1980s and never saw the thuggery and mediocrity of the 1970s in person. In the eyes of someone who came of age in the era of the “Miracle on Ice,” the Islanders dynasty, and the Gretzky years, a movie like “Slap Shot” comes across as clownish and silly.
Yup. They’re on rotation on CBC lol
Good movie.
You must remember, this film was about MINOR LEAGUE hockey, not even Junior Hockey. I didn’t mention trips out to the Commack Arena in the mid-late 60s to watch the LI Ducks of the EHL. Worlds different than the NHL. No glass above the side boards and only chain link fencing behind the nets. If you got front row seats and a player was checked into the boards, you ducked!!!
Some believe that John Brophy of the Ducks was the true life Reggie Dunlop...IDK.
Can’t believe I forgot about the Ducks...getting old....
I was an NHL hockey fanatic during more of those years growing up as a boy. Those years coincided with the "Big Bad Bruins" era and growing up in East Boston/Winthrop/Revere area, I was of course a huge Bruins fan.
The old Boston Garden was only a few subway stops away and so got to see a lot of games with my paper route money. You could get a decent ticket in those days for just a few dollars and all the pizza and soda you wanted. They practically gave away the obstructed view seats where you literally sat in front of a steel girder. But as a young boy, it was heaven and later in the game as businessmen headed home to beat the traffic, I'd eventually find myself in a prime seat.
My best early memories are those of watching Bobby Orr skate circles around everybody else on the ice. He was a defenseman but often led the Bruins in scoring. His classic move was to take the puck behind his own goal and four seconds later, he'd be across the opposing blue line and in scoring position. Then you'd have Phil Esposito parking himself at the goal waiting for a pass or rebound so he could just shovel it in. Espo scored a lot of easy goals that way. There used to be bumper stickers in those days that stated "Jesus saves, but Espo scores on the rebound".
Then of course, there were the fights. Lots and lots of fights. Back then, fighting was a mutual five-minute penalty and teams would hire "goons" (like the three brothers in this film) whose main purpose were to provoke the better players on the other team into fights in order get them off the ice for five minutes at a time.
Stan Jonathon was a classic Bruins "goon" at the time. Every time he came onto the ice, the crowd would get excited because they knew a fight was likely to ensue. He was a pretty decent player as well, with a very accurate wrist shot. Had he focused on scoring goals, he would have been one of the top scorers in the league for sure.
https://youtu.be/xA8G6omkAwI
One of the things he talks about is how wildly popular the movie was with his fellow professional hockey players, both minor leagues and NHL.
Before the goons were the policemen!
Lou Fontinato for the Rangers and you guys had Bob Armstrong
Jean Beliveau for Montreal, Pullford for the Leafs, Al Arbour for Chicago and Ullman for the Wings.
All these guys could skate and play the game unlike the goons that came later. Though others may have had more pim over the course of a season, they were usually stars like Howe and Hull, that was because they were goaded into fights. The policeman’s job was to mete out some street (ice?) justice.
Those were the days of 50 game seasons. You played everyone at least 10 times. More if you weren’t NY or Bos who seemed to be perennially in 5 or 6 place back then. We didn’t need names on the sweaters. No helmets so we got to know players by their hair styles...after all, we were ALWAYS looking down on them from the rafters. I’ve heard that the reason for the handshake line after a playoff series was because after 10 regular season and possibly 7 playoff games, some real animosities had developed and the Lords of Hockey (when was the last time you heard that?) wanted something to calm things down.
mediocrity of the 1970s.....No.....Different game different skills..... Continental League in the late 70s early 80s..touching the scar from a cross check......
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