Mr. Movie: Hockey films

North Carolina is a hockey state! There, I’ve said it and I stand by it. 

I know, I know, this is the Sunny South. Well, Greensboro just got another minor league team — the Gargoyles! (Anyone else remember the Generals?) And we have our own NHL team, the Hurricanes, who actually won the Stanley Cup in 2006.

So … movies about hockey? Many are made, few are chosen. I have three really good ones and three for the penalty box.

Let’s start with the very best. Miracle On Ice (1981) is not only the best hockey movie ever made, it’s one of the very best sports movies. In the 1980 Winter Olympics, the USA team faced off against the Soviet Union. The Americans were college kids, being coached by the University of Minnesota chief. The kids from America tie favored Sweden, then defeat Czechoslovakia, Norway, Romania and West Germany to get into the medal round. Then come the heavily favored Russians, who haven’t lost a game in four Olympics. The Russians were consummate pros, able to best most NHL teams. Somehow these kids knock of the Russkis and then go on to beat Finland for the gold medal. This version features Karl Malden as American coach Herb Brooks. Then we have Miracle (2004) with Kurt Russell as Brooks. Which version is better? I really can’t choose. I loved both!

The other really good hockey movie is Slap Shot (1977). It’s about a scrappy down-at-the heels minor league hockey team, the Chiefs, led by Reggie Dunlop (Paul Newman). The team is not a local favorite in the Rust Belt city, which is even more down than the team. But Reggie hires some really questionable players whose chief talent is brutalizing the other team. The town loves it! And the team begins to succeed on the ice and at the gate. 

The team lands in the league championship game against a Syracuse team with even meaner goons than the Chiefs. But nobody outfights the Chiefs and they force Syracuse into an act requiring their disqualification. Jennifer Warren portrays Reggie’s estranged wife Francine. Lindsay Crouse is quite good as Reggie’s other love interest, Lily Braden. There are at least two sequels, but no Paul Newman, Lindsay Crouse or Jennifer Warren, and they are pretty awful.

Mystery, Alaska (1999) does have Burt Reynolds and Russell Crowe. And not much else. Somehow a local amateur hockey team convinces the New York Rangers to come to their town for a game. Local politics are the main plot thread, not hockey.

The Mighty Ducks (1992) is about a peewee hockey team being coached by a guy doing it as community service after a driving drunk conviction. And there are at least two sequels which are okay, no worse. Incredibly, the Mighty Ducks name is adopted by a real NHL team based in Anaheim, California. You cannot make this stuff up!

The first two and the last film are fine for all ages. The rest are for grown-ups. All are probably available somewhere, and probably are not free.