Topic: "Slap Shot" review by Zarban [no spoilers]
Slap Shot (1977) is a very funny sports movie in the usual sports movie formula, but weirdly almost falls apart in the third act, just when most sports movies are really coming together. (Compare Major League, the quintessential sports film in that it pretty much nails every trope just the right way.) In the Hollywood sports formula, the loveable losers get their act together and start winning, but it may not be enough. In the end, everything is resolved by winning the big game, including somehow repairing the main character's love life. But in Slap Shot, things actually get more complicated during the big game.
The story concerns a minor league hockey team called the Chiefs that is on the skids. The manager hires three thuggish brothers to create some interest, and the player/coach Reggie Dunlop (Paul Newman, looking like he's having the time of his life) reacts by turning the whole team into thugs. But one, a smarter, more sensitive type named Ned Braden, refuses to get into fights. Now you might be thinking "that's pretty strange for a hockey player" and you'd be right, but it plays okay because the fighting is cartoonishly outrageous.
Reggie also lies to the players about the team moving to Florida to bolster their spirits, and with these tactics, the Chiefs start winning. Braden's marriage falls apart and Reggie can't get his estranged wife Francine to come back to him, but it looks like Reggie might be able to convince the mysterious owner not to dissolve the team.
That's when things get weird. It starts when Reggie meets the owner and reacts bizarrely to what he hears. But it really nearly goes off the rails when Braden sees his rehabbed wife during the big game. What happens next isn't set up beforehand, so the audience is just as baffled as the characters. It's especially weird because Braden has said some of the same things the owner says (and he cheats on his wife), yet we're supposed to like him and hate the owner.
It seems to me that Braden and his wife need a conversation about his behavior and hers that gets resolved by that climactic scene. ("If you give up hockey, I'll give up booze," and he counters "If you give up booze, I'll give up hockey.") The two characters are set up nicely as foils for Reggie and Francine, so part of it could be set up with a conversation with them. Then when Lily shows up, and Braden does what Reggie ought to have done, his marriage is repaired. Then Reggie would understand what's happening and answer some baffled character with "That's a man who's decided to fight for his marriage" instead of "Way to go, Ned. Way to go" which means nothing.
The cast is a lot of fun. Aside from the wonderful Newman, there's the great Strother Martin (failing to communicate, as usual), a young Lindsay Crouse as Braden's wife Lily, a young Swoosie Kurtz as another player's wife, and a host of real hockey players essentially playing themselves.
It was directed by George Roy Hill, who did Butch & Sundance and The Sting, among others. The directing, together with the charming performances, save the film really. Hill has characters react in ways that help the audience get how they're supposed to feel, even tho the story hasn't actually set up those feelings properly. It's really interesting.
Last edited by Zarban (2014-05-25 03:57:06)
