Movie Review - Slap Shot

Slap Shot (1977) - If you talk to hockey players this is commonly listed as one of their favorite movies.  It's also a movie that generates conversation.  So let's get this out of the way right up front.

This is not a great movie.  At the same time it is a great movie.  In the same way that "Animal House" is not a great movie while still being a great movie.  They are vulgar, irreverent and anti-establishment.  And they are perfectly good with that.  There's no pretense that they're trying to create art.  Yet somehow they cross the line from common vulgar, irreverent crap to something that sticks with you.  Suddenly vulgar, irreverent crap becomes...a great movie.

This is the story of the Charlestown Chiefs, a minor league hockey team in a small, dying steel mill town in Pennsylvania.  To  be honest the team stinks.  It's has beens like player coach Reg Dunlop (Paul Newman) along with a whole lot never will bes.  On top of that the team is about to be sold.  The solution turns out to be three Hanson brothers picked up for next to nothing by the general manager (Strother Martin).  The Hansons aren't very bright but they do one thing well.  Fight.  Dunlop turns them loose, the team starts to win and suddenly the arena is filled with fans.  Along the way there are more decisions and trials to be overcome.

If you want a quick mental image of what this movie is like think "Major League" meets "Animal House".   The story is utterly predictable (as most sports movies are), most of the characters are one dimensional and to be honest the script is pretty pedestrian.  Yet somehow it takes that step into being a classic.  Written by Nancy Dowd she draws heavily on the experience of her brother who played in the minor leagues.  So it still reads true (witness the pro hockey players who are devoted to it).  Add in some great individual lines (virtually all of which can not be repeated here), classic characters (the Hansons are legendary in hockey circles), and some fine direction from George Roy Hill and somehow it works.  Newman says it was his favorite movie to work on.

And it looks like it was a lot of fun.  Add in the pain of looking at mid-70s fashions and the old school hockey.  If obscene language and a little nudity is a problem for you then you won't want to watch.  But if you love sports and off the wall movie humor then you'll want to catch it.

It's not a great movie.  But it's a great movie.

Rating - *** Worth A Look