Slap Shot (film)

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Slap Shot
US movie poster
Directed by	George Roy Hill
Produced by	Stephen J. Friedman Robert J. Wunsch
Written by	Nancy Dowd
Starring	Paul Newman Strother Martin Michael Ontkean Lindsay Crouse
Music by	Pierre Tubbs
Cinematography	Victor J. Kemper
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	February 25, 1977 (US)
Running time	123 min.
Country	US
Language	English
Followed by	Slap Shot 2: Breaking the Ice
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Slap Shot is a 1977 Hollywood film starring Paul Newman and Michael Ontkean and directed by George Roy Hill. The film is based on a book written by Nancy Dowd, based in part on her brother Ned Dowd's experiences playing minor league hockey in the United States in the seventies, during which time violence, especially in the low minors, was the selling point of the game.

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The movie focuses on a fictitious 'Federal League' team called the Charlestown Chiefs. The team, a perennial loser and in financial trouble due to mill closings in the town, is due to be folded at season's end.

Through the course of regular business, the team picks up the Hanson Brothers, violent goons with child-like mentalities. Reggie Dunlop, the veteran player-coach (played by Newman), perceiving them to be eccentric and unreliable, initially chooses not to play them. Finally, in a moment of desperation and passiveness, he brings the trio of thugs into the game to see what they can do. Their big open ice hits and overly aggressive - excessively violent and bordering on homicidal - style of play is greatly praised by the fans in desperate need of something for which to cheer.

Dunlop, seeing the potential in this style of play, retools the team in the Hansons' image. Most of the other players -- including Dave "Killer" Carlson (Jerry Houser) -- take a liking to this, with the exception of Ned Braden (Ontkean), used to a clean, flashy style of play from his college days. Meanwhile, Braden's wife (Lindsay Crouse) has difficulty adjusting to the life of a hockey wife and finds a sympathizer in Dunlop's long-estranged wife.

It is also revealed to the team that as a result of the mill closing, this will be the last season for the Chiefs. As a means of keeping his team motivated, Dunlop plants a story (which is an outright lie) that the Chiefs are being sold to a perspective buyer in Florida and thus moving the team out of Charlestown. After much pursuit about the current owner of the Chiefs (whose identity is unknown to everyone but the team's stingy General Manager), Dunlop discovers that the team could be sold, but won't be, as the team is more economically viable as a tax writeoff than it is as a sold commodity.

The whole idea turns around in the final game when the players discover there will not be another season and most are about to play their last game. Initially, they all vow to play a clean game, but their vicious style of play has provoked the opposing team -- The Syracuse Bulldogs -- to put together the most infamous set of goons ever to disgrace a hockey rink. When their annoyed business manager tells them of NHL scouts who were interested in hiring them, The Chiefs' players give in and the game degenerates into an on-ice slugfest. Ned Braden ends the fight by stripping off his equipment, an act called by some a "disgrace to the game" even while the band playfully plays "The Stripper" when they realize what he is doing.

Almost as an afterthought, Syracuse loses the championship via forfeit after their captain Tim "Dr Hook" McCracken sucker-punches an official, which is paraded around the ice by a jockstrap-only-clad Braden. It's revealed during the championship parade that Dunlop has landed a job as coach of a team in Minnesota, which he intends to bring his Chiefs players along with him.

Ned Dowd himself played Syracuse goon Ogie Ogilthorpe in the film and later used the role to launch a career as a Hollywood character actor and producer.

The three characters who play the Hanson brothers: Steve Carlson, Jeff Carlson and Dave Hanson, were actually real hockey players, and the Carlsons are actually brothers. A third Carlson brother, Jack Carlson was supposed to appear as the third brother, with Dave Hanson playing the character of the player Dave "Killer" Carlson, which was based on him. Jack was called up to play for the Edmonton Oilers in the WHA play-offs so he was not available for the film, so Dave Hanson took his place.

[edit] Miscellany

The movie has had an enduring impact on hockey culture. Key lines of script are frequently quoted, some of its terms entering the hockey lexicon outright. Its enduring popularity can be seen in the fact that replica Chiefs jerseys from the movie remain popular sellers, and that the "Hanson Brothers" (hockey players Steve Carlson, Jeff Carlson and Dave Hanson) have made permanent careers out of touring as their personas from the movie.

Todd McFarlane has released a set of figures of the Hanson brothers with connecting bases resembling the hockey rink.

A third Carlson brother, Jack Carlson, was originally to play alongside his brothers in the film, but the Edmonton Oilers, at the time a franchise in the World Hockey Association, wouldn't grant Jack his release for the filming schedule.

Paul Newman, claiming that he swore very little in real life before the making of "Slap Shot", said to Time Magazine in 1984, "There's a hangover from characters sometimes. There are things that stick. Since 'Slap Shot,' my language is right out of the locker room."

The movie was filmed in (and loosely based around) Johnstown, PA and utilized several players from the then-active North American Hockey League Johnstown Jets (the team for which Dowd himself played) as extras. The Carlson Brothers and Dave Hanson also played for the Jets in real life. Many scenes were filmed in the Clinton Arena, the Clinton Comets' home ice, and in other Johnstown locales. Ironically, the Johnstown Jets, and the NAHL, folded in 1977, the year Slap Shot was released.

Reggie Dunlop is based in part on former Long Island Ducks player/coach John Brophy, who gets homaged by his last name being used for the drunk center of the Hyannisport Presidents. Syracuse goon Ogie Oglethorpe was based on longtime minor-league goon Bill "Goldie" Goldthorpe"

In another tribute to the movie's popularity, the ECHL Johnstown Chiefs are named after the Chiefs in the movie, and play at the War Memorial Arena.

In yet another tribute to the movie, the Ligue nord-américaine de hockey (LNAH) team Laval Chiefs are named after the Charlestown Chiefs, and bears the same logo on their uniform.

A tribute to the movie is being used by real-world NHL Boston Bruins goalie Hannu Toivonen, in the form of a more modern style goalie mask he is wearing for the 2006-2007 NHL season. It is directly inspired by the movie character Denis Lemieux's macabre fanged "jolly roger" decorated mask in the movie.

A much-derided direct-to-video sequel, Slap Shot 2: Breaking the Ice, was filmed in 2002.

The appearance and mannerisms of the Hanson Brothers inspired a professional wrestling stable known as the Dudley Boyz.

Similarly, the movie inspired The Hanson Brothers, a side project of the Canadian rock band No Means No.

The Maxine Nightingale tune Right Back Where We Started From is featured in the original release. Recently, it has been replaced in TV viewings with a generic soundalike tune (possibly due to rights issues). However, the DVD release keeps the original. The VHS version released in the early 1980s contains none of the music by the name acts as heard in the theaters; all that music is substituted with songs in the same general style of the originals, but not the actual original songs nor artists.

Film critic Gene Siskel noted that his greatest regret as a critic was giving a mediocre review to this movie when it was first released. After viewing it several more times, he grew to like it more and later listed it as one of the greatest American comedy movies of all time.