Slap Shot
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Jennifer Warren, Lindsay Crouse, Michael Ontkean, Paul Newman, Strother MartinDVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Spanish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Live, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 123 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1999-01-05
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Universal Studios
Movie Reviews of Slap Shot
Movie Review: Historically (and hysterically) accurate sports classic.
Summary: 5 Stars
Think about all the movies that were made during the 1970's whose storylines actually occurred during that same time. It'll probably take you a long time to come up with a relatively short list. Next, think of how many of those movies still get shown (albeit in an edited format) in regular rotation on network, local, or cable TV. There really aren't many of them, are there? "Jaws", "Saturday Night Fever", and the James Bond movies that Ted Turner runs during his semi-annual "Bond Marathons"...and that's pretty much it. Except, of course, for the timeless gem that IS "Slap Shot". This movie really has everything...violence (presented in a format that most people outside of Canada and the Northeastern US weren't used to seeing at the time), profanity (even Wayne Gretzky admitted in his autobiography that he tends to "turn the air a little blue" during games), drunkenness (by players and fans both on and off the ice), Canadian accents ("Two points, eh!"), bad hair ("WHY DO YOU WEAR THAT RUG?"), REALLY BAAAD clothes (they had to have raided the set of the last "Superfly" movie for some of those duds), bad cars (Reggie's Pontiac LeMans...who ever came up with the notion that vinyl tops were EVER cool?), a '70's soundtrack (thankfully and blissfuly restored to the DVD) that would do Quentin Tarantino proud, and of course SEX (yes, that's Ralphie's mom from "A Christmas Story" in bed with Paul Newman, topless, discussing her lesbian affairs. That's enough to curdle the blood and land a kid in therapy for years). At the time this movie was made, violence in hockey at all levels had reached epidemic proportions. At the top levels, superstar Bobby Hull staged a personal one-game strike in the WHA against the level of violence that was being permitted, and the Philadelphia Flyers had made it to three straight NHL Stanley Cup Finals (winning twice) while playing the most physically abusive style of hockey in memory (has anyone besides me noticed how closely Tim McCracken's Syracuse team uniforms at the end of the movie resemble the Flyers' outfits at that time?)...and of course in the lower league levels of the pro game there was far less scrutiny and things were only magnified as players anxious to do anything for a big-league call-up would in fact do things very similar to those captured in this movie. Yeah, okay, but what's all that really mean? Nothing of consequence. This is an entertaining movie, pure and simple. Hockey season isn't really hockey season until you get together with some friends, wrap your mitts 'round a few brews and watch this movie as it starts to get cold outside. For those of us living outside the NHL's (very limited) influence from the time the Atlanta Flames (look for their logo in the movie on an advertisement poster) left up until the NHL started to expand again in the early 1990's, this WAS pro hockey. The 1980 Miracle On Ice Olympic team was something diferent...somehow other-worldly in comparison...but the two are mutually exclusive outside of NHL markets as being the lasting impression of a fantastic sport. On a personal note, in 1994 the Atlanta Knights (now sadly defunct) were winning the International Hockey League's (ALSO sadly defunct) Turner Cup Championship in their home arena, The Omni (yes, this is gone, too). Richard Adler, Knights VP, had hired this guy "Claude the Happy Trumpeter" (from Quebec, I think) to wear a Knights jersey, blow his horn, and lead cheers during the Playoffs. Early in the 2nd period of the clinching game, he announces himself with a fanfare, runs down the aisle to the plexiglass, throws himself up against it...and crashes through to the ice below, knocking himself out. The game was delayed about twenty minutes as they collected him off the ice and replaced the panel he'd shattered (he was okay...he came back near the end of the game wearing a neckbrace; it was hilarious). All I could think of, other than trying to keep from spilling my beer and pissing myself with laughter, was that the whole thing was just so utterly "Slap Shot"-esque...and that somewhere Up There, Strother Martin had to be smiling.
Summary of Slap Shot
Paul Newman and his Butch Cassidy director, George Roy Hill, made a very original comedy in this 1977 story of an over-the-hill player/coach (Newman) for a lousy hockey team who gets results when he teaches his players to get dirty. One of the most hilariously profane movies ever to come out of Hollywood, this is the kind of film that makes its own rules as it goes along. Newman is very good, and while Hill goes for the gusto in terms of capturing the violence of this world, his instinct for comedy has never been sharper. Great support from Strother Martin, Paul Dooley, and the rest. --Tom Keogh