Director: George Roy Hill
Year Released: 1977
Rating: 2.5
Unsatisfying hockey film with Paul Newman at the end of his hockey career as a player (he looks about 50, which is mighty old for that rough-and-tumble sport), and his team, the Chiefs, is on the brink of going bankrupt (Strother Martin - Newman's old buddy from Butch Cassidy and Cool Hand Luke - plays the G.M. of the club). The plot's rather lame - the team doesn't start winning until they play dirty, which draws crowds in, and eventually wins them a championship - and the subplots aren't exactly enthralling themselves - the dissolution of Newman's marriage, the potential dissolution of the one between fellow player Michael Ontkean and his wife Lindsay Crouse. There are some funny moments (the Hansen Brothers are an absolute riot), and funny dialogue, but I was disappointed by a lot of the excessive foul language in the script (I don't mind it if it feels necessary ... but here it seems merely superfluous). And of course they have to win a championship at the end: how else would things end up? Perhaps I'm biased because I actually played and currently follow hockey that I know this sort of thing is highly improbable....
