Pays Homage To The Enforcers of Hockey.

Rating: 6/10 (16 May 2020)

In hockey, we have the forwards which are the centres and the wingers who's main purpose is to score as many goals as possible. Then you have the defense who literally have to have eyes in the back of their heads because they're there to assist the forwards in scoring the goals and to prevent the forwards from the rival teams from getting closer to the goalie in their efforts to score a goal. Then you have the goaltender who's there to guard the net. And if the goalie lets too many goals in, you're guaranteed a bad day.
Then you have the most overlooked members of a hockey team. They are the enforcers, the added muscle to the rough sport that is hockey and you ask yourselves what is their function on a hockey team besides muscle and publicity both good or bad? The answer to that is they're the protectors of the other players and are there to fight with the other muscles on the opposing teams. Such well-notable enforcers or as they're often referred to as "goons" include Bob Probert, Marty McSorley, Tie Domi, Chris Nilan and Zdeno Chara. They were not known for their skills as players who can skate, score goals or were that defensive. They just got on took down rivals and sat in the penalty box. Sure there were some exceptional goons who were capable at scoring goals like Rick Tocchet, Cam Neely, Jerome Iginla even Mario Lemieux and Rocket Richard, most goons weren't well skilled at hockey, but can depend on muscle to carry their teams forward.
This is one of the reasons I genuinely enjoyed the movie "Goon" because it pays homage to the artistry of being an enforcer who in the past gets dismissed as being talent-deprived thugs just on to fight with members of the opposing team. to bring down the competition so that their team has an upper advantage for the win. Seann William Scott stars as Doug "The Thug" Glatt, a bouncer who gets hired on the spot to be an enforcer for a minor league hockey team in Massachusetts. One of the qualities that make "Goon" stand out is that Doug might be good at beating people up, that doesn't really necessarily make him toxic let alone a bully. In fact he could very be a thug with heart of gold. And even though he comes from a well-defined family of academics, he's the black sheep being that he's anything but academic. And though his family still believes he has potential, Doug tells them off he's not. Not that he's being modest, he just knows who he is and is not ashamed to admit he's dumb and that him wearing a hockey uniform and being hired to hurt players he has found his true calling.
And sure the film might be saturated with a cornucopia of violent scenes that through every crunch, snap, crackle and pop everything looks and feels authentic, the movie itself isn't just dependent on its hardcore styled violent scenes. 'Goon" is also played from the heart as we have very well fleshed out characters and that the human interest elements are something fans who are into watching character-driven movies something that could be invested in. There is no team movie about who's winning or losing or about an underdog team pulling all the stops at the last minute to conquer the championship. It's about a rags-to-riches story of Doug's rise to fame a carving a life on his own.
One day he watches a hockey game with his friend Pat (Jay Baruchel), who takes the pleasure of calling out rival hockey teams and belittling them. One player, not amused by Pat's obnoxious ways makes his way over to them and threatens to annihilate Pat. But Doug intervenes and clobbers the player going so far as to split open his helmet. Some scout take notes and then next thing you know, Doug has now become a hockey player. Though he wasn't born to skate, he's not on for that reason, he's there to take down rival teammates who pose a threat to his team.
The character side of this story steams from Doug's privileged lifestyle. He's frequently pressured by his parents (Eugene Levy and Ellen David) that he has so much potential. Being that his father and brother Ira (David Paetkau) are both doctors, Doug understands that he will never excel to their levels of success and that his new role in professional hockey is a dream he never saw coming.
Liev Schreiber was an unexpected surprise to play a supporting role as the rival goon Ross "The Boss" Rhea. Rhea was once admired by Doug, but now that they're on opposing teams, we all know that sooner than later they will likely have a showdown in the end. Sure we are aware that the most contagious thing about hockey like other sports is that concussions have been greatly observed and deeply concerned by players, coaches, physicians and the higher-ups in sports organizations, here in "Goon" we look at a different era in hockey before it became more watered down than it is today.
Doug eventually befriends a player named Xavier LaFlemme (Marc-Andre Grondin) a star player who's getting on in age who serves as his protector from other goons. It feels as if the restrictions of violence in this era was catatonic. It would appear that Doug's position would be that he'd spend a portion of his time in the penalty box. The brutality depicted here through the roof.
The movie does have some nice subtle romantic comedy touches that concentrate on Doug and his relationship with the promiscuous Eva (Alison Pill) who admits she's attracted to big, sweaty hockey players who's bruises and blood are sexier than their tattoos. Pill's comic relief compliments perfectly as she's the manipulator behind the naive nature of Doug's lovable characteristics.
To debunk the negative stereotypes that enforcers are all muscles and no brains is a total misnomer. Take for example George Parros who plays nine seasons in the NHL in many different teams before retiring as a Montreal Canadien in 2014. He was as strong as an ox, but he was far from being as dumb as one. He was educated at Princeton University where he majored in economics with 3.18 GPA and scored 1250 on his SATs. That counteracts the big dumb jock analogy to the max.
It should be noted that "Goon" was based off of the non-fiction memoirs titled "Goon: The True Story of the Unlikely Journey Into Minor League Hockey" by Adam Frattasio and Doug Smith. The real Doug Smith played 10 years in Minor League hockey on various teams from 1988-1998 and has done other lines of profession including a police officer, an author, and a coach in high school and Minor League Hockey association.