it shoots, it scores

Rating: Null/10 (8 February 2004)

When I first found out about this movie, I was reluctant to go see it because I could still remember too well the way the story played out in real life. Even though it happened 24 (!) years ago already (and I was only five years old at the time), I can still remember the names of all the guys on the team: Eruzione and Craig and Ramsey and Broten and Christoff...I remember my Dad having to explain to me the concept of a tie after their game against Sweden. And I remember, of course, the way they beat the Soviets on that February night in the most famous hockey game ever played. Up in our home in snowy, small town Minnesota, my family (even my mother and my sister!) gathered around our TV to watch the game, echoing each shout of `U-S-A!' as it came to us across the airwaves from Lake Placid. When the U-S-A finally won the game, everyone in my family jumped up for joy and started spontaneously hugging each other in wild celebration.
This movie can't quite make you that excited about hockey, but it gets pretty darn close. Yeah, I finally caved and went to go see it once I started seeing all the positive reviews come in. I found out that they were all well deserved.
The tone of this movie reminded me quite a bit of another Disney sports film-the Rookie-in that it carefully places all of the sports drama within the broader context of family life. While this will definitely help it appeal to a wider audience, it does mean that it's fairly short on hockey for most of its first half. Nonetheless, once the movie gets out onto the ice, it does a terrific job of translating the speed and the excitement of the game onto the silver screen. The attention to detail is really quite remarkable. The moviemakers found dead-ringers to play guys like Mike Eruzione and James Craig. The Minnesotan accent that Kurt Russell puts on in playing US coach Herb Brooks is really impressive (and amusing!). And they even get the timing of each important goal right.
I also admired the way they treated the Soviets--the nominal bad guys--in this film, too. They weren't portrayed as blatantly evil in some hopelessly simplistic, Disney way, but rather, just the way they were: supremely confident, impassive and intimidating. We also get to see that, despite all of their confidence, they're human, too. They start cracking under the pressure when the American team keeps coming back, and we see them looking on forlornly when the USA players finally win and celebrate their `Miracle on Ice'.
I've often thought that someone from another country could never really understand how much this hockey team meant (and still means) to Americans. In the years that have gone by since 1980, people have typically told this story in the context of how America was down on its luck at the end of the 70s and didn't really believe in itself anymore. This movie will tell you much the same story. One of the most fascinating sequences in the film, in fact, is an excerpt of a Jimmy Carter speech from 1979, in which he talks about how Americans have lost their characteristic confidence and faith in the future.
But I've always remembered the Miracle on Ice as being much simpler-and much bigger-than all of that. Thoreau once pointed out that people only really come together in times of great sorrow or great joy. For instance, I'm sure that every American still remembers what it felt like when the country came together in the wake of the great tragedy of 9-11. The Miracle on Ice was like that, but different-it was something that brought us all together simply because it brought us all great joy. For those who can still remember what that felt like, 24 years ago, this movie is sure to bring the smiles back to their faces. And for those who never got to experience it for real, the first time around, it may just make them want to jump up and hug someone. :-)