The real miracle.

Rating: 6/10 (19 January 2006)

As an avid hockey fan (Go Sharks & Otters!), I remember the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey games like I remember births, deaths, and moon landings.
In Miracle, the movie focuses on Herb Brooks, U.S. hockey coach, who died in 2003. Brooks was considered a maverick by the NHL and, because he went his own way with a winning team, is believed to have contributed significantly to the 1980 win.
The movie rightly includes the essentials of commentary from Al Michaels (the best hockey commentator bar none), as well as hockey trials, moments from exhibition games, and quite a number of scenes of Olympic games against the Czech and the truly amazing Russian teams.
But, the movie actually omits the final pivotal Olympic game against Finland. We see nothing of the elimination of other teams. There is little on the essential player dynamics.
One of the most poignant moments in sports, the sight of Jim Craig mouthing "have you seen my dad?" to a friend in the crowd, is completely overshadowed. Conversely, the film reveals only Jim Craig's familial situation - none of the other players have any family, girlfriends, or other conflicts to concern us.
Kurt Russell did a great job of portraying Brooks. Putting on TV commercials and clips was an inspired way to put the movie in context. Adding what the players are doing today was a nice touch, and the clip of Brooks at the end was excellent.
But the miracle was not just the coach, it was the time, the circumstances, the fans, and the hockey team, who played game after game after game at Lake Placid. The build up to the win was missing, the grueling games played, the battles. Maybe, like the Christmas celebrations we had as children, you can't go back. There isn't a way to recapture, in film or any other way, what we felt the night they won for us.