Casting Hockey Players

Rating: 10/10 (24 February 2014)

One of the things that make Miracle such a thrilling sports film is the realistic action scenes depicting the ice hockey competitions of the United States Olympic team. Past sports films relied on the use of stunt doubles or professional athletes to perform athletic scenes in place of the main cast. However in filming Miracle, there was clearly no need for stunt doubles as the actors themselves were able to perform the on-ice actions required. This is due to the fact that the actors cast to play the roles of the hockey players in the film were selected primarily based on their ice skating ability rather than particular acting ability. I believe that this casting decision was a tremendous benefit to the quality of the film.
As a very fast paced and high intensity game, a hockey film demands an enormous effort to efficiently capture the nuances of the gameplay during filming. While other sports such as football and baseball can be plausibly acted out by professionals in place of the actors because of the stop and start nature of gameplay, hockey must be filmed in a continuous way. Therefore, it is very difficult for actors and stunt doubles to be switched in and out during action scenes while still having the game appear realistic. To solve this problem, the director was faced with two options. He could either cast professional actors and teach them how to play hockey, or he could cast hockey players and teach them how to act. The director, Gavin O'Connor, chose to cast former college and minor league ice hockey players to play the roles of the American and the foreign hockey players in the film.
In this case, I believe that casting former hockey players was the right decision and caused the films realism to be enhanced far and above what it would have been if regular actors were forced to learn a game that takes years to master. The cast as a whole had minimal acting experience, but still performed admirably well. The acting was not perfect, but the benefits of the realistic hockey scenes more than make up for any deficit in the theatrical ability of the cast. I can only imagine how deplorable the hockey action scenes would have been if actors who could barely skate were portraying the elite hockey players.
In addition to the on-ice ability of the cast, the hockey players cast in the film are nearly perfect in their portrayal of the hockey sub-culture that exists at all levels of competition. With their long hair, foul language, and stoic determination, each and every member of Team USA is a token collegiate hockey player. Obviously, this stems from the fact that they most of the actors were at some point collegiate hockey players.
In particular, Mike Mantenuto, who portrays defenseman Jack O'Callahan puts on an incredible performance. His shoulder length hair is a perfect imitation of what a hockey player hopes to achieve. Also, he puts on a very believable show of the grudge his character holds against another player, and the violent way in which the rivalry culminates. Finally, Mantenutos performance during the scene in which he is injured is a perfect enactment of how a hockey player would react to a potentially career ending injury. His face appeared to be emotionless, but his eyes revealed a deep heartbreak that only comes when a player is faced with the end of his career.
In conclusion, the right decision was made when it came to casting the members of the United States Olympic hockey team. The hockey players-turned-actors were phenomenal in their portrayal of their real life counterparts. All culminating in what is clearly one of the greatest sports films of all time.