Historically accurate and put in good context

Rating: 10/10 (30 September 2012)

Even if you're not a sports fan you can appreciate this movie for being historically accurate. Compared to other sports movies, this one and "Hoosiers" are the two best ever made.
It begins with scenes from the 70's and they do a great job throughout pointing out the Iran hostage crisis, gasoline shortages and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, yet not to the point where any of those things are overdone.
I wish they would've shown more of the gold medal game against Finland, but the movie was already long enough and it might have taken away from the drama of beating the Soviets.
As for other things, Kurt Russell is excellent as Coach Brooks. My favorite scenes with him are the "Great Moments" speech and when he tells the team of the Russian style of play and how they can play with them by attacking rather than defending.
And I love the fact that they got a small clip of the famous Mean Joe Greene Coke Commercial, which in fact came out at that time, the fall of 1979.
The outcome is predictable, since we all know who won, but in spite of that, this movie has plenty of drama and suspense. Finally, this is also a family friendly movie--no excessive profanity or sexual scenes. Definitely a "10" in my book.