Aggressive Hockey is Back!

Rating: 10/10 (21 December 2014)

It's the mid-70's and Reggie Dunlop (Paul Newman) is the ancient player-coach of the Charlestown Chiefs, a minor league hockey team in the Northeast. Reggie, the Chiefs, as well as Charlestown are pretty much on life support, barely hanging on. He has a motley group of players, not exactly hot NHL prospects. But Reggie and his team all share one thingthey absolutely love playing hockey and everything that goes with it, the male camaraderie in the locker room and road trips, drinking, poker and their groupies. Unfortunately, with the steel mill getting ready to close in Charlestown, the team will be folding at the end of the year unless an out of town buyer can be convinced to purchase the team-so Reggie Dunlop figures the best way to attract attention is to raise the level of violence on the ice to a new pinnacle.
What unfolds is absolutely hilarious, but it's not just the action on the ice. Although to do a sports movie well the participating actors have to look somewhat authentic and hockey is not an easy sport to play. You can't fake it and everyone, including Newman are believable in their hockey skills. SS has some memorable dialogue and moments, whether they are about hockey, sex, marital relations, machismo hanging out with the Chiefs for 2 hours is a blast.
Newman is the only really big star and he's terrific. But some other memorable faces in this including Strother Martin as the teams seedy GM, Michael Ontkean as a talented ex-Ivy leaguer who enjoys the life but has a wife (Lindsay Crouse) who hates being a hockey widow. Jennifer Warren plays Reggie's estranged wife-they are still in love with each other but she's realized it's time for her to move on. Melinda Dillon, who would become famous for "A Christmas Story" has a memorable nude scene with Newman, as the ex-spouse of an opposing goalie who also has discovered she's bi-sexual. Swoosie Kurtz also plays one of the wives who delivers a few memorable one-liners. As far as the Chiefs, great performances by virtually everyone, my favorite being Brad Sullivan as the perpetually horny Moe Wanchuk.
And then there are the Hanson Brotherssimply put the most destructive line in hockey history!