Classic

Rating: 8/10 (27 March 2020)

Slap Shot is a rough and tumble hockey drama/comedy that holds up through the years. In some ways the film is terribly dated with some of the worst music and fashion from the period. But, where Slap Shot succeeds is the brutally honest portrayal of the material. Paul Neuman was great here and was a very talented and charismatic leading man. He plays a coach and lifelong professional hockey player on a team that is to play their final season in a dying working class town where their factory is closing and laying off 10 thousand workers. The team so far has'nt been doing well and things start to turn around for them when The Hanson Brothers join the team and start knocking heads. Paul Neuman's character is a shyster as well, lying to his teammates and resorting to dirty tactics to win the game, not to mention trying to bang everything that moves. The film is pretty gritty and brash in its presentation and is quite violent. I think director George Roy Hill used this as a commentary on violence, but uses hockey and the bleak, downtrodden 70's urban landscape as a backdrop. The Hanson Brothers are the glue that holds the film together and being real professional hockey players gives the movie some serious credibility and are the coolest characters in the film. While the film is quite brash, it still is funny and most importantly a very good entertaining film that pulls no punches in getting it's point across