Its raunchy, its funny....and maybe the best sports comedy ever!

Rating: 9/10 (28 October 2010)

If you like offbeat sports comedies like 'The Longest Yard' or 'Bull Durham', or if you like the irreverent realism of a movie like 'Mash' and haven't seen Slapshot...you are in for a real treat. Although the aforementioned titles still pop up on TV periodically, and I even caught the similarly gritty, rowdy cult classic 'North Dallas Forty' on a premium movie station recently, unfortunately Slapshot seems to have disappeared from cable TV. Like many of the other forgotten classics from the 70s (the greatest American movie decade ever), Slapshot, which contains so many great lines and satirical scenes, should go on the need-to-rent list.
Paul Newman plays Reggie Dunlop, the aging player/coach of a third-rate minor league hockey team the Charlestown Chiefs. Reggie has been chewed up and spit out by life and as the film starts, his team of misfits is losing on a regular basis. Attendance is down and the news comes out that the local mill is closing and this is going to kill ticket sales. Reggie sees his playing career (as well as his marriage) is about over and figures the only hope is that the team can get sold and relocated. This is going to require a winning streak and it just so happens the chiefs general manager Joe McGrath (the incomparable character actor Strother Martin) has just finagled a deal for three near-adolescent, coke-bottle glasses wearing brothers name Hanson.
In one locker room scene one of the veteran players ask the Hansons what they are doing as they wrap their hands, one of the Hansons answers "putting on the foil". At this point Reggie is appalled and swears these guys will never leave the bench. Its funny to watch all the players reaction to the Hansons and when Reggie finally gets desperate enough to put the Hansons in a game -thats when the fun really begins. To say the Hansons are dirty players is an understatement, and that initial scene where they hit the ice is hilarious.
So Reggie suddenly changes his tune and decides the chiefs will become the dirtiest, rowdiest team in the league. Before long they are on a winning streak and rumors start floating around about the team being sold to some buyers in Florida. One of the great, cynical scenes in the film is when Reggie finally meets the teams female owner (Kathryn Walker) and finds out the truth. It's not a politically correct scene by any stretch, but its a hoot and sets the stage for the third act.
Newman's performance hits the mark(as usual)as Reggie, and Micheal Ontkean also scores as the brooding Ned Braden. Braden had formerly been the chiefs golden boy before the change, he doesn't like the chiefs new "image" and his playing time has been cut. Ned also is having problems with his wife (Lindsay Crouse) and this sub-plot with Ned forms the basis for the rousing, crowd-pleasing finale.
In the climactic game between the Chiefs and Syracuse, the top team in the league, we find out that Syracuse has brought in some thugs of their own and the result is literally a riot! This is when both Reggie and Ned see their fates converging and both see the foolishness of their lives and their decisions; -Reggie, for his abandonment of "old time hockey; Eddie shore" and Ned, for abandoning.. his life, and his wife. Reggie probably can't save his own marriage, but he may yet save Ned's.
The final scenes on the ice bring together both the insanity and the redemption in a heartwarming and still uproarious montage. It's a very satisfying conclusion and one more reason I score this so highly.
For as funny, cynical and satirical as Slapshot is in its best moments...for example, when Reggie keeps buzzing past the opponents goalie disruptively shouting "your wife's a lesbian!...she's a lesbian!"...it also finds a way move us...high praise indeed for a sports comedy!