Slap Shot
Tags: cult, satire, violence

Plot synopsis:
The Charlestown Chiefs, a minor league hockey team, need to drum up attendance for their upcoming game with a team from Hyannisport. Television host Jim Carr (Andrew Duncan) interviews Denis Lemieux (Yvon Barrette) on his show "Sports Talk" about the "finer points of hockey." English is the French Canadian player's second (and not best) language, but Denis gamely describes penalty moves like hooking and slashing, using his stick on Jim to demonstrate.Reggie "Reg" Dunlop (Paul Newman) is the team's aging player/coach, and the team is dead last in the second-rate Federal League. He meets opposing player Nick Brophy (Jon Gofton) at center ice to start the Hyannisport game, and Nick reveals he is drunk and resents that his coach put him in the game. In the broadcast booth, Chiefs player Dave Carlson (Jerry Houser), who supposedly was injured in a previous game, reveals that he isn't playing because he actually has a cold. The lone quality player for the Chiefs is Ned Braden (Michael Ontkean), who is not only the highest-scorer in the Federal League (he makes his record shot during the Hyannisport game), but he is also a Princeton grad who plays for the love of the game.Joe McGrath (Strother Martin), the team's manager, seems to be receiving encouragement by the mysterious team owner to come up with publicity stunts for the players. Some of the men are put into a fashion show, and Johnny Upton (Allan Nicholls) has had it: he warns McGrath that he plans to flash the audience so they won't have to do such degrading things again. Joe blows him off to make a phone call to locate Reg and Ned, who should be at the show as well, but has to stop the call short when cries of shock and disgust greet Johnny when he takes the runway.Ned and Reg pass the mill, which Ned tells him is going to close and lay off 10,000 workers. The Chiefs will have difficulty filling the stadiums with most of the town's residents suddenly out of work. Ned's wife Lily (Lindsay Crouse) drives them home from the local bar, uptight about being a hockey wife with a troubled marriage in a town she can't stand. Ned gives his attention to their St. Bernard dog Ruby and doesn't seem interested in his wife's attitude.Joe is training Reg for a future in an office job and tells him to pick up the three new players he obtained from the Iron League -- the Hanson Brothers (Jeff & Steve Carlson, David Hanson). He finds them at the bus station by the noise of one of the boys trying to force a lost quarter out of the vending machine by shaking it down. He takes them to their hotel where the team will pick up their expenses for a week and, as they go down the hall for sodas, he notices toy cars and tracks in their suitcase. Reg is less than impressed with the new acquisitions, and rails at Joe for picking up any discarded players he can find at rock bottom prices; his plan is to refuse to play them.At the bar Reg meets his (eventually) ex-wife Francine (Jennifer Warren), with whom he still has a good friendship. Before the bus leaves for an away game, Lily offers Ned a book with all the sex scenes highlighted, but he refuses to take it, though Reg is impressed. On the bus, Ned runs a betting pool and says that he will earn enough money to buy the team so he can run it his way. The team worries about a crazy player named Oggie Oglethorpe (Ned Dowd), but learn he was suspended and won't play. As Reg leaves the hotel for the game, he spots the Hansons playing with their racing cars. In the locker room, he sees them wrapping their knuckles with aluminum foil and tape prior to the game.Reg has a roll in the hay with Suzanne Hanrahan (Melinda Dillon), who reveals that she discovered she is a lesbian after a night of drinking and exploratory sex with another player's wife. On the ice, Reg decides to sneak a goal and approaches Tommy Hanrahan (Christopher Murney) in the goalie cage, skating by and egging him on about his wife being a dyke; Hanrahan chases Reg and leaves the cage open for a Chiefs goal. Ned is disgusted and calls the team's win "garbage." Reg, however, wants the team to be fired up and have hope for the future, so he works with reporter Dickie Dunn (M. Emmet Walsh) to suggest that a Florida retirement community may buy the team.The next day Reg sees Lily in the town square and talks with her; she is in a bad mood and even cusses over a statue of a dog in the square, supposedly a canine hero for saving the town during a 1938 flood.Reg tries to bolster the team's morale one player at a time, and talks with Dave Carlson about aging and suggests it may be time to quit hockey. Dave idolizes Reg, and when Barclay Donaldson (Ross Smith) from the Broom County team suggests that Reg shouldn't be in the league, Dave goes after him, and the fight puts him out of the game. Finally, desperate to win, Reg releases the Hansons on the rival team. The Hansons immediately assault and brutalize the opposition, much to the delight of Charlestown's working-class fans, who create a booster club and begin following the team on their own bus to attend away games.At a game against Peterboro, the teams begin fighting before the game begins and with no officials on the ice to stop the ruckus The boys are mutilated as they finally stand at attention for the National Anthem, but an official breaks ranks to yell at the Hansons. Then he realizes the song hasn't finished and cools off.By the time the team goes to an away game against Hyannisport they are winning, but their reputation has preceded them, and mobs of people boo them at their arrival. They stop jeering when the bus drives by with all the Chiefs and boosters mooning them out every bus window as they pass. The other Chiefs players soon take their cue from the popularity of the Hansons and become "goons," fighting as much as (if not more than) actually playing hockey. At Peterboro a fan throws something and hits a Hanson in the face, and all three brothers take to the stands to find and pummel him. After the game the police arrest the Hansons. Peterboro still loses the game. When the bus arrives back in Charlestown and Ned is not on it for Lily to pick up (he gets off and walks the last few miles), Lily is upset and tears out of the lot in her van, but not before Reg climbs aboard and starts talking to her about getting her head straight. She drops him off at his place and drives off in tears. Francine tells Reg she has a job offering in Long Island and will be moving away.Reg goes on Jim Carr's radio show to announce that he wants to put a $100 bounty on the head of Syracuse player Tim McCracken (Paul D'Amato). Dave (who has taken the name "Killer") Carlson calls Reg, anxious to claim the money, which Reg says will have to be earned. Reg tries to get some sleep before the game, but Joe calls to read him off for putting a bounty on a player's head, and suddenly Lily has arrived with the dog and her belongings, anxious to straighten herself out. Reg passes out in the remaining bed space left by the St. Bernard. Before the game, Reg yells at the organist for playing "Lady of Spain" and rips up the sheet music. The game is going well, with plenty of beatings between goals, but Ned refuses to play dirty, so Reg benches him (first in his career) and Ned goes to the broadcast booth to gripe to Jim Carr, going into an uncharacteristic tirade and discovering that Jim wears a toupee (and announcing it on the air).Finally, Reg finds out that the team is owned by somebody named McCambridge, so he goes to the owner's home to talk with him. It turns out he is a she: widow Anita McCambridge (Kathryn Walker) tells Reg that she abhors violence and won't let her kids watch hockey. She plans to fold the team to take a tax write-off as her accountants have recommended. She realizes the Chiefs are sellable but chooses not to. Disgusted, Reg insults her and leaves, then drives to Ned's house to find he is out in the woods trying to avoid talking to him; he yells to Ned that he can play however he wants and, since the team is folding, he wants to go out in style.Reg takes Lily to Francine's beauty shop for a makeover at his expense. She says Lily is pretty and could look like Cher with the right hair and makeup.At the championship game, Reg tells the guys that he wants to play "old time hockey" and not be a goon for what might be his last game. The Hansons are all for it, so they take the ice and wait for the Syracuse team to come out, but the ice remains empty. Then the announcer receives the roster for the opposition: they have brought out the top goons to play against the Chiefs, including McCracken and the dreaded Oglethorpe. The moment the puck drops, the Syracuse men launch upon the Chiefs in a massive fight. Ned doesn't get involved, and Joe sits in amazement in the stands as his boys don't fight back. At the half-time break, Joe hollers at the mangled Chiefs that he has gathered every major NHL talent scout to the game to watch them and offer contracts.Back on the ice, "old time hockey" is gone, replaced by the Chiefs' old ways. While Ned sits on the bench, he suddenly spots Francine escorting the new, improved Lily to the stands; he is overcome with the sight of her, and suddenly he skates out to center ice and begins removing parts of his uniform. Jim Carr is stunned and disgusted, but the band launches into "The Stripper" as Ned continues his striptease and the other players slowly cease their fighting to watch. McCracken yells at an official to stop Ned, but he finds nothing wrong and won't interfere. McCracken then strikes the official, who declares the Syracuse team has forfeited the game and takes the winner's cup to Reg, who passes it to Ned as they skate off the ice (Ned stripped down to his skates and jockstrap) to thunderous applause. The Chiefs win the Federal League and receive a heroes' welcome back in CharlestownReg is pleased that the NHL's Minnesota Nighthawks want to hire him as their coach, and that several key Chief's players will be part of the bargain. Reg and Ned sit atop a convertible in the victory parade, and Lily is by Ned's side. Reg says farewell to Francine, who interrupts the victory parade in town as he lets her drive through with her things in a trailer, and he tells her to stay in touch through his new team.

Review: Mostly hated by critics on its release, as much for its cynical viewpoint as its relentless profanity, "Slap Shot" has since become something of a cult classic.Set in the low-rent world of minor-league hockey, the movie follows the efforts of player-coach Reggie Dunlop (Paul Newman) to turn around the Charlestown Chiefs' final, losing season in a dying Pennsylvania steel town.
Even Reggie recoils in disgust, however, when his tightwad manager (Strother Martin) brings in the Hanson Brothers, three thick-lensed, thicker-headed goons who are more interested in fighting than playing Reggie's brand of "old-time hockey".When it becomes apparent that the hometown crowd loves the Hanson's rough and bloody style,  Reggie decides to go with the flow, and to fire up his other players concocts the story that, if they can win the championship, the owner will be able to sell the franchise to a group of rich retirees in Florida.
Echos of its gritty style can be seen not only in many later sporting films, such as "Bull Durham" and "Major League", but even in the wave of British movies in which characters fight to hold onto their lives after the collapse of hometown industry, such as "The Full Monty" and "Brassed Off".The film really shines as a straight comedy, though, delivering some classic characters and set pieces: virtually every appearance of the Hansons; a clueless, toupee-wearing sportscaster (Andrew Duncan); the team's tiny Quebecker goalie (Yvon Barrette), and Newman himself, in one of his personal favorite roles.
I worked in the locker rooms for a minor-league hockey team  and I saw every character in this movie:  the aging veterans, the eccentric goalie, the lazy pretty-boy, the young players looking for a chance, etc.
Along with Chunk from THE GOONIES and The Dude from THE BIG LEBOWSKI, Moe is up there towards the top of my list of favorite characters in any movie I have ever seen.You know you have a classic film when the topic of SLAP SHOT comes up with your friends, or even people you have just met, and you spend hours reciting all your favorite quotes, trying to out-do each other.
Real life is truly stranger than fiction, but SLAP SHOT seems to combine the best of all worlds.As legend goes, screenwriter Nancy Dowd got the brainstorm of doing a documentary on minor-league hockey, spending a few months in Johnstown, PA with her brother Ned Dowd.
She managed to capture "the spirit of the thing" and compose what is surely one of the most spectacular sports film plays in the history of cinema.As the storyline in SLAP SHOT was true to life, names had to be juxtaposed to protect the innocent.
And when it comes to sports-writing, Reggie Dunlop said it best: "If Dickie Dunn wrote this, it MUST be true!" Some of the classic character names in this film must be honored also: Barclay Donaldson, Tim "Dr. Hook" McCracken, Andre "Poodle" Lucier, "Ogie" Oglethorpe, Ross "Mad Dog" Madison, Clarence "Screaming Buffalo" Swamptown and Gilmore Tuttle.With all the other strokes of brilliance and genius SLAP SHOT has become famous for, we cannot forget the contribution of the star Paul Newman, who is believable and sympathetic as washed-up Chiefs player-coach Reggie Dunlop.Minnesota native, the late George Roy Hill, who also directed "The Sting" and "Slaughterhouse Five," could arguably claim SLAP SHOT as the master stroke in his illustrious career.Miraculously, several stars of SLAP SHOT would go on to make other hockey movies: Yvon Ponton starred in the French-Canadian TV series "He Shoots He Scores" and the "Les Boys" film series; Paul D'Amato starred in "The Deadliest Season"; Jerry Hauser appeared in "Miracle On Ice.".
It's just right for Paul Newman as the veteran player/coach with a team of misfits from one of hockey's minor leagues who's forever looking for a break from the majors.The Charlestown Chiefs who seem to be the hockey equivalent of the New York Mets are having a perennial losing season.
Paul Newman is the coach of third rate failing minor league hockey team, The Charlestown Chiefs.
The crowds flock in thirsting for more blood, but then the problems start to arise.Slap Shot is a tremendously funny film, it's also incredibly violent and often vulgar in dialogue, but be sure to know that both things go hand in hand here (or should it be glove in glove?) to create one of the smartest sports pictures in the modern age.
A new generation of movie fans have started to seek it out and its reputation and fan base grows ever more larger by the year.Newman was a bona fide star, his hair silver grey but his good looks still firmly intact, his performance has a grace about it that oddly sits nicely amongst this cynical stab at professional hockey; even if his characters' clothes are, in truth, icky.
Film is filled out with sparkling support work from the likes of Strother Martin, Michael Ontkean, Jennifer Warren, Lindsay Crouse and Jerry Houser.Not long after originally writing this review, the legend that was Paul Newman sadly passed away, he left behind a movie legacy that few can touch, and trust me, this is one of them.
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.
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.
It was this one: "Slap Shot." Although I did enjoy this movie 30 years ago, I can't say I echo Bob's sentiments today, but I laughed along with him when it came out in 1977.It seemed that films in the '70s were either outrageously good or ridiculously sleazy regarding language, sex, or irreverence.
Like many other sports films from the 1970s, such as "North Dallas Forty" and "Rollerball," there's a strong focus on how athletes are used and abandoned in a capitalist society, but the message here is leavened, and largely bypassed, by the over-the-top humor, courtesy of Newman, Strother Martin as a shyster owner, and a team full of colorful misfits led by three brothers named Hanson whose thick Dilbert glasses and love for toy race cars doesn't distract them from committing felonies on the ice against their fellow men."Slap Shot" is about as much a guy's movie as can be, so naturally the screenwriter was a woman, Nancy Dowd.
She wallows in all the profane banter, casual misogyny, and random acts of brutal violence in a way that might play a bit on the page like "Clockwork Orange" but is saved by the film's amiable humor and sense of fun.The darkest thing about "Slap Shot" is the premise.
The Charlestown Chiefs, a minor league hockey team, are about to fold, and player-coach Reggie Dunlop schemes to turn his motley crew into winners by getting their blood up, along with their fans, by transforming them into thuggish winners to attract the attentions of an outside buyer that might keep the team running in friendlier climes.As played by Newman, Dunlop is very likable in his rascally ways, even while taunting a goalie about his lesbian wife for a cheap score.
Newman throws up some vivid detail in this scene and others that must have caused a few people to blanch when "Slap Shot" hit theaters in 1977, but his banter is perhaps a bit less scandalous today and the movie as a whole seems to be improving with time.
It's about the only thing out there, other than maybe "Youngblood" and "Miracle," for hockey-loving moviegoers, and it remains the most popular, perhaps even best take on one very odd sport.The film is disjointed, though, with a strange subplot about one player named Braden who resists Dunlop's "gooning it up" and Braden's long-suffering dipso wife.
There's a driver who takes a sledge hammer to the team bus to "make it look mean," assorted opponents who look like they escaped from "Oz," and especially the Hansons, who are used very well because they are used sparingly.Director George Roy Hill was never wedded to any one style, and this is as far as you can get from other films he made that same decade, like "A Little Romance" and "The Sting." He does very little to dress up "Slap Shot," even the credit sequences are perfunctory, but he knew how to make a good movie, and did so here.
Throw in the Hanson Brothers, a nutty Quebecois Goalie, a profane pervert and a college boy and you have a colorful cast of characters.Oh, and if you think the violence is a bit overrated, a couple of years ago I was treated to a minor league hockey brawl in Jacksonville, Florida where the Orlando Defenseman actually BIT a Jacksonville player and was suspended for 5 games..
In Slap Shot, a hockey club hires a trio of thugs to beef up its mediocre hockey team.Fresh and unexpected, this is one of the best of Paul Newman's mid-period movies (also note "The Drowning Pool").
Set vaguely in Canada or upstate New York, the picture loses steam in the second half and gets bogged down in soap opera; but the memorable first match appearance by the Hanson Brothers--the aforementioned thugs--is a magical movie moment, not to be missed."Slap" takes the time to investigate an array of pro sports themes: sadistic player violence; boorish sexuality; fan behavior; fan loyalty to athletes and vice-versa (or total absence thereof); the bloodless, detached world of athletic club ownership.
Scrappy Massachusettes hockey team plays dirty to win, with player-coach Paul Newman getting to show off a rare mean-spirited side of himself which doesn't sit particularly well (the whole movie is full of gratuitous put-downs, but hearing Newman tell a bitchy woman, "Your kid looks like a fag to me" has no kick to it--it's just ugly).
I really don't know why but Saturday afternoon was spent watching it instead of doing other more important (?) things.This film came out in the 70's at about the same time as the Philadelphia Fliers (more to the point the Broad Street Bullies) were using the same rough house tactics as was depicted in this movieOne of the big jokes that came out at this time was "I went to the fights and a hockey game broke out".This movie comments on the life of a hockey player and what goes on behind the scenes in the front office as well as how hockey players are at the mercy of the owners.
This is the best hockey movie, [The Might Ducks offer little competition] and is a cult classic that any sports fan will love.
I had only heard of Slap Shot as a hockey movie with Paul Newman in it.
He's Reggie Dunlop, the fun-loving player / coach of minor league hockey team The Charlestown Chiefs.
But after the lively Hanson brothers (bespectacled, goofy Jeff Carlson, Steve Carlson, and David Hanson) join the team, Reggie is inspired, and the team turns their fortunes around by beginning to play dirty.Considered by many to be the greatest hockey film of all time, "Slap Shot" is not just a must-see for fans of the sport, but also people who love a good comedy and fans of the actors involved.
Written by Nancy Dowd (whose brother Ned was a technical advisor and plays the much-talked-about character Ogilthorpe), "Slap Shot" is highlighted by a hilariously profane script that allows the cast to throw out all sorts of obscenities.Adding some gravitas to the story is the "depressed working class town" atmosphere, in which the potential closing of a local mill could spell all sorts of trouble for the team and the citizens.The actors work together wonderfully: the cheerful Newman, the priceless Strother Martin (Newmans' nemesis in "Cool Hand Luke") as the weaselly manager / P.R. man for the team, Michael Ontkean (as the goal-scorer who won't get with the program and play rough), Jennifer Warren, Lindsay Crouse, Jerry Houser, Andrew Duncan (very funny as the toupee-wearing local announcer), Yvon Barrette, Allan F.
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.
If you accept sports as entertainment with machismo and honor, you can appreciate this film for its' dressing room cliché humor and small town usual killing time on the road for the Charlestown Chiefs, a minor league hockey team led by an over the hill payer-coach and in a town one plant closing short of collapsing.
This profane comedy sport classic, is really a slap in the face, if you happen to be in the warring path of the Charleston Chiefs, a loser ice hockey team.
Newman again owns the movie as Reggie Dunlop, the coach of the team, a true supporters who'd back any of his players, if in a rut.
I'm really sorry, Paul Newman, but you've made so many other better movies; if I write one bad review, I hope you'll understand.Newman plays a hockey player and coach in this utterly 70s sports movie that seems to be both spoofing itself and taking itself entirely too seriously.
If you want to watch a Paul Newman sports movie, try Somebody Up There Likes Me instead..
In the film's beginning, at a sparsely attended hockey game a woman yells at a French-Canadian player, "frog pussy!" The viewer would then know that the movie will be profanity-laced and downright raunchy.
Paul Newman stars as aging veteran player-coach Reggie Dunlop of the Charlestown Chiefs, a Pennsylvania minor league hockey team on a losing streak.
The closest thing I can think of to compare this to is "Major League", which is a compliment unto itself.Even if you don't like the sport, the movie is absolutely worth your time for an unusually profane (and always likable) Paul Newman and for the psychotic Hanson brothers.Thoroughly entertaining.8/10.
I love reading and watching movies about it.Slap Shot is the classic hockey comedy.
Directed by George Roy Hill and starring Paul Newman, the film follows a minor league hockey team known as the Charlestown Chiefs who after hearing they will be folded by the end of the season decide to play more violently/dirty in order to attract more popularity.The film has some very funny moments, great performances and is a must-watch if you're a fan of ice hockey or even a fan of sports films in general.This film, Goon and Puck Hogs are the only R-rated comedies about ice hockey I can think of.The sequel to this film is nowhere near as good and I haven't even bothered watching the third film as its Rated PG and seems to be more like mighty ducks, even though I do love the Hanson Brothers.9/10.
The only guy, not for the dirty play is Newman's second man, Braden (Ontkeon, who's cheating on his average looker of a wife (Crouse, who's so entertaining, thanks to her anger) We have an older randy player, who likes to ramble on with old tales, as well as some ethnic players, one not really getting the character exposure he should of, while the other one, opens the movie, in what you could say, is a funny and hurtful interview.
Despite getting up in years, foul-mouthed ice hockey coach Paul Newman (as Reggie "Reg" Dunlop) still plays with his young team.
Hey, I guess I have a thing for the long hair and the glasses....This has to be Paul Newman's BEST movie, and he was totally convincing as a hockey coach/player.
When it ended my wife (who has become a hockey fanatic over the past few years) commented on how it's a movie where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts: it's not a terribly quotable film, but you leave having gone through a full experience.Slap shot is grimy and sometimes very sleazy, and with the exception of Harry S Truman from Twin speaks, the Chiefs follow coach/player Paul Newmans lead: we got to get people seeing this team again and win some (bleep) games, so he goes for a sort of nihilistic approach: screw it!
Paul Newman gives one of his wildest, most delightful performances as the crafty, foul-mouthed, aging player/coach of the Charlestown Chiefs, a failing ice hockey team that is energized when it starts playing fast, loose and dirty.
paul newman was 51 at the time and playing an active hockey player.
It still is a funny film after all these years though I did notice a number of things in the movie that made it even more than just a funny sports movie.Nancy Dowd's very observant screenplay and George Roy Hill's sharp direction showed the trials and tribulations of being a minor league hockey player: the long road trips, the drinking & partying, the competition against other teams that are going through the same lifestyle.(Arguably, writer/director Ron Shelton did a slightly better job dealing with the same plot in a different minor league sports movie several years later: "Bull Durham".)The characters and the subplots still have me laughing out loud: Dunlop putting a bounty on a competing player's head, the rug-wearing radio announcer (wonderfully played by Andrew Duncan), the French Canadian goaltender (Yvon Barrette) who makes Yogi Berra's malaprop statements sound grammatically correct, the underhanded general manager (the late, great Strother Martin), the unexpected striptease by the Chiefs leading scorer Ned Braden (Michael Ontkean) which catches many players, who were beating each other on the ice, totally off guard.
The great thing about "Slap Shot" is that is doesn't try to do too much, it just plays itself out, and like Newman's character, is what it is, and that should work just fine, thanks!This won't make any movie-of-the-year lists, but it's worthwhile watching for some very funny moments--if you're a hockey fan, then it's indispensable!.
The legendary Paul Newman stars in one of his few comedic turns as Reggie Dunlop, the player head coach of the Charlestown Chiefs, a B-league hockey team with abysmal attendance and a losing record.