SLAP SHOT (1977) - ice hockey with balls

SLAP SHOT
(1977, USA)

You won't find many sports films here in the Black Hole, unless they're of interest to non-sports fans, and Slapshot is still very entertaining. Though I was recently surprised to discover that this thirty year-old, foul-mouthed comedy has started spawning sequels.

In the 1970s, it formed an unintentional cross between the original Rollerball and National Lampoon's Animal House, delivering violent sports action and drunken bawdy college humour. But it's also true to life and even good-natured, in a proto South Park sort of way.

The Charleston Chiefs are doing badly in their ice hockey league, while representing a steeltown that's slowly closing all its mills. The team's fortunes improve when they buy three teenaged players (who look like a gormless version of The Ramones). They turn out to be as good at dirty hockey as they are at dirty fighting. The Chiefs discover that by starting fights they can draw bigger crowds, and can even win games if they 'psych out' the opposition (a tactic which reminded me of Trey Parker and Matt Stone's Baseketball).

But can the team survive the brutal pummellings, win all their games, and prevent themselves from being disbanded by their owner?


The same script could easily have been made as pure exploitation. But while there's nudity, there's no sex, and in the brutal fights there's little blood. Under the subtle, almost documentary-style direction of George Roy Hill (who also directed the Paul Newman hits Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting), it's also a sharp social comedy and a cold hard look at the lives of smalltown leaguers. The embittered 'hockey widows' bravely prop each other up, or take to the bottle. Meanwhile, the team goes on drunken regional tours, followed by a busload of groupies.

This is still as much fun as it was on first release, though I suspect more of the swearing has been restored, right up to and including the c-word. While there's ample portions of, the initial publicity was devoted to defending the abundant swearing, reminding critics that the scriptwriter was a woman, Nancy Dowd, who'd aimed to realistically portray her brother's hockey league.

Paul Newman is always worth watching, even when he's unafraid to look bedraggled, as a man preparing for life 'over the hill'. He's among an ensemble cast, who all had to perform much of their own ice skating. But there are few actors who had any further success, though co-star Michael Ontkean eventually became a mainstay of David Lynch's Twin Peaks (as Sheriff Truman), and Melinda Dillon (appearing in only one scene, casually topless) soon landed Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Ever-reliable Strother Martin (Ssssnake, The Wild Bunch) plays the team's shifty manager.

To tie in with the recent Slapshot 2 and 3 (which I'm scared to investigate), the first film always seems to be easily available on DVD. It's drunken, gloves-off, fighty fun.