Miracle

MIRACLE, the Disney retelling of the U.S. Hockey squad's astonishing Gold Medal performance at Lake Placid in 1980, is not a great film (a TV-movie from 1981, "Miracle on Ice", despite the bizarre casting of 69-year old Karl Malden as 43-year old coach Herb Brooks, is superior, although relying heavily on TV footage for game sequences), but it does offer Kurt Russell in one of the finest performances of his long career.

The 53-year old Russell, a life-long veteran of both TV and film (making his debut on a "Sugarfoot" TV episode, at age 6), has developed a reputation over the past two decades as a very competent, if not overpowering leading man, primarily in action films (ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, TOMBSTONE, BREAKDOWN) and comedies (USED CARS, CAPTAIN RON, OVERBOARD). What is often forgotten, however, is that he has remarkable 'range' as an actor, with brilliant performances in the TV-movie "Elvis" (1979), the underrated SWING SHIFT (1984, where he met his long-time love, Goldie Hawn), and 2003's DARK BLUE (as a crooked cop searching for redemption during the bloody aftermath of the Rodney King riots in L.A.). As age has carved his features, Russell has lost the "beach boy" glamor that had often 'stereotyped' him in the past, and gives his 'Herb Brooks' a sense of credibility and pain that lifts his performance to Academy Award caliber.

Herb Brooks was a remarkable person, long before Lake Placid. Despite success in coaching a string of national champion college hockey teams, he had never recovered from being the last player 'cut' from the 1960 Gold Medal U.S. hockey squad, and from being a member of the '64 and '68 teams that were humiliated by the Soviets. Driven by a desire to beat the nearly invincible Russian squad, he realized that a group of college 'all-stars' would never possess the 'team' skills to get the job done. Ruthlessly, refusing the assistance of the U.S. Olympic Hockey Committee, he pieced together a squad of talented skaters, 'broke' them, then remolded them to fit his vision, working them unmercifully for over six months, while spouting Vince Lombardi-like platitudes. Despite his torturous regimen, just days before the Olympics, his team would be humiliated by the Soviets, 10-3, and no one gave his squad a chance for a medal.

But Brooks had faith, and a squad that was 'hungry'...

While the film suffers from a lack of depth in the portrayal of the players (by the way, they do all their own skating; TV footage is not used), MIRACLE's 'feel' of the decade is well-done, using montages and voice-overs to convey the American sense of helplessness in a decade of tragedies. The unexpected U.S. victory galvanized the nation (Al Michaels' stunned reaction, "Do you believe in Miracles?", has become a catch phrase for both the game, and the times), and actually contributed to turning the country around.

While the Academy Awards will probably ignore Kurt Russell's commanding performance (as the film was not a 'hit'), MIRACLE is still a film worth viewing, given our own troubled times. While the film may not be 'great', it's message of hope is certainly worthwhile!

I was too young to have known anything about this game when it was played in real life, but it was definitely more than a game. It concerned world politics and the cold war. The movie did a good job showing how seemingly impossible it seemed for the young American team to beat the best team in the world who had been playing together for 10 years. And Kurt Russell did a good job as the tough coach who was hard on the players to get the most out of them. I also liked the way the hockey games were filmed. I think hockey is the most boring sport and I don't know any of the rules, but the way it was filmed let the least knowlegdable person follow what was going on.

FINAL VERDICT: If you like sports movies, then don't miss this one.

It's hard to recreate the magic of a once-in-a-lifetime event, but Miracle comes pretty close.

It succeeds in recapturing the spirit of the times, the personality of coach Herb Brooks, the tension of the game, and the exhilaration of Al Michaels' famous call as the clock went to 0:00. While there are plenty of minor things I could quibble about, Miracle's ability to recapture the spirit of the Soviet upset makes it a success.

A movie about this subject could easily have been a stinker, but Miracle isn't that at all. It's a great sports movie that suffers only in comparison to the real story. I gave it 8/10.

During the 2010 Winter Olympics, NBC broadcast a 30-minute documentary piece on the 1980 US Olympic ice hockey team. While I knew the story of how they beat the Soviets and won the Gold Medal (I had seen it live as a kid), I was expecting some clichéd rhetoric about the team and what they had done, akin to films like "Knute Rockne, All American" (1940) and "Rocky" (1976). I was pleasantly surprised to find that the story was anything but. The coach of that team, Herbert Brooks, was no hackneyed clone of a Knute Rockne or a Vince Limbardo. Instead he was a tight-fisted uncompromising hockey general who distanced himself from his players, more like a Bobby Knight than a Knute. This was not someone with whom teammates would feel comfortable having a beer. Instead, his inspiration to the players came from the other direction, by exposing their weaknesses and in some cases using unfairness and resentment as anchors from which to get the best out of his players. I decided that "Miracle" might be worth a look, especially as a prelude to the US vs Canada in the gold medal round of 2010 Olympic Hockey.

Kurt Russell portrays Herbert Brooks as a lean and mean hockey coach who leaves sentimentality at the front door of the ice hockey rink. From the get-go he informs his players he's not there to be their friend. His goal is to let loose their highest playing potential coupled with the best conditioning among the Olympic hockey players at all costs. At times, he seems to be driving the players too hard well-beyond their comfort zones. Much of the story is the unconventional training techniques he uses to prepare the players for the 1980 Winter Olympics. According to the film, Brooks is relatively new to these techniques which he adopted while studying USSR hockey. His plan is to use the Soviets' techniques against them in the Olympics, which is not just about strategy but also about extreme discipline and an uncompromising tough sensibility akin to the military. One character points out that everything Brooks does has a purpose behind it.

The only short-coming in the script may be the portrayal of Brooks' wife who finds her relationship with her husband compromised, at least according to the film. I wondered if it played out in real life as in the film or if it was fabricated by the screenwriters. Too many sports movies have this sort of relationship with the wife acting as the balance between the obsessive coach and the needs of his family. She's been through this before. Why did she marry him in the first place? To be a successful account?

Certainly, most Americans know the outcome of the story, although the sequence of the game between the US and the Soviets is riveting and plays out about as well as the fight between Rocky and Apollo Creed. However, the meat of the story is really about the relationship between Brooks and his players, and the coach's single-minded determination to create the best Olympic team possible. By putting a certain amount of anger and determination into their hearts and heads, Brooks brings out the best in them, much like a sergeant in boot camp. The speech before the Americans played the Soviets is one of the better scenes of its type, leaving behind the "do it for the Gipper" silliness that has become a sports cliché. The only moment which was lacking in the film was the speech before the very final game when the US played Finland after the Soviets. In that speech, apparently Brooks told his team that if they didn't win, they would go to their graves regretting the missed opportunity. I would have liked to have seen Russell give that speech as well. Apparently Herb Brooks died before the principal shooting of this film had ended, and the film is dedicated to him. Just about as fitting a tribute as a coach could ask for.

At first I thought.... there is way too much dialog and way too little hockey (or humor) ... but that all changed in the second half of the movie which made the first half well worth the wait. Kurt Russell plays the no-nonsense Herb Brooks, the coach of the 1980 Olympic Hockey team that won the Olympic Gold. (Do you remember where you were?)

I guess what most impressed me about the film was how amazing the editing and camera work was. I think it will count as a "first" in a lot of categories, not the least of which was camera work. The way they spliced the actual historical footage, (courtesy of the Olympic Committee) with the new footage and the actors, was so seamless and elegant, and the result was quite compelling and original. I don't think I've ever seen such well executed editing before, not even in the Hobbit movies ;-).

The story itself was sweet and compelling. Kurt Russell was great, in that you come to a point where you really hate this bastard so much, you just want to say, "No, You skate again you mother(bleep)er!" I love the 70's haircuts and clothes and the accents.. the larger issues of the Cold War are not too fore fronted, but they are present enough that you see how important the win is for the US. Also, you see that his coaching really did pay off in the end: There is a point where the MC says, "the US has never out-skated the Soviets like this before..." and you recall the practice that Brooks makes them skate even after the rink has closed. (He was pretty brutal.) The Russian players are down-right frightening, so you get a real sense of what these kids are up against... they can hardly make eye contact they are so intimidated... but in the end, the "eye scene" as I call it, is enough to make even the biggest cynic, "get veclemt".

Some people have called the film vapid nationalism (others are p***ed off because it was filmed entirely in Canada) but I think it was more about what a team of players (not any one individual or prima dona player) can do. It was also the last time a team of real amateurs actually won, before players became entertainers commanding million plus salaries, so I guess it has some important historical value.

The film also has a real "Indie" feel. It stars all kinds of unknowns and has all kinds of low-budget effects, the scenes mostly taking place on the rink or in locker rooms. There are many moments when your heart breaks for some of the players and their families.

I enjoyed it immensely and it sort of re-awakened my interest in hockey, which I'd long written off as too violent... Even the early fight scene between a player from Boston and Minnesota, which the coach encourages: "Don't stop them," he says to his assistant coach, played awesomely by Noah Emmerich (remember, Jim Carey's best buddy in the Truman Show?) is endurable when seen within the larger mission. Sadly this coach died in real life, according to the movie, before it was released... I guess he died just recently (and suddenly, though I don't know the whole story.)

Anyhow I give it 8 out of 10 stars. A good and somewhat sad movie about a history that now seems too distant.