Miracle

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.

Kurt Russell does a wonderful job of portraying Herb Brooks, an innovative hockey coach, and a hard-driving motivator of the young American team that competed at, and won, the 1980 Lake Placid Olympic hockey championship. Indeed, everyone is great, including the hockey players who learned to act to portray the famous group of college amateur players that Brooks pulled together to form a tight-knit and well-conditioned squad.

Camera work and re-creation of key plays is amazing -- maybe the best hockey footage ever shot (see the DVD special features). Also touching is the collage of tragic events involving the USA in the 60's and 70's, leading up to the Olympics. By the way: I found the (voiceover) speech we hear from 1980 by Jimmy Carter ("The USA has a crisis of confidence..") as moving as MLK's famous "I have a dream" speech. It sets the stage nicely for the events that follow - we all need a dream from time to time, or maybe a Miracle.

And you don't feel sorry for the Russians, this the last vestige of an arrogant cold-war-produced hockey machine: seasoned veterans laying out college kids with nasty body-checks, or slashes (just in case you thought us Canucks had the patent rights to tough hockey). Good news, though: the USA was up to it, repaying hefty checks in spades.

Finally, there is is some insight into Brooks hockey ideas, years ahead of their time: carefully-rehearsed breakout plays, circle patterns of player movement, and short 40-50 second shifts to keep players fresh.

There is a nice up-to-dater on where the players were in 2006 when the film was made, but the NHL careers were overlooked - several of these guys went on to have stellar careers in professional hockey. The talent level was substantial.

Anyway-- good job all around.

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.

Don't let the fact that this is a Disney movie deter you from watching a thoroughly enjoyable and adult-level sports movie for two-plus hours. Kurt Russell does an excellent job portraying coach Herb Brooks as a complex and sometimes ruthless and inscrutable leader. Very UN-Disney-like indeed.

I am not a hockey fan - in fact I dislike the game intensely - yet I enjoyed the well-crafted scenes of competitive team play. Knowing the outcome of the BIG GAME did not detract at all from the excitement and suspense surrounding it. Sort of like the suspense Ron Howard achieved in Apollo 13 (where we knew in advance the outcome, but were worried about and later relieved for our astronauts).

A must-see for sports fans and non-fans alike.

I was wary at first of Disney production of this film. I didn't want the cheesy Mighty Ducks type of sports movie, especially when dealing with the awesome task completed by these players. I thought the film makers did a nice job and the movie itself was quite entertaining. I think it exposes a whole generation to the 1980 U.S. hockey team and what they accomplished. Even though I am not a fan of Kurt Russell, I thought he was very good as Herb Brooks. He had the mannerisms and the voice down very well. Russell is a huge hockey fan himself so I know it was honor for him to play Brooks. For die hard hockey fans, this movie will entertain and it does not poison the game action or what it is really like to play hockey.