Canada Russia '72

This is a very curious film. AT times it looks amateurish, at times it looks documentary like and at times it looks like a typical Candian TV Movie. The feel of the movie is greats with the music, clothing and equipment but if anything the film should have been longer and some of the roles expanded. Some characters never talk. I kept thinking it had something to do with the actors getting paid more for having speaking roles.

However the film was very entertaining. I only wish some roles had been expanded and the office activities elaborated on. The role of Canadian fans and their reaction seem to be minimized and we never did see that guy eat - i think he said hat. It would have been interesting to have seen his reaction. What was Vic Hatfield's reaction after the win? Did he applaud or hold his head in his hands in shame? There were a lot of unanswered questions.

I am not sure the documentary feel worked because they kept cutting to actual footage. The stock did not match. I know they shot it super 16mm instead of 35mm to get closer to what a documentation would have looked like. However, I know they have a VERY tight budget, so were able to accomplish a lot with a little. I do not know if people who did not care about the hockey summit to begin with would get into it. It was a lot of fun to watch them make it. The guy who played Clarke (John Bregar) was pretty nice to the extras. The hardest part was getting the crew off the ice between takes. You throw these guys in a hockey rink and they are kids all over again. I rated it kinda high cause I took a couple of days off work to be an extra in Moscow. It was great that they used some New Brunswick people too. I know Jonathan Collicott was an Assistant Director, Glendon McKinney was working in the Art Department, and Glen Ross was taking pictures. There was also several NB Film Co-op members seen on screen as extras (Nik Mills, Chisholm Pothier, Jeff Combs, Sebastian MacLean just to name a few).

I think many of the 'actors' are gifted hockey players & lookalikes--there's not much on their resumé at IMDB. The photo of the guy playing John Ferguson is more like a Mugshot, which is fitting for the character! (Meant in a good way). Gerry Dee, though, plays an awesome chippy Wayne Cashman.

I am re-watching this amazing CBC production, from which the only thing I recall is 1) the Vancouver fans booed Team Canada from the beginning 2) Ferguson's later response to Bobby Clarke breaking Kharlomov's ankle: 'Hockey is a real tough game.'

A three-Cd set, with tons of insight & anecdotes you won't see on the package that has the 8 full games (yeah, I got that, too).

First-rate cast and script! David Miller (Paul Henderson) was a stand-out, as was Judah Katz (Eagleson) Keep up the excellent work, CBC! I especially appreciated the accuracy of this account I felt the job was particularly good in view of the iconic nature of this project. The writers and director resisted the temptation to emotionally overload the story with a lot of false rhetoric. I appreciated the script's subtlety, the sense of duality felt by team-members, wanting to play their very best, yet under intense pressure to succumb to the 'win at all costs' mentality, perfectly exemplified by Henderson/Miller and Esposito on one hand, and 'The Eagle', Fergie and Clarke on the other. Like many Canadians I'm sure, as the series progressed, I felt I really just wanted my guys to "pull it together", and win the series- no matter how Hard-Assed they had to be to win it! Thanks again CBC! A very classy product! Mike Fullerton

First, let me say I enjoyed this TV movie more than I thought. Like nearly every other Canadian over 40, I remember the Henderson goal and the drama leading up to it. So, I thought a drama about "the drama" would surely fall short. I was pleasantly surprised. The key characters are all well represented with their most memorable features intact. We have Eagleson the Shyster, Sinden the Skinflint, Espo the Braggart, Ferguson the Vulgar, Cournoyer the Shy, Dryden the Intellectual, and Henderson the Hero (sort of a Canuck 7 dwarfs). The period setting and feel is dead on, reminiscent of the movie TRUDEAU which took place roughly the same time. Like TRUDEAU, the true Canadian soundtrack helps immensely. The Poppy Family's "Evil Grows", Lighthouse's "One Fine Morning", Crowbar's "Oh, What A Feeling", and 2 tunes each from Five Man Electrical Band("Signs","Absolutely Right") and The Guess Who("No Sugar Tonight" and "No Time")punctuate the plot at appropriate times. The film ends with Leonard Cohen's haunting "Avalanche" playing as a sense of relief settles over the players. This 70s soundtrack serves to remind us that we've produced great musicians as well as great athletes. Personally, I prefer watching highlights of the original thing (Cournoyer, the Roadrunner who got the TYING goal was a bigger hero to me than Henderson at the time), but this movie's heart is in the right place and you can't fault them for that. This movie will have limited appeal to non Canadians and non hockey fans, but for the rest of us, it is a pure delight to be reminded of our MIRACLE, our shot heard around the world, at least this part of the world.