1977: Slap Shot (4)

1977, what else happened this year? A little bit of everything, it seems, but nothing that would change the world. Looking this up it's hard to find era defining events, because so much of history is gradual. Yeah.

What is the plot - in one sentence? Paul Newman is the player-coach of a struggling ice hockey team called the Chiefs, and we follow his efforts to improve their record so that the team can be sold.

I don't have time, just spoil it for me? They try winning by being violent with the help of some thug ringers, but end up winning the league after the opposing team forfeits the game. The captain of the other team punches the ref in fury at a male striptease going on. The sale of the team was apparently a lie all along, but the movie ends on a parade and all the players seem to be getting contracts in other, nicer, cities.

What is the meaning of the title? It's a pun, slap shot is a hockey term, but they're also resorting to violence, e.g. slapping the other teams.

Here's Paul Newman, being birthed from a giant walrus vagina.

Anything that's not aged well? Does a woman get slapped around? The fashion is just incredible, I think a lot of inspiration from the Venture Bros. comes from this movie and era. There's a few things which don't make much sense from today's perspective (the idea that if your wife is a lesbian, you must be gay- is thrown around a lot), the word fag and retard are dropped pretty liberally, but underdogs struggling to success is a pretty timeless thing for a sports movie. This hasn't aged as badly as you might expect for a movie where Paul Newman calls a young child a fag to his mother's face. 

Probably the most telling thing is that it's a mid-budget, mildly rude and raunchy comedy movie, something that simply wouldn't get made today. There's also a bit where one of the character's wives is told that she could look like Cher if she had a perm, something which was presumably a compliment in 1977. It is not in 2021.

Any thoughts? Like all of the best movies about sports, the amount of sport depicted is kept to a minimum; it's really a character story. Paul Newman is a hustling, insecure, ageing wretch willing to do anything to keep his career; he also does some acting in this movie. There are other characters, including his wife (who wants out), the preppy young protege who doesn't want to resort to violence on the rink, and the annoying relationship he has with his wife. The rest of the characters from the team are a bit broad - there's a vain one who looks like Jaws (and I genuinely couldn't tell if he was supposed to be handsome for the time or not), there's a horny one, there's a mad Quebecois one, an idiot who is tricked into violent, three creepy but violent nerd brothers, and a few others, they don't really matter so much.

Paul Newman also spends an inordinate amount of time hitting on his teammate's wife, but their age difference makes it look like a very creepy incest thing. He's still handsome, but he's looking a little craggy and has thin, middle-aged, getting old legs - they're impossible to miss. Luckily this relationship is not too explicit. Also of note is M. Emmett Walsh appearing as a media guy, being a father of young children, despite looking the same as he will for the rest of his long life.

Would you recommend this? This was obviously an influence on that Will Ferrell movie Semi Pro, but I think this will will be remembered more in the future. A common complaint I will have about movies is that they're too long, but while 2 hours seems too long for a movie like this, it whizzed by; a few awkward moments and fashion don't stop it from being fun, and I genuinely had no idea which was it was going to go.

Final thoughts? The last game of the year - the vital game - the other team gets various violent sociopaths to play for the team to beat the shit out of the Chiefs. It's payback for what the Chiefs have been doing all year. One of them has just got out of prison, we're told. The one Chief who doesn't want to fight does a striptease on the ice, driving the ladies WILD, but enraging the captain of the other team so much that he punches a ref and thus forfeits the game, serving as a quick reminder that the 'violence is better than nudity' argument has been going on a long time. This was a really interesting snapshot into the era. 

 For more, the link of all movies 'reviewed' so far is right here.