During the height of the Cold War, the USA and the USSR engaged in real combat only once – and rather appropriately, it was on ice.
The 1980 winter Olympic games, held on American soil in Lake Placid, NY, saw the Americans take on the heavily favoured Soviets in semi-final hockey play. When Team USA captain Mike Eruzione scored a goal midway through the third period to help win the game for the yanks, it captured the hearts of a nation and forever changed the face of international hockey. Disney’s Miracle relives these moments of American shinny glory, from the selection of the no-names that made-up team USA, to the greatest upset in the history of international hockey.
The movie tracks the experience of Team USA’s hard-nosed head coach Herb Brooks, played by Hollywood hero Kurt Russell. The team’s victory is credited to Brooks’ coaching philosophy and odd personality-one that simultaneously alienates him from his players, while bringing the young athletes closer together. According to Brooks, the only chance the Americans had at winning the gold was to leave all egos at the front door and play as a team. And-big surprise-this is precisely what ends up happening.
Russell is definitely convincing in the role, and he is being praised by players and coaches who knew Brooks for his accurate depiction of the coach, down to nailing the Minnesota accent. While Herb Brooks did act as a consultant on the film, he died tragically in a car accident last year.
Most of the movie takes place on the ice, and to their credit, the young actors who portray the American team make it look like the real thing. With the help of several ex-NHLers, such as goalie Bill Ranford, who acted as stunt doubles and consultants, the hockey scenes flow quite well, in particular the body-checking. Perhaps the most realistic aspect is that the Soviets skate more fluidly, pass more gracefully, and shoot with more power than their American rivals. Hence, the miracle.
However, in true Disney fashion, the movie is laden with feel-good scenes of overcoming failure, persevering, and believing. There are enough moral lessons in this movie to fill a whole book of Aesop’s fables. Add to that an intense political backdrop, made more extreme in the re-telling with interspersed military montages. Stitched together, Miracle becomes far less a story about just another hockey game, and far more a tale that transcends sport and enters American cultural folklore.
Talking sports, however, the movie does a good job in showing that for the first time in the history of American athletics, hockey takes centre stage. Unfortunately, a Canadian audience may have trouble swallowing the large pill of American patriotism served up by Disney. Anyone who plays hockey will enjoy this movie, but you may want to save your money and rent Roch Carrier’s The Hockey Sweater for a slice of Canadiana instead.
