By Richard Winters
My Rating: 8 out of 10
4-Word Review: Winning by playing dirty.
Reggie Dunlop (Paul Newman) is the aging player/coach of the Charlestown Chiefs a minor league hockey team that’s struggling both in the standings and attendance. Things get even worse when the town’s steel mill goes out of business laying off over 10,000 of its workers. With no one able to afford watching games the team is set to go defunct. Then Dunlop comes up with an idea to attract attention by instilling the Hanson Brothers (Jeff Carlson, Steve Carlson, David Hanson). into the game. The Hanson’s come off like harmless bespectacled nerds, but when they get on the ice, they become a terror by physically beating up the competition in any underhanded way they can. This soon brings fans back and Dunlop hopes this might lead to a sale of the team to sunny Florida and in fact he plants this idea into the local newspaper, but when Dunlop finally does meet the team’s actual owner (Kathryn Walker) she tells him of other plans.
The screenplay was based on writer Nancy Dowd’s brother’s experiences playing for a minor league hockey team in Johnstown, Pennsylvania where the film was actually shot. He would call Nancy up on an almost nightly basis telling her of things that happened, which routinely had him getting beaten-up, which she found ‘sort of fascinating’ and lead to her traveling with him during the season. She started taking notes of the different things she witnessed much of which occurs in the movie including players going into the stands to attack obnoxious fans and fights breaking out before the game evens started.
While the film has become a major cult classic it did only moderately well at the box office when first released. Critics at the time derided the violence and ‘foul language’ as well as the ‘one-dimensional characters’. In Gene Siskel’s case he initially described it as a ‘failure’ only to have him years later watch it again and then call it a ‘terrific film’. What I think the critics missed was that it’s really not about the players, but instead the fans. People living bleak lives working humdrum jobs and how sports can help them escape their otherwise boring lives and the violence they watched at the games was a way for them to vent their frustrations and aggressions and thus acted as a way for them to ‘bond’ with their team.
The best aspect about the movie is Paul Newman who took a big risk doing this as many of his loyal fans, who had started watching him in the 50’s, were turned off by his character’s constant swearing though I felt this was to his benefit as it allowed him to attract younger fans broaden is acting repertoire. It’s also quite realistic as most athletes really do talk that way and this was one of the first sports films to display that in all of its uncensored glory. However, the most amazing part of his performance is how he plays somebody that could very easily be quite unlikable and in a lot of ways it’s downright shocking how many things he can get away with and still come off as the ‘hero’, or in this case the ‘anti-hero’. Most other actors would flunk at this, but Newman’s able to give this guy an engaging flair that keeps you wanting to cheer for him and see him succeed even as he sleeps around with married women, tries desperately to break-up the marriage of his star player, aggressively promote dirty play even when some of his younger players seem hesitant, and tell off his team’s owner in what has to be one of the most vulgar, politically incorrect lines ever put on film.
My only two complaints with the character are that he’s surprised when the town factory closes when the younger player bets it will, but since Newman’s older it should’ve been him that predicted the closure as he would’ve had more life experience to know that nothing lasts forever while the youthful one would’ve had the wide-eyed optimism. He also wears some goofy looking outfits like plaid pants, elevator shoes, and even a fur coat. Granted these were stylish for the times, but a basic blue-collar guy like him wouldn’t be up on all the fads and would most likely be laughed out of the building by his friends when he walked in wearing some of the stuff that he does.
As for the film’s moral message that seems dubious. It’s almost like saying cheating and violence are good as things continually get better for the team and Newman personally the more it’s inserted into their play. I also felt that the Ned character, played by Michael Ontkean, is a very weak protagonist and besides sitting out games in protest of the fighting does very little. There should’ve been more confrontations between he and Reggie and more attempts to persuade the others not to continue the dirty play. He also treats his wife Lily, played by Lindsay Crouse, who’s wonderful, quite shabbily and I don’t feel he deserved to ‘win’ her back and the tacked-on ‘happy ending’ where they get back together doesn’t jive because if he displayed bad behavior once it’s most likely going to come back at a later point because that’s what’s in his nature.
On the comedy end it’s near perfect. Certainly, the Hanson brothers get most of the laughs, but not so much for their ice antics, but more for their compliant behavior off of it where they display the upmost respect for the coach and team protocol and even play with toy cars during their free time. The person I felt was the funniest was the toupee wearing announcer played by Andrew Duncan, who has no problem with the outrageous fights, but sternly draws the line when it comes to stripping. To a later extent Paul Dooley equally good as the opposing team announcer and also M. Emmet Walsh, who gets so involved in the latest news of the team that he ignores his squabbling children.
The only part where it doesn’t fully work is at the end where the other team brings in their ‘goon squad’ to take on Newman’s guys but the supposed ‘brutes’ come off looking severely aged and silly. It kind of hurts any possible tension when you can plainly see that this young squad could take these old guys, who might’ve been threat 20 years ago, but resemble beer belly 50-year-olds now. The film should’ve cast young muscular men in the parts, which could’ve then instilled a legitimate fear from the other side.
My Rating: 8 out of 10
Released: February 25, 1977
Runtime: 2 Hours 3 Minutes
Rated R
Director: George Roy Hill
Studio: Universal
Available: DVD, Blu-ray, Amazon Video, YouTube
Scopophilia 