Slap Shot

Where do I begin? Well, George Roy Hill directed this movie, which is a legend. Slap Shot is a breathing entity, a torch to be passed on for generations to come. I don't trust anybody who doesn't like this film. I have yet to meet anyone who doesn't, but I'm sure the poor saps are out there.

Paul Newman acts with both hands behind his back, but he can do that. He might be the only actor around who can, and I don't mean to say he's not good in the film. He is, the part he plays is just very UNcustomary. His portrayal is one part Mickey Rourke, one part Jack Nicholson and two parts Dave Thomas. He plays the elder statesman on an appallingly bad hockey team and hazily leads them into non-conclusion. I think Newman was part of this film because Hill (The Sting, Butch Cassidy) directed it, but nobody could have played this part but him. He has a cool sleaze about him, a pitiable idiocy that feeds on his apathy. Newman holds this film together, while all of the other marvelously shaky elements tremble around him. The best of these is, of course, the Hanson brothers. They've established a yardstick, a standard by which all movie hockey players (and perhaps real ones too) are to be measured. They provide a new foundation entirely, and like the Blues Brothers, have opened doors to movie genius. The Hanson brothers cannot be compared to anything in film.

Not coincidentally, it is hard to compare Slap Shot to any other films. It's not really a sports movie, and it's not merely a comedy. It makes no apologies, and is as unique as a film can be. It's originally flawed, carefully raw, and as bizarre as it is raunchy. If you haven't seen Slap Shot, you must. It's nearly as essential as The Blues Brothers, less universal (hockey instead of music), but it has something even B-Bros. doesn't: the Hansons. Not to mention Paul Newman and George Roy Hill.