Slap Shot
"The fans are shouting kill, kill, kill! This is hockey!"
PRE GAME 🏒
Welcome back to Balls on Film! 👋🏻
I’m back after my week off and feeling refreshed, despite being a year older! I had a great time celebrating my birthday, watching tons of baseball, being away from work and just spending time with friends and family.
I shared this over on Notes, but one of the many things that my wife surprised me with on my birthday was this George Costanza Yankees bobblehead. If you weren’t aware, it was a limited edition Yankee Stadium giveaway last year. Living in Scotland, it’s tough for me to just get to the US on a whim, and at the time we’d just returned from our New York City trip, so I had just resigned myself to never getting my hands on one. As both a huge Yankees and Seinfeld fan, I was bummed out. I’ve no idea how my wife managed to get her hands on this, but to say I was happy with it would be an understatement.
After the poll for this week’s movie ended in a tie, I asked you guys what the pick should be in the subscriber chat, and you all unanimously voted Slap Shot. This is a first time watch for me, which is always a nice bonus when I sit down to write the newsletter.
Let’s get to it!
FIRST HALF 🏑
If you’re like me and had never seen Slap Shot until now, you probably weren't prepared for just how wild it actually is. It’s loud, crude and bone-crunching - perfect for the chaos of minor league hockey in a gritty factory town that’s slowly falling apart, which we’re thrown into right from the start. Some of the humour is dated and jarring, but this 47 year old movie is still a lot of fun.
Paul Newman plays Reggie Dunlop, an aging player-coach for the struggling Charlestown Chiefs. When he realises that the team is being disbanded due to the town’s employment drying up, he decides to go all-in on violence as a marketing strategy. Enter the Hanson Brothers - three unassuming, quiet goons with milk bottle-thick glasses, who don’t say much but like to punch everything. They turn the Chiefs from downtrodden losers into local legends by turning every game into a violent brawl. To further motivate the players, Dunlop leaks a made-up story about a potential sale of the team to a retirement community in Florida to a local newspaper, hoping that if the team becomes popular, it will actually happen. It’s ridiculous, but it works.
As I mentioned at the top, this movie is pretty much no holds barred both on and off the ice. The locker room patter is sharp, the on-ice action scenes are totally bonkers and hilarious at the same time. This is particularly evident during the Hanson’s first game. They barely touch the puck before ending up in a full-on brawl. There’s blood spraying, fans becoming rabid and the way in which all of the chaos escalates is brilliant. Slap Shot isn’t all merely played for laughs, though. It never veers into the same sentimental, schmaltzy territory that some sports movies do, but there’s a real sense of desperation under all the chaos - a sense that everyone is just about treading water and doing what they can to survive a world leaving them behind. It gives the film a real heart and some depth underneath all of the sucker punches.
While Michael Ontkean’s turn as Ned, one player on the team who refuses to go along with the violence, has a great payoff, there’s a few other side plots that I didn’t really care for. The movie ends up feeling a bit too long, but Paul Newman keeps you invested. He’s the star of the show. Dunlop is deeply unlikeable at points. He’s got a massive ego, and cheats and manipulates so many people around him, yet Newman somehow makes a sleazy character come across as pretty charming. I don’t know if anyone else could have pulled it off so well.
The elephant in the, erm, penalty box when it comes to Slap Shot, is that it’s very much a product of its time when it comes to some of the jokes, which can be pretty rough by today’s standards. I had similar feelings watching this as I did when I rewatched the original Bad News Bears for the first time in many years. There’s probably deeper elements here around male insecurity and emotional repression that could be talked about here, but some of the jokes will make you cringe. Ultimately, it is a movie from 1977, and an unapologetic snapshot of small town, minor league sports culture from that time.
Ultimately, Slap Shot is wild, brutal and oddly heartfelt at the same time. Much like Bull Durham, it does a great job of highlighting the often unglamorous grind of minor league sports. It’s not just about hockey, though. It’s about pride, desperation and trying to not be forgotten. It’s a blast, even with all of its rough edges.
Slap Shot is available to rent or purchase on most digital platforms.
HALFTIME 🍿
I’ve been watching The Studio on Apple TV+, which has been absolutely hilarious. I’d heard a lot of great buzz ahead of release, but it still managed to surpass my expectations. Episode two was a masterclass in anxiety-inducing television. I couldn’t look away.
Streaming now on Apple TV+
I also checked out Win or Lose on Disney Plus, which is pure Pixar magic - funny, heartfelt and beautifully animated. Each episode offers a different perspective during the week leading up to a kids championship softball game, all told with that signature Pixar storytelling touch.
Here’s a few things that I’ve enjoyed from the amazing writers here on Substack.
recaps season three of The White Lotus, and the finale from this week, which is a great read. Also check out talking baseball movies over at , which I enjoyed immensely. Finally, by featured one of the best pieces of writing I’ve read here on Substack this week on the death of cinema. You need to give it a read!Let’s get back to Slap Shot!
SECOND HALF 🏒
Let’s jump into some awards and bonus content.
BEST SCENE 🏆
I mentioned it earlier. It’s the Hanson’s first game.
BEST LINE 🏆
Reggie Dunlop: “It's their rink, it's their ice, and it's their f***** town. But tonight we got our fans with us! … Get out there on the ice and let 'em know you're there. Get that f***** stick in their side. Let 'em know you're there! Get that lumber in his teeth. Let 'em know you're there!”
MVP AWARD 🏆
It’s Paul Newman. He anchors all of the chaos in the movie, and somehow also makes the sleazy Reggie likeable.
TRIVIA HIGHLIGHT 🏆
Per IMDb:
Paul Newman had stated on many occasions that he had more fun making this film than on any other film he has starred in, and that it remained his favorite.
LETTERBOXD HIGHLIGHT 🏆
I laughed and wretched at the same time reading this.
BONUS FEATURES 💿
Here’s Bill Simmons and The Rewatchables crew talking about Slap Shot and whether Paul Newman was the perfect movie star.
POST-GAME 🏒
That just about it does it for this week, thanks for reading! Please let me know what you thought of Slap Shot. I’m looking to delve into some lesser-known sports movies soon, so let me know if there’s anything in particular I should check out.
Next week,
will be back with me to continue our Rocky film series with Creed.See you then! 👋🏻
~James
Happy birthday 🎉🎉🎉! Episode 2 of the Studio was definitely intense as a viewer. When he walked in the middle of the scene at some point I was shouting to the TV 😂.
Happy Birthday! Really fun review, I have not seen Slap Shot but I don’t doubt Paul Newman helped bring the charisma, that guy is amazing in everything, he is the definitive Hollywood leading man in my opinion.