Slap Shot (1977)

In director George Roy Hill's irreverently funny, R-rated, brutal and bloody sports-comedy film - it was one of the best of its sub-genre ever made. The film was noted for its rampant profanity, raunchiness, toxic male adolescent behavior, nudity, and on-ice rough-house violence in order to save a failing minor Federal Hockey League team (the Chiefs) in Charlestown, a fictional rust-belt Pennsylvania steel-mill town (based upon Johnstown, PA). The area was threatened with the closure of the local plant and massive lay-offs and unemployment. Screenplay writer Nancy Dowd based the story (with many sub-plots) on her brother Ned Dowd's experiences playing minor league hockey (with the Johnstown Jets) in the US in the 1970s.

There was no soundtrack for the film, but it featured some well-known hits of its decade, including Fleetwood Mac's "Rhiannon" and "Say That You Love Me," Elton John's "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word," Maxine Nightingale's "Right Back Where We Started From," and Leo Sayer's "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing."

The lengthy (123 minutes), authentic film reflected the late 70s era of diminishing masculinity, when drinking, gambling, sexual activities, and the delay of responsibility and adulthood were openly practiced and celebrated. Stars in the off-color film included Paul Newman as aging, foul-mouthed and irascible hockey star Reggie Dunlop - a player/coach for the final season of The Charlestown Chiefs of the Federal Hockey League, and the newly-recruited Hanson Brothers trio (Jeff, Steve, and Jack, played by Jeff & Steve Carlson and David Hanson), hockey players who wore black-framed coke-bottle glasses.

Slap Shot took in modest revenues of $28 million (and was a blockbuster in Canada) on its budget of $6 million, even though it was initially regarded as obscene, vulgar, and lacking in "good taste."

• in the pre-credits sequence, during his live TV-show, host Jim Carr (Andrew Duncan) asked about the "finer points of hockey" as he interviewed player Denis Lemieux (Yvon Barrette); the hockey player was questioned about "icing" and "high-sticking"; Denis demonstrated by almost choking the questioner: ("High-sticking happen when the guy take the stick, you know, and he go like that"); he also demonstrated slashing, tripping, hooking, and spearing: ("All bad. You do that, you go to the box, you know. Two minutes, by yourself, and you feel shame, you know. And then you get free")
• the unseen owner of the failing Charlestown Chiefs, who were experiencing a long losing streak, disaffected fans, and declining revenues, pressured and threatened the team's stingy manager Joe McGrath (Strother Martin) to hold a fashion show for publicity's sake; player Johnny Upton (Allan Nicholls) told his team manager that he would show everything if he was degraded and ordered to participate - and he made good on his threat:
  • "I'm gonna flash' em, Joe!...I'm gonna walk down that stinkin' aisle, I'm gonna open this faggot robe and wiggle my dick at 'em!...Yes, I am Joe, and you know why? Because I want you to have a heart attack and die so that we never have to do this s--t again! You and your f--kin' fashion shows!...I'm gonna wiggle it at 'em, you cheap bastard. I'm tellin' ya. You'd better be prepared, because when I yank it out, everybody in that audience, with the exception of my wife, is gonna be runnin' for the exits"
• the team's aging player/coach, Reggie Dunlop (Paul Newman) realized that his hockey career (and his working years) would be over if the team was sold; he had to do something to save the team and his own livelihood in the dying town; Reggie also faced domestic problems on the home front with his estranged wife Francine (Jennifer Warren), a disgruntled 'hockey wife' who was seeking a divorce and planning to move away
• the team manager Joe McGrath also cheaply acquired (as a "good deal") a trio of new team recruits from the Iron League; at the local bus station, Reggie met up with new players - the Hanson Bros (Jeff, Steve, and Jack, played by Jeff & Steve Carlson and David Hanson); the boys (who wore black-framed coke-bottle glasses) were caught in the act of loudly vandalizing a Coke machine: ("F--kin' machine took my quarter...It took my quarter"); shortly later, Dunlop complained to McGrath that the boys were juveniles and acted in an infantile manner (he had discovered them with toy model cars in their luggage), and threatened to not play with them:
  • "You cheap son of a bitch. Are you crazy? Those guys are retards!...They brought their f--kin' toys with 'em!...They're too dumb to play with themselves. Boy, every piece of garbage that comes into the market and you gotta buy it!"
• McGrath was inspired to recall a memory from his coaching past: ("I was coachin' in Omaha in 1948 and Eddie Shore sends me this guy that's a terrible masturbator. You know, couldn't control himself, but he would get deliberate penalties so he could get into the penalty box all by himself, and damned if he wouldn't, you know...")
• during a night of sex at Dunlop's place with Suzanne Hanrahan (Melinda Dillon), the neglected wife of opposing Long Island Ducks goalie Tommy Hanrahan (Christopher Murney), she revealed that she was a lesbian: "Every time Hanrahan went out on the road, I would go over to this wife's house. And we would get drunk, and we would talk about how depressed and lonely we were without the guys. Every week blah, blah, blah. And one night we were talking about how we hated the life, and how we had never done much of anything ourselves. And I don't know why really, we were like kids, we started playing with one another. We were drunk as usual. And the next week we did it sober, and it was terrific!...When Hanrahan found out about it he went crazy! He-he said if I was a dyke that made him a queer. And he started slappin' me around. I ended up in the hospital.... I'm on the lam, I'm hiding out"
• afterwards, Dunlop used Suzanne's sexual revelations to taunt Hanrahan about his wife's gayness during a game:
  • "Hanrahan - Suzanne sucks pussy! Hey, Hanrahan, she's a dyke! I know, I know! She's a lesbian, a lesbian, a lesbian!"
• the tactic led Hanrahan to desert the goal and chase after him, and the Chiefs won the game, but afterwards, Dunlop was beaten up; later in the locker room, he told his teammates: "I told him his wife was a dyke...His wife is a dyke!"
• to encourage further attendance and hope for the team's future, Reggie initiated a fabricated rumor with the town's reporter Dickie Dunn (M. Emmet Walsh) that the owner was negotiating a sale of the hockey team with a city in Florida
• Reggie began to realize that the working-class fans liked violence on the ice, "goon" hockey action was encouraged by the menacing and ruthless Hanson Brothers trio, which included their taping foil to their knuckles, and frequently beating up and brawling with their opponents even during pre-game warm-ups
• a booster club formed and fans began to loyally follow after the team; even before the game began against the Peterborough Patriots, the teams fought on the ice; during the playing of the National Anthem, the Peterborough Referee (Larry Block) skated up to a bloodied Steve Hanson and threatened: "I got my eye on the three of you guys. You pull one thing, you're out of this game. I run a clean game here. I have any trouble, I'll suspend ya" - Steve shouted back: "I'm listening to the f--kin' song!"
• the many dirty, rough-house violent tactics on the ice by the Hansons actually saved the franchise, although teammate Johnny Upton complained: "These guys are a f--kin' disgrace!..They're f--kin' horrible-lookin'"; on a school bus to play a road-trip game against the Hyannisport Presidents, the team (and its boosters) mooned out the windows
• on Jim Carr's radio show, Dunlop also encouraged his team members (with a $100 bribe or bounty - "A hundred bucks of my own money for the first of my guys who really nails that creep") to assault the player-coach Tim "Dr. Hook" McCracken (Paul D'Amato) of the Chiefs' main rival - the Syracuse Bulldogs; McCracken confronted Dunlop: "Dunlop, you suck cock," to which he replied: "All I can get"
• however, Reggie had no luck in encouraging his straight-playing, top-scoring, college-educated team member Ned Braden (Michael Ontkean) to engage in the dirty-tactics and brawls; when Ned refused to join in the beatings, Reg benched him; he even attempted to involve Braden's wife Lily (Lindsay Crouse), who at one point moved in with Reggie during a break-up with Braden
• disinterested and reclusive team owner Anita McCambridge (Kathryn Walker), a wealthy widow who hated on-the-ice violence, revealed to Dunlop her real motivations and goal for the team's future; she told Reg that she was not going to sell the team, but could more easily end the team by seeking a tax write-off recommended by her accountants; Dunlop insulted her:
  • "You know, your son looks like a fag to me. You'd better get married again, 'cause he's gonna wind up with somebody's cock in his mouth before you can say Jack Robinson"
• during the team's final championship game against the Syracuse Bulldogs, the Chiefs followed through on their pre-determined, reversed strategy, recommended by Reg, to not be violent and to play a traditional game of "old time hockey"; however, during the first period of play, it was revealed that the opposing team (that had recruited goons to play, including McCracken and rookie Ogie Ogilthorpe (Ned Dowd)) had come ready to play dirty, and then engaged in a massive series of fights, while the Chiefs remarkably refused to fight back; manager McGrath also spurred on the team at the half-time break by announcing that NHL scouts were watching the game, and might be offering contracts for talented players ("All my years of publicity. All the fashion shows and radiothons for nothing. They come here tonight to scout the Chiefs, the toughest team in the Federal League!")
• in the second period of play, Ned Braden saw Lily in the stands, and was inspired to perform an on-ice strip tease (broadcaster Carr called it "a lascivious display") to distract the crowd and players from their brawling; he lowered his uniform, and the arena's band began playing "The Stripper"; Ned's striptease caused the players to stop fighting; the opposing player-coach McCracken yelled out to a referee that it was "obscene," and wanted a ruling against Ned; when the referee refused, McCracken punched him out
• the Syracuse team was slapped with a forfeiture penalty, culminating with the Chiefs' victory and league championship in the Federal League; the film ended with a parade on the ice (with Braden wearing only his skates and a jock-strap) (and one reaction: "He's gonna catch his death out there")
• after the championship game, the team was welcomed home as heroes, but they were now disbanded; Dunlop accepted a position as the player-coach of the NHL's Minnesota Nighthawks team, hoping that his fellow hockey teammates would join him; during Charlestown's victory parade for the team, Lily had reconciled with Ned, but Reg watched as Francine drove away with her belongings in a trailer