What’s the Greatest Hockey Movie of All Time?

[bert]

Youngblood or Slapshot flip a coin. Love them both.

 

[NoGoalCaufield]

The Last Big Save

Unreal movie. and award winning.

 

[Dr Pepper]

It's still Slap Shot, as far as I'm concerned.

HM to Mighty Ducks, and Goon.

 

[Reaser]

Voted for "Miracle" because it's the one I rewatch most.

Like a majority of the list, though. Lot of movies I've seen a bunch of times because I like them.

"Mystery, Alaska" is the only one I watched once and never had interest in watching again.

"The Rookies" and "The Cutting Edge" are the only two I haven't seen.

"Goalie" is a movie I liked that is not on the list -- though wish they could have used real sweaters/logos in it.

 

[Deadly Dogma]

IMO
Most Iconic: Slapshot aniec
2nd Fav Goon- IMO they did a great job on the lighter side of hockey culture
Personal Fav: Youngblood-still waiting for Marner to have his montage so he can go Wilson lol

 

[Bouboumaster]

Slapshot and Goon are the only two movies that are better in french audio

 

[Ceremony]

Why is everyone saying Happy Gilmore doesn't count? He's very clear throughout that he's a hockey player.

 

[nowhereman]

I don't dislike Mystery Alaska as much as most but the concept is just so incredibly absurd. No beer league team in the world could hold their own against an NHL roster and most of the players would end up severely hurt/embarrassed. Your average Marvel movie has a more believable plot.

The answer is probably a toss-up between Slap Shot and Miracle. Slap Shot is the more iconic cult classic but Miracle is a better film. Actually, now that I think of it, Red Army is probably the best but it's a documentary, so I don't really hold it up as a hockey "movie".

 

[Terrier]

"Slap Shot" is tops for me, "Miracle" a close second. Every time Jake DeBrusk scores nowadays, my first thought is "trade him right ____ing now."

For what it's worth, two movies that incorporated hockey: "Fargo", in which there's hockey on all the TV's("Gophers.") and "The Friends of Eddie Coyle", in which Eddie gets sloshed on cheap beer in the balcony at an early 70's Bruins-Blackhawks game, which is precisely what I did in the 80's and 90's.

 

[OKR]

Voted ”The Mighty Ducks” but after a second guessing, i would choose ”Goon”.

I really suggest people go watch them both, they’re both enjoyable movies even as a non-hockey fan, and the dialogue closely resembles the dialogue used by Georges Laraque in a fight against Raitis Ivanans in 2006.

 

[Lauro]

Slap Shot. HM to Red Army and Goon.

 

[Nasti]

The Love Guru is more of a hockey movie than Happy Gilmore.

 

[tarheelhockey]

The irony of "Slap Shot" is that people love it for the Hanson Brothers, but the movie is openly mocking the idea that you should love anything about the Hanson Brothers.

 

[The Burdened]

Feel like everybody pretends to like SlapShot.
Always thought it sucked

 

[Machinehead]

It's hard for me not to say the Ducks because of the nostalgia, but man those movies did not age well.

I don't even mean the story itself, but like, clear and obvious mistakes that they just left in.

 

[Breakers]

D2 the Mighty Ducks


Disguising a forward in goalie equipment DURING the game to allow him to get his shot from the other end of the ice is the greatest hockey play in history

 

[MadLuke]

The irony of "Slap Shot" is that people love it for the Hanson Brothers, but the movie is openly mocking the idea that you should love anything about the Hanson Brothers.

The movie love them way too much for that to be effective (and mocking the good old ways has well), I think.

It is a bit like Sopranos trying to tell the audience to not like Tony or Mad Men to not like Smoking/old sexist/drinking office lifestyle, the shows loved those too much to be able to do that well or have some moral standing for their audience to do so.

Feel like everybody pretends to like SlapShot.

It is really a collection of many of the best quotes and one of the translation work in French Canadians has well.

 

[tarheelhockey]

The movie love them way too much for that to be effective (and mocking the good old ways has well), I think.

It is a bit like Sopranos trying to tell the audience to not like Tony or Mad Men to not like Smoking/old sexist/drinking office lifestyle, the shows loved those too much to be able to do that well or have some moral standing for their audience to do so.

The audience can “like” Tony Soprano in the sense of enjoying his story and finding him funny/quotable. But if you’ve given even half a thought to the meaning of that show, you realize he’s an irredeemable psychopath who corrupts and destroys everything he touches. Actually liking him is not the point the writers were going for.

Same thing with the Hansons. Yes they have some funny gags and quotable scenes. But the movie points at them with a big neon arrow that says THIS IS WHAT’S WRONG WITH PROFESSIONAL HOCKEY. The entire point of Slap Shot is that the “code” of unhinged violence is just a commercial gimmick invented by corrupt old men whose love affair with the game consisted of finding young guys dumb enough to beat each other to a pulp for minimum wage.

 

[MadLuke]

The audience can “like” Tony Soprano in the sense of enjoying his story and finding him funny/quotable. But if you’ve given even half a thought to the meaning of that show, you realize he’s an irredeemable psychopath who corrupts and destroys everything he touches. Actually liking him is not the point the writers were going for.

Impossible to know what writers were going for or not, except if one would believe what they say about it which would be a very charitable thing to do, we can only judge the result (and some scenes seem clearly made for us to like him and liking him and realizing that we do and having to think about what it means can fully have been part of the point of the show):
It's Not Enough to Not Want to Lionize Your Protagonist

But the movie points at them with a big neon arrow that says THIS IS WHAT’S WRONG WITH PROFESSIONAL HOCKEY.

I am not sure if it achieves its goals if that was the point, I feel a large part of the audience what this thinking that what so fun about professional hockey and set it apart from the rest of the North American popular sport offering.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Impossible to know what writers were going for or not, except if one would believe what they say about it which would be a very charitable thing to do, we can only judge the result (and some scenes seem clearly made for us to like him and liking him and realizing that we do and having to think about what it means can fully have been part of the point of the show):
It's Not Enough to Not Want to Lionize Your Protagonist



I am not sure if it achieves its goals if that was the point, I feel a large part of the audience what this thinking that what so fun about professional hockey and set it apart from the rest of the North American popular sport offering.

Both of them are nuanced, but they’re not so nuanced that the writers’ intent isn’t clear.

Tony Soprano is funny, charming, relatable. And then you see him brutally murder someone for no good reason, cheat on his wife, steal from good people. The idea that he could be redeemed is dangled out there as a running theme, but the show consistently and decisively comes down on the side of him being an irredeemable piece of shit who has it coming when he finally gets his.

The whole plot of Slap Shot is about hockey being a commercial failure until the scumbag owner turns it into cartoon violence, by giving talentless goons free license to beat the actual talented hockey players to a pulp. Sure, the Hanson Brothers are funny. But they’re caricatures of mindless, violent thugs who have the brains of literal children.

Both of them have a heavy element of satire and sure, in some ways they are love letters to a time and place. But it’s more like a love letter to an ex who you long ago decided is definitely not a very good person. Slap Shot is clearly, clearly intended as a critique of violence in hockey.

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

Mystery, Alaska getting hella underrated.

 

[MadLuke]

. Slap Shot is clearly, clearly intended as a critique of violence in hockey.

And to show just how much of a failure (not only the violence in the movie is in itself very fun too watch, the damage is done is never shown, etc...) that would be if it was the intention, some team in north america used the Chiefs in their design in honor of the movie and were ultra violent.




Les Chiefs de Laval arena was called The House of Pain and had hanging mannequins in the ceiling, and I doubt the majority of the audience saw in it a big contradiction.

A movie that critique seriously violence make it not fun to watch (Sam Peckinpah for example).

If the intent was to make us laugh and to show how too far violence in hockey was getting at some ridiculous level in some league (and not violence in hockey in general), it was a total success.

The movie call the right way to play hockey, hockey like in Eddie Shore time, an extremely violent era after all.

In movies showing and experience can often be stronger than words and if you make something really super fun and never show consequence to watch it can make it unclear how much you critic it.

Let's just say everytime after I finished watching SlapShot, my thought was never, it is time to ban fighting in Hockey, I am maybe a very bad and special audience but I doubt it.

 

[tarheelhockey]

And to show just how much of a failure (not only the violence in the movie is in itself very fun too watch, the damage is done is never shown, etc...) that would be if it was the intention, some team in north america used the Chiefs in their design in honor of the movie and were ultra violent.




Les Chiefs de Laval arena was called The House of Pain and had hanging mannequins in the ceiling, and I doubt the majority of the audience saw in it a big contradiction.

A movie that critique seriously violence make it not fun to watch (Sam Peckinpah for example).

If the intent was to make us laugh and to show how too far violence in hockey was getting at some ridiculous level in some league (and not violence in hockey in general), it was a total success.

The movie call the right way to play hockey, hockey like in Eddie Shore time, an extremely violent era after all.

In movies showing and experience can often be stronger than words and if you make something really super fun and never show consequence to watch it can make it unclear how much you critic it.

Let's just say everytime after I finished watching SlapShot, my thought was never, it is time to ban fighting in Hockey, I am maybe a very bad and special audience but I doubt it.

The bolded… watch the movie back again and ask, is it actually saying “Eddie Shore hockey” is the right way to play?

This is the first time Eddie Shore is mentioned in the movie, from a character who knew him personally:



For one thing, that scene doesn’t exactly suggest that “old time hockey” was anything to be taken very seriously. The minor leagues were just as much a clown show then as ever, even when Eddie Shore himself was in charge.

For another, look at Reg Dunlop’s reaction to signing the Hanson brothers. Reg is a hard-nosed veteran player, and he’s outraged by what management is doing to the game. It’s right there in the script, plainly stated.

It isn’t until later, when he realizes he’s going to lose his own career if attendance doesn’t turn around, that Reg makes a deal with the devil and starts encouraging the Hansons to turn the game into a circus. That’s when he starts shouting “Eddie Shore” nonsense that he is fully aware is just that — nonsense.

And so we arrive at the climax of the movie, when the Chiefs have their backs against the wall. This is the scene where in a traditional movie like Miracle or Mystery Alaska the coach would make an inspirational speech. In Slap Shot we get something a little different…

https://youtu.be/Pdi_kASSsJs

“Piss on Eddie Shore! Piss on old time hockey!”

It was about the money. It was about shitty old men and their shitty exploitation of shitty young men. Even Reg Dunlop, towering figure, hears the word “contract” and instantly becomes a dancing bear.

By this point in the movie, the one skilled player who is actually there to play hockey finally realizes that the “game” is really just a bunch of carnival barkers promoting a brawl. You know how the next scene concludes the movie. He gives up, turns the scene into a literal burlesque, and skates off with a completely unearned and illegitimate championship.

If it helps, the guy who finally gives up hope for pro hockey is named Ned Braden. The story was written by Nancy Dowd, who wrote the script based on the experiences of her pro hockey brother… Ned.

 

[MadLuke]

For another, look at Reg Dunlop’s reaction to signing the Hanson brothers. Reg is a hard-nosed veteran player, and he’s outraged by what management is doing to the game. It’s right there in the script, plainly stated.

I think that 2 different thing, maybe the movie intention is to make the biggest box office possible and for which it will glorify and make violence a fun spectacle to watch and will balance it with line about being wrong (like MadMen did with smoking after the sales of Lucky strike exploded, no one would doubt that MadMen series did try to make drinking/smoking look really cool, which is easy to do because it is) to make it more palatable and even more large public, in that situation we do not know the actual intention of the movie.

There is a lot of intention of a lot of people that goes into a movie beside the writer, editor, producer, director, powerful actor and so on.

Let just say I doubt I would have liked a movie that much that tried to convince me to ban fighting in hockey, making fun of LHSPQ type of league yes, trying to make an audience leave the movie thinking violence and fighting should be banned of the NHL, not at all, imo and that an opinion, we cannot know the movie has a whole intention nor the writer, even by reading the text, looking at is background or is stated intention, that all speculation and trying to read someone mind (and that if that person was even being honest with themselves to start with).

With that said you could obviously be right and maybe the movie failed miserably, but if the movie intention were make the biggest box office possible and for which it will glorify and make violence a fun spectacle to watch and will balance it with line about being wrong, it was a giant success.

 

[tarheelhockey]

I think that 2 different thing, maybe the movie intention is to make the biggest box office possible and for which it will glorify and make violence a fun spectacle to watch and will balance it with line about being wrong (like MadMen did with smoking after the sales of Lucky strike exploded), in that situation we do not know the actual intention of the movie.

There is a lot of intention of a lot of people that goes into a movie beside the writer.

The movie has one script writer, Nancy Dowd.

Undoubtedly the movie was self consciously produced to play up the violence for the purpose of attracting a crowd to buy tickets. That is of course a great irony and speaks to how similar 1970s hockey was to a Hollywood production.