"Slap Shots" on DVD

by Jim Bray

Universal Home Video has chosen to capitalize on the release of the made for video Slap Shot 2 - Breaking the Ice" by putting out a 25th anniversary Special Edition of the original George Roy Hill/Paul Newman movie.

This is good in that it lets you have another look at the first film, an original sports movie classic. But it also means you have the chance to sit through the sequel - and that's a shame because version two, as is so often the case, is a waste of time and space.

The filmmakers of the sequel seem to have forgotten what made the first movie work (Paul Newman, George Roy Hill, original screen writer Nancy Dowd, and the first film's subversive attitude come to mind) and have instead given us a politically correct rant in its place.

But what else would you expect from today's Hollywood?

Anyway, let's tackle Slap Shot 1 first.

Slap Shot is on the surface a comedy about professional hockey - kind of the same way M*A*S*H is about medicine (in that it really isn't, but is set in that particular world). Below the surface, however, it's much more than that. It's a social commentary made and set in the 1970's that predicts today's fascination with the Jerry Springer show and what now passes for TV professional wrestling.

Slap Shot stars Paul Newman, who gives his usual terrific performance. He's the playing coach of the Charlestown Chiefs, a lousy smalltime pro team from an economically depressed mill town. When word's received that the mill's closing and therefore the team's folding, Newman concocts a scheme to raise awareness and interest in the team, and thereby make it more attractive for potential buyers. There are no potential buyers, of course, but you can't condemn a guy for trying to do his best for himself and his players.

Those players and their wives represent a cross section of this time period. There are the drinkers, the sex maniacs, the losers, the winners, the goons...

It's the goons who bring Slap Shot - and the Chiefs - notoriety. The team GM (Strother Martin) hires the Hanson Brothers, a trio of coke-bottle-spectacled goons whose idea of hockey combines the sportsmanship of all out thermonuclear war with the finesse of a dancing elephant. Suffice it to say the team starts winning through intimidation before everything falls apart.

Slap Shot once again teamed Newman with director George Roy Hill, who'd helmed "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "The Sting." It's a very different film, however; smaller, far more controversial (thanks to its extremely accurate depiction of how real life people sometimes cuss a blue streak; its hockey violence is more stylized and "Hollywood-ized" than in real life, but perhaps not too much so) and it was a lot less successful at the box office in the long run. But one must applaud George Roy Hill, Paul Newman, writer Nancy Dowd, et al, for taking a chance.

Also in the cast are Michael Ontkean, Lindsay Crouse, Jennifer Warren, and Jerry Houser. You'll also see veteran character actor M. Emmett Walsh and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind's" Melinda Dillon as well.

The DVD transfer is good. The picture is presented in anamorphic widescreen (16x9 TV compatible) and though it's a tad soft it doesn't get in the way of your enjoyment. The sound is pretty good for an old monaural track; there was no attempt to re-mix the sound into something approaching Dolby Digital, and that's okay. As much as we like good surround, the Slap Shot DVD gives us the original movie and as such it works. We're not looking for a Dolby re-mix of Casablanca, either.

Extras included with this special edition focus mostly on the "Hanson Brothers" (and you find out who these people really are, which is interesting), including a running commentary, Hanson Brothers Classic Scenes, and Puck Talk with the Hansons. It gives you about as much Hansons as you could want.

You also get production notes, cast/crew info and the trailer.

Slap Shot, from Universal Home Video
123 minutes, anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1), 16x9 TV compatible, Dolby Digital mono
Starring Paul Newman, Michael Ontkean, Lindsay Crouse, Jennifer Warren, Jerry Houser, and Strother Martin
Produced by Robert J. Wunsch
Written by Nancy Dowd, Directed by George Roy Hill

Slap Shot 2 is definitely the ugly sister of this set. It joins the Charlestown Chiefs (despite the fact that in the first film the Charlestown Chiefs were virtually dead) years after the first film. The Paul Newman part is played by Stephen Baldwin and, while he's okay, he can't shine Newman's shoes.

The Chiefs are still a second class bunch of losers, and the Hanson brothers are still part of the team for some reason. It's almost as if the team were in a time warp, except for the obvious aging on the part of the Hansons.

The team is still made up of varying personalities, but you never really get to explore them in this version. It's just as well, though; everyone's very two dimensional.

Anyway, playing coach Sean Linden (Baldwin) learns that the team has been sold to a "family values" broadcasting magnate and it's being moved to Omaha, Nebraska. Worse, he's lost his coaching job - to a woman (Jessica Steen).

From this moment on, the movie becomes tiresomely predictable.

The players don't respect a chick coach, of course, but she quickly skates rings around them and they reluctantly shut up. Besides, we don't see much of her on the ice for the rest of the movie. Once they've introduced the concept of a female coach, the filmmakers move on and merely pay it periodic lip service during the rest of the movie.

Once in Nebraska, the team discovers that they won't be playing real hockey for the most part; instead, they're to play the part of the dog food to a top dog all star team in a situation analogous to the Harlem Globetrotters. The two teams, the "Superchiefs" and the "Ice Breakers" are meant to be the good guys versus the bad guys with the Ice Breakers populated by ex-ivy league stars who are as insufferable as they are boyishly good looking.

The idea is for the magnate (Gary Busey) to start up a wholesome, made for TV hockey league in the same vein as the XFL Football league was, except for the wholesome part. They don't play games but, rather, perform from a script, making the Chiefs more of a dancing bear act than a hockey team. This galls them to no end.

Everything about the situation galls them except the money, which is great and which is the one thing that keeps them in line.

It's all very lame and predictable and the Hanson brothers are obviously there only to get people's bums into the home theater seats - and they aren't even there for about half of this excruciating movie. Meanwhile, in Hollywood tradition, the new team owner is a greedy capitalist (hey, aren't studio executives greedy capitalists? Oh, I forgot: they're liberal capitalists, which generally translates into hypocrites of the highest order.) and his sponsors are right wing zealots (hey, Hollywood, how come you don't feature left wing zealots? Oh, I forgot; YOU'RE left wing zealots!), and the hero (Baldwin, who by this time has sold his soul for a good many pieces of silver) finally throws off the yoke of financial reward and does what's right for his team.

This latter point, of course, depends on whether he's doing his team a better favor by returning them to their hockey roots (where they can go back to starving in oblivion) or keeping them on as circus clowns (and well paid ones, where they'll be able to secure their and their families' financial future).

Of course he decides on the former - and fortunately the Hanson brothers have had a bit of luck which allows the players to return to their roots without financial hardship.

It's just all so neat and easy.

Anyway, Baldwin's okay as the ex-star trying to live down one bad shot (and, surprise surprise, he gets to relive it!). The Hanson brothers, who aren't actors, repeat their performances from the first movie, and they're fine - but it seems lame here because it's obvious they're only there to sell tickets and not to enhance the story. The best character is Jessica Steen's coach, but even her part succumbs to the basest of Hollywood stereotypes and she ends up falling for the same guy she had rejected - quite rightly - earlier.

At least the DVD's decent. The picture is anamorphic widescreen (16x9 TV compatible) and it's pretty good, if a tad soft. The Dolby Digital and/or DTS 5.1 surround sound is the best thing about the package. It offers good dynamics and deep bass, though there doesn't seem to be as much surround as there should be (for example, the arena ambience should fill the room).

Extras include the "DVD exclusives" "Making of" feature and interviews with "The Hanson Brothers." There are also production notes, cast/filmmaker info and the trailer.

Slap Shot 2: Breaking the Ice, from Universal Home Video
104 min. anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1), 16x9 TV compatible, Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 surround
Starring Stephen Baldwin, Jessica Steen, Callum Keith Rennie, David Hemmings, David Paetkau, Gary Busey
Produced by Ron French,
Written by Broderick Miller, Directed by Stephen Boyum

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