It's interesting, isn't it, that in Hill's film it's the violent encounters between the ice hockey teams that the audiences seem to love, but in the final credits / parade, it's children that Hill focuses on, almost as though to say, 'What effect will all this have on them?' a point also expressed when Paul Newman finally meets the owner of the team, and she confesses she's never allowed her children to watch hockey on television as they 'copy what they see'.
In fact I'm really not sure what Hill's intention was with this film (other than being an enjoyable antidote to the Hollywood cliche sports movie about the little team / player that comes good in the end). Writer Nancy Dowd (won an Oscar for her contribution to Coming Home) based it on material collected by her brother Ned (who also appears as 'Ogilthorpe'), who was a hockey player for the Johnstown Jets who were the team in the film. Most of the 'actors' in it were genuine hockey players.
The eternal romantic, Newman is also hoping to reconnect with his wife Jennifer Warren and also trying to push Michael Ontkean (Twin Peaks) and his wife Lindsay Crouse (All the President's Men) back together.
It was Dede Allen's second collaboration with Hill after Slaughterhouse-Five.
With Strother Martin, Jerry Houser, Andrew Duncan, Jeff & Steve Carlson & David Hanson, Melinda Dillon, M. Emmet Walsh, Swoosie Kurtz, Paul Dooley.
No comments:
Post a Comment