Miracle
reviewed by Benn "Where's the Humanity?" Farrell
& Brian "The Naked Gun" Felts
From the start, the viewer is given a quick video and audio
collage of the events in late seventies/earlier eighties, and the positions of both America and
Russia during the Cold War by the year 1980.
Kurt Russell (Big Trouble in Little China) gives one of his best performances ever as Herb Brooks, the visionary coach of the
U of Minnesota Golden Gophers national championship team of 1979. He later put together
a U.S. Olympic
Hockey team who unseated the multi gold medal winning Russian Olympians. Brooks, however, went
against pressure from the Olympic Hockey Committee and created a team using
players he had either faced or had on the gophers' roster. He then taught these players a new hybrid system of
the game using the Russian's style and Team Canada's system.
"I'm not looking for the best players, I'm looking for the right ones," he tells assistant coach Craig Patrick in the picture.
The film does well to keep up with the many young faces on the U.S. team and paces the picture
perfectly, as Brooks fights to have them all maintain his same vision. However, the biggest
credit to relatively new director Gavin O'Connor and a first time screenwriter is how true
to life the "big game" against the Russians was depicted.
Rather than have one of these down-to-the-last goal kind of ending one would expect Disney
to whip up, the game was kept true. Americans went up 4-3 with ten minutes left to go in
the third period, and then went into a game of keep away relying on the talents of goaltender
Jim Craig and very short shift changes until the final two minutes. U.S. completely caught the
Russians fumbling to keep up. The movie had better creditability and this kind of
ending was just as exciting to watch, as it included the original broadcast of commentator Al Michaels, screaming as the
U.S. team knocked down their Soviet opponents. The climax raised the hairs on the back of my neck.
However, where this movie gets sketchy in some places is, the viewer will get MORE out of it
if he or she is familiar with the rules of hockey and its strategies. Anyone will enjoy this
picture I'm sure, but a real hockey fanatic will enjoy it MORE. I'll recommend it for anyone,
especially if you were alive and/or young enough to remember the actual 1980 Olympic hockey
games on TV. The picture is a quality "blast to the past," reliving what Sports Illustrated named
the greatest moment in sports history.
As a bit of trivia, goaltender Jim Craig's saves against the Russians still hold the Olympic hockey
record for most saves in a game even today. In addition, center Mark Johnson is the only person in history
to win a gold medal in hockey and turn around and win a Stanley Cup ring in the same year.
Johnson was a member of the New York Islanders 1980 Stanley Cup championship team. Benn - Where's the Humanity?
This movie is easily one of the best movies of the year, and probably one of the top three
sports movies of all times, surpassed only by "The Natural" and "Bull Durham." It is very hard
to make a factual based movie exciting when you already know the ending, but this movie achieves
that goal excellently. "Miracle" movie is a must see for everyone!
The story is based on the 1980 USA Olympic hockey team when they shocked the world and won
the Gold Medal. To put this in perspective, it would be like the worst WNBA team beating
the Los Angeles Lakers, or Air Force Academy football team beating the New England Patriots;
99 times out of 100 it wouldn't happen. However, that's why they play the game, to quote Chris Berman
--yea!
This movie has one of the best performances by Kurt Russell in years. Most of the other
actors were hockey players cast to play the roles, including some of the sons of the original
players on that team, cast as their dads, which was kind of neat.
RENT THIS MOVIE! I do not need to say anything else. Even if you are not a sports fan, you
will like it.
Brian - The Naked Gun
"Miracle" is one of my favorite pictures of this year (2004), about the true life 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey
team, which took a Gold Medal that year after defeating Finland.
It is far more mature than any movie with
the Walt Disney Pictures logo attached to it recently.