MIRACLE is a great movie

marino · Post by **marino** » Sun Feb 08, 2004 8:13 pm

Guys saw this movie last night with the wife and we both absolutely loved it. Four thumbs up from us. Even though you know how it ends it was still great and inspiritational. People were clapping and chanting USA USA at the end of the movie. For us over thirty people it goes back to a lot of the current events during that time(Iran hostages,soviets invading Afghanistan,the start of computers and most of all the groovy clothes and cars that people had)
 
 Go see it.

Jima · Post by **Jima** » Sun Feb 08, 2004 10:36 pm

Yes I agree! Great movie. The on ice camera action was excellent. Best I have seen in a hockey movie. Kurt Russell did and excellent job acting as Herb Brooks. Have to see it again. <IMG SRC="images/forum/icons/icon_smile.gif">

XXXIV · Post by **XXXIV** » Sun Feb 08, 2004 10:47 pm

Thanks guys....Im one of them over 35 types
 Im checking it out this week.
 I was hoping for a documentary but this sounds almost as good.

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Sun Feb 08, 2004 11:55 pm

Yeah, I definitely want to see this, whether in the theater or in a few months on DVD. I remember this game like yesterday. I was just shy of 15.
 
 Trivia: The guy who jumped the glass and put the American flag on Jim Craig´s shoulders -- in reality, not the movie -- is a Syracuse native who still lives here. He´s now the executive director of the New York State Fair.
 
 Take care,
 PK

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Mon Feb 09, 2004 1:16 am

I wonder if even Al Michael had any clue that a few words at the end would be enshrined into the American sports collective?
 
 I saw an interview about this movie this weekend and while I have the utmost respect for this moment and what the team did I think Kurt Russel got caught in the moment when he said this was probably the greatest sports moment in the last century. Nah Kurt I think it´s one of the top 25 or even 10 but no way this is number one.

GROGtheNailer · Post by **GROGtheNailer** » Mon Feb 09, 2004 4:20 am

One of the biggest upsets perhaps.

Jackdog · Post by **Jackdog** » Mon Feb 09, 2004 9:04 am

I am looking forward to taking my son to see this movie. I still get goosebumps when I see the game or even hear the phrase "Do you believe in miracles?"
 
 It´s a shame Herb Brooks isn´t around to see this tribute to his great coaching job. Hell it´s to bad he´s not around period.

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Mon Feb 09, 2004 11:32 am

I put it into my top three as an American sports fan, JRod. I think people from other countries probably feel differently because the Olympics and other international tournaments are such a nationalistic thing.
 
 For example, I think DaveT would be over the moon if England won the World Cup in football. Us Yanks wouldn´t give three shits.
 
 There are very few sporting events that grip the entire world, really. And those that do, such as the World Cup and Olympics, are splintered by nationalism. That´s not a "Common Sense-like" criticism -- it´s a reality. Nearly every American, fueled by awful, jingoistic network coverage, cares about athletes from our country and nowhere else, even if those "furriners" are performing fantastic feats.
 
 I still put the Israeli Massacre and the 72 Summer Olympics in Munich as the defining sporting event of the 20th century. It´s the event that removed the veil of innocence from sport forever and had more long-reaching effects than the "Miracle of Lake Placid." But as for an upset, a pure contest that galvanized a nation, it´s hard to top Lake Placid.
 
 Take care,
 PK [ This message was edited by: pk500 on 09-02-2004 07:33 ]

Zeppo · Post by **Zeppo** » Mon Feb 09, 2004 12:53 pm

I enjoyed the movie, but I wouldn´t be one to call it great. It is no "Hoosiers." I think you have to like hockey, and perhaps even have an inkling about LP ´80 if not straight up know what happened to really get into it.
 
 Kurt Russel really impressed me. I´ve never thought about that guy as much of an actor, though he is a good movie star. But his performance in this pic is excellent, very much subsuming himself into the role of a living person (at the time the movie was shot; apparently they had just wrapped principle photography when Coach Brooks passed away). It´s almost hard to beleive this is the same guy that was in, say, ´Big Trouble in Little China.´ I thought he was very good.
 
 I also thought the movie was well made top to bottom, and the hockey was quite well filmed. [But "Slap Shot" is still my top hockey movie; I think it is a far superior film to this one. There´s a lot more, shall we say, "human stuff" going on in that pic, even htough it has the zany side to it.]
 
 Anyway, being a guy who as a kid fell in love with hockey because of LP ´80, became fascinated by Russia and the Russians because of it, etc. etc., I loved the film.
 
 And, I think for many people, this IS the top sports moment. I think it is hard to overstate the dominance of the Red Army team. I think it is difficult for us to even comprehend it now, because that kind of thing is nigh impossible anymore. These guys were a team as if the original USA Dream Team had played together at the same college, then on the same NBA club, except for maybe one or two guys, and also as Team USA in big international tourneys (which don´t really exist for hoops) year in, year out, for 20 years. That´s how good they were. Not only many of the best individual hockey players in the world, but also playing together as the best team, and for a long time. 5 straight Olympic gold medals. 20 years of total domination over all competition. They mention in the film that they won their 5 previous matches in LP, scoring 50+ goals. Wow. And the USA team that beat ´em was, as everyone knows, a bunch of kids, who by all rights should have hated each other.
 
 Anyway, as an American, it is hard for me NOT to think of this as right on up there in terms of true sports moments (as opposed to events surrounding sports, such as the Munich tragedy). In terms of underdogs and upsets, in terms of resonance outside the sport itself, it is hard for me to imagine anything like this hapenning again.
 
 However, the HBO doc made a few years ago was almost more effective to me than this film. The real footage is hard to beat, and hearing it from the real guys, on both sides of the story, and with the perspective of years, that is the kind of thing that a narrative film can´t do. Seeing some of the real footage of the Soviets in those days is truly fascinating. Hell, just seeing any hocky from back then fascinates me, and those Reds were really something to see. I wish I had a copy of that doc, or still had it on the TiVo. . . .

Parker · Post by **Parker** » Mon Feb 09, 2004 1:00 pm

It was ok, but I noticed some girls in the theatre fell asleep during the long hockey recreation scene.

Cincinnati_Kid · Post by **Cincinnati_Kid** » Wed Feb 18, 2004 3:28 am

i saw it today with my son and girlfriend after visiting here father at the hospital
 
 it was a very very enjoyable movie
 
 and even though i really didnt follow alot of hockey over the years i remembered watching this entire event as a 11 year old being particulary caught up in the jim craig story because i had also lost my mother just a couple years earlier
 
 that really brought back some moments and it was even nicer spending it with my son on his 11th birthday today
 
 kind of a full circle type of thing [ This message was edited by: Cincinnati_Kid on 17-02-2004 23:32 ]

TheFormerBrett44 · Post by **TheFormerBrett44** » Wed Feb 18, 2004 8:46 am

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD>Quote:<HR></TD></TR><TR><TD><BLOCKQUOTE>
 On 2004-02-08 18:47, GridIron_Assasin wrote:
 
 I was hoping for a documentary but this sounds almost as good.
 </BLOCKQUOTE></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR></TD></TR></TABLE>
 
 There was an outstanding documentary on the 1980 US team on HBO a few years ago. I can´t remember the title of it, but it was very good.
 
 And if you don´t think the upset of the hated Russians was a great event or even one of the greatest events in sports history then you certainly weren´t alive in 1980.
 
 Brett