ray

I just returned home from seeing a sneak preview of "Miracle"

For those of you who don't know the story of the 1980 United States Olympic Hockey Team, here's a brief rundown: The team from the Soviet Union was the reigning Olympic champ for 4 Olympics in a row spanning 2 decades. Their team consisted of players who had been teammates for over a decade. The same Soviet team also destroyed the NHL's "All-Stars" several months before the 1980 Olympic Games at Lake Placid. US Olympic Coach Herb Brooks (played by Kurt Russell) decided to select a team of 20 collegiate players who did not have nearly the same experience or size as the Soviet team. Brooks turned these college students into Olympic champions and stunned the entire World and gave the United States a morale boost at a time when we needed it most.

First off, this IS based on a true story. Every one of the main characters, including Herb Brooks, was alive during the production and more than likely contributed greatly to the historical accuracy portrayed in the film. Secondly, keep in mind that this is a Disney film and there was probably quite a bit of 'emotional' dialogue that was kept out of this film to maintain the PG-Rating. With that said, I will move onto my comments.

Kurt Russell did a fantastic job in his role as US Olympic Coach Herb Brooks. There was no overacting or embellishment of Brooks' legacy and for once I do admit I actually liked Russell as an actor. His supporting cast, though not as well-developed since there were about 10 of them, also did an excellent job playing roles of college hockey players that were thrown into an international sports tournament with expectations to lose. One of the actors portraying a player is actually a former college hockey player (Nate Miller - U of MN).

The storyline is obviously straight from the history books, but I do feel that they could have done a better job in terms of dialogue, especially amongst the players. I know that the movie was based on Herb Brooks, rather than the team, I think that they could have spent just a little more time developing the players and their backgrounds. The cinematography during the action sequences seemed all over the place. I guess you could say the angles and perspectives were adding to the 'creativeness' of the film, I feel that they should have given us a more 'standard' angle of the players and the puck during the game. Sometimes it just seemed like the camera was zoomed in on a detail that was irrelevant to the overall scene. Lastly, the music by Mark Isham was excellent. I know most people don't really pay attention to the music when they watch movies, but this score heightened the emotional levels when it was needed (for example, when the United States would score a goal).

I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and recommend it to anyone who loves real life adaptations into a drama/action videography of sports legends. I normally hate moviegoers who cheer and clap, but during this movie I didn't mind it so much since it made me feel like I was at the stadiums and at the Games in Lake Placid. Going into the movie I had high expectations, and coming out of the movie I was smiling and proud to be an American.

Herb Brooks died a couple weeks after production finished and he never had a chance to see the film. Hopefully 'Miracle' will carry on his great Legacy for generations to come.

modena

awesome and thanks for the excellent review, I am a big hockey fan, and planned on seeing this movie. After reading your review, I will definatly go to see the movie!

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nickel

i wasn't at the '80 Olympics but i don't live too far from the site of them. i have even iceskated at the Olympic Arena where this took place in Lake Placid, NY.
i am glad to hear the good review too. Lake Placid is a very special place - if you guys ever get a chance to visit, do it!
the nostalgia of the day we won this hockey game still remains to this day.
plus they still have the olympic stuff up and educational tours for visitors. a couple of years ago this girl went on a bobsled run there

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Grubbie

Damn you just ruined it for me by saying it was a disney film and is rated PG Oh well, I gotta see it anyway...

Butch

The Rookie was a Disney movie (also rated PG, I believe) and was quite good.

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ray

Agreed. I enjoyed the Rookie as well.

Grubbie

Ya good point, but the story would be better, cause they could of shown more for miracle in a pg13 or R... Oh well, it should be good, still seeing it opening night...

Pinkgirl36

i can't wait to see this! I like hockey and this just looks like a good movie!

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eSDee

For a second I thought you meant that stupid ass movie with Brendan Fraser in it.

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nickel

George of the Jungle?

eSDee

ray

And here's another review:

http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/Movi...cle/index.html

attgig

dude! you ruined the ending!!!

Actually, I thought this movie was gonna be super cheesy, but I was definitely gonna see it anyway cuz i'm a hockey fan.

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ray

You better be a Devils fan, or I'll fly back east to smack you.

Brendan

If you're referring to the game I think you are (a 6-0 shelacking of an unmotivated Team NHL in game 3 of a 3 game exhibition series in which the Soviets won 2 games to 1), it was technically not the exact same team. 14 of the 21 players played in both games (most of the better ones including Tretiak, Starikov, Petrov, Mikhailov, and Vasiliev played in both). And it was played a year almost to the day of USA's 4-3 win over USSR. I wouldn't place too much emphasis on that one game.

A better indication of that Soviet team's superiority was their 8-1 humiliation of Canada in the 1981 Canada Cup final in Montreal, a game that actually meant something. They were unstoppable before and after that game. It was a great upset, but Team USA was better than most give them credit for.

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attgig

ugh...

come here and smack me... I'm an Islanders fan.

ray

actually, that's okay. as long as your not a freaking Rangers fan, it's all good in the hood

Pinkgirl36

I saw it finally this weekend. I liked it! It was funny when USA would do good, people in the audience would start clapping...
one of the best parts was the soviets coaches expressions when they were loosing....freakin hilarious!!!

LegendKiller

This was a great movie. The only problem I had with it was the rediculous accent that Kurt had. I am not sure if Herb actually had that thick of an accent or not, but it sounded too much too me.

As a person who grew up in MN, went to the UofM (third gen) and knew about Herb for a long time, it was a good movie, very accurate about the way the guy acted. It was a sad day when he died, my parents live less than 5mi from the accident scene, many mourners visited I-35 in that area for a long time.


LK

oblongmelon

I had the pleasure of meeting young Jim Craig on 3 different occaisions not too long after that fateful Olympic victory-and let me just say-the guy was a total prick. A small boy (about 7 years old) and his dad approached him for an autograph and Craig told them to F*ck off..what a cool guy. If you want to see something funny-do a websearch for him now-boy is he OLD LOOKING.