It\u2019s endearing to see a scholar of cinema like Scorsese get the giggles when talking about Slap Shot, <\/em>because I don\u2019t know many men who don\u2019t instantly start quoting the movie whenever it comes up. And most of those quotes aren\u2019t safe for work. Decades later, the language in the picture is still appallingly funny and possibly even more shocking, as abrasive as The Last Detail<\/em> in its articulation of how powerless men tend to express their aggression in the crudest possible terms. For a lot of these guys, swearing is all they have left. Newman told TIME <\/em>Magazine that he rarely cursed in his private life before taking on the role of washed-up player\/coach Reggie Dunlop, boozebag leader of the losing Charlestown Chiefs, a middling minor league hockey outfit in a dying factory town. \u201cSince Slap Shot<\/em>,\u201d he added<\/a>, \u201cmy language is right out of the locker room.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n That language came courtesy of screenwriter Nancy Dowd, who based the picture on her brother Ned\u2019s experiences playing minor league hockey for the Johnstown Jets. (Ned Dowd appears the in film as renowned enforcer Ogie Ogilthorpe, a character inspired by the real life Syracuse Blazer \u201cGoldie\u201d Goldthorpe, who claimed that he wasn\u2019t invited to participate in the movie because the producers were afraid he\u2019d beat up Paul Newman, but I digress.) When the local mill closes, it looks like it\u2019s going to be lights out for the Chiefs. That\u2019s when Dunlop starts playing dirty, taunting their opponents into increasing bruising brawls and bringing in the hilarious Hanson brothers, who somehow maintain their placid, childlike demeanors even while beating the living shit out of everyone else on the ice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As amazingly charismatic as Newman was during his early career, you could often see the Actor\u2019s Studio gears turning in his performances. Something magic happened when he finally learned how to relax onscreen. A reunion with his Butch Cassidy<\/em> and The Sting<\/em> director George Roy Hill, Slap Shot is <\/em>Paul Newman\u2019s breeziest, most waggishly charming role. Resplendent in his hideous plaid pants and fur-lined winter coats, usually half in the bag with a twinkle in his eye, it\u2019s impossible not to love this guy. When an enraged oppinent snarls, \u201cDunlop, you suck cock.\u201d Newman breaks into a wide smile and replies, \u201cAll I can get.\u201d Pauline Kael called it “the performance of his life\u2014to date.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Released a year after The Bad News Bears<\/em>, Slap Shot<\/em> comes from a moment when foul-mouthed sports comedies were how America explained itself to itself. It\u2019s no coincidence that the film\u2019s opening credits unspool over Old Glory, and the country depicted is one at a dead end. The rich are getting richer while factories close and our hard-working, hard-partying local heroes are hung out to dry. What else is left to do but goon it up for the crowd? <\/p>\n\n\n\n “Slap Shot” is streaming on Netflix<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/slap-shot-1024x576.jpg\")
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The bloodshed is great for business, even if it\u2019s lousy hockey. (There\u2019s an old joke my dad always loves to tell, about how he went to a fight and a hockey game broke out.) None of this sits well with star player Ned Braden (Michael Ontkean), a Princeton educated purist who butts heads with Dunlop, insisting \u201cI\u2019m not gonna goon it up for you.\u201d It doesn\u2019t matter that the Chiefs are finally profitable again, or how many people whose livelihood depend on the organization. The owner can make more money by scrapping the team and taking a tax write-off. (Or as we call it in the movie business, \u201cpulling a Zaslav.\u201d) <\/p>\n\n\n\n