Plot: What’s it about?
The Charlestown Chiefs are a team of misfits. Led by their Coach both on and off the ice, Reggie Dunlop (Paul Newman), they have seen better days. They gamble, they drink, they womanize, they’re rude, crude and obnoxious. But what they have been doing a lot of lately is losing. As rumors of the team’s sell out to a Florida franchise spreads, it’s time for the team to make a few changes. Among these is by acquiring three brothers known only as the Hanson’s (David Hanson, Chris Carlson and Jeff Carlson). The team decides to make the game a bit more entertaining on the ice as they decide go become hockey "Goons". Being a hockey goon is essentially playing rough, fighting for no apparent reason and winning games that they really shouldn’t win. The limited crowds love it and they soon start to grow. The team’s General Manager, Joe McGrath (Strother Martin…yes, the one who said "…seems like we have a failure to communicate" in Cool Hand Luke) isn’t being straight with the team and his financial woes deteriorate when he has to sell some of the team’s equipment just to stay above water. That’s Slap Shot from an "on ice" perspective.
Slap Shot from an "off ice" perspective delves a bit further into the lives of a few of the players. Reggie Dunlop, the main star of the movie, is currently married, though his wife is moving to Long Island to work at a beauty salon. Though it kills him to see her with other men, actually…women, he decides that life must go on but desperately tries to pursue her and win her back. Ned Braden (Michael Ontkean) is the only member of the team who does the right thing on the ice. He is a college graduate, so the impending closure of the Charlestown mines won’t really affect him that much; as he has an education to fall back upon and can get a job elsewhere. But for all his composure on the ice, his marriage could use a good shot in the arm. His wife hates her life, she drinks all the time and though she’s still in love with Ned; she feels the end may be near.
As the team progresses and manages to put together a pretty decent winning-streak, Reggie finds out that the team isn’t going to be sold, but rather the owner will just shut the team down as it’s a tax write off, and therefore a better "business decision" for her. Naturally, this doesn’t sit well with him, so I’ll leave the climatic scene a bit of a mystery. What this movie did for hockey is essentially what Caddyshack did for Folf, Major League did for Baseball and Necessary Roughness did for Football. True, the concept isn’t that original, though it preceded all of the aforementioned movies, but we’ve since become so used to this template. And let’s not forget the Hanson brothers. They are hilarious with their long hair, Buddy Holly type glasses and lest we forget that they race toy cars in their hotel room during their spare time! Though Slap Shot is very dated, some of the images are timeless. The subject matter is very mature, so don’t go expecting a Mighty Ducks, but it’s funny as hell. No wonder Maxim magazine rated it as the #1 guy movie of all time. Enough said.
Video: How does it look?
Much like other Universal releases, this is now the second incarnation of Slap Shot on DVD. The first was one of the first to be shown in a 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer. I don’t have that disc to do a side by side comparison, but I will say that the image here is very clean and I was noticeably impressed. The age of the film does show during some scenes, but for the most part, I found the image very stable and with a noticeable lack of artifacting. A few scenes do suffer from some "jaggies", but not really that many. Black levels do appear to be on target and the color of blood practically jumps out at you (you’ll see lots of blood in this movie). Color me impressed, as I was expecting a lot worse here!
Audio: How does it sound?
The Dolby Digital 2.0 mono track is pretty limited, though the 70’s tunes that you’ll hear throughout do sound fairly decent. While the cross-checks that could sound so good (had the movie been made today), don’t quite pack the same punch (no pun intended) as today, they still sound good and convey the feeling. Dialogue is a bit harsh, with some of the crowd scenes becoming a bit of a "hiss", but not really that big of a deal. Overall, you get what you expect here, but that’s not a bad thing at all.
Supplements: What are the extras?
Though not too many more supplements can be found on this disc as the previous version, Universal has seemed to deliver what the fans of the movie want…more Hanson Brothers! In addition to the standard Production Notes, Cast Bios and a Trailer (all found on the original), we get a running commentary by the Hanson’s. Granted, the Hanson’s aren’t directors and even great actors. They played themselves in the movie, and did a good job, but they’re commenting on a movie that’s 25 years old. They don’t have a lot to offer, but some funny quips here and there. Unless you’re a die hard fan (and I am), then you might want to pass this track by. In addition to the commentary, you can pick your favorite scenes with the Hanson’s in them, essentially it’s just bookmarks in the movie with the Hanson’s. Neat, but a rather pointless feature. Lastly, we get a conversation with the Hanson’s. This is “new” and not filmed when the movie originally came out, but it’s rather dry and only runs a few minutes. This is a tough call here…true fans might want to get this new edition, but it doesn’t contain a whole lot more than the original version. If you don’t have the original, then by all means…pick this version up. This is what us hockey fans call a “Face Off”. May the better disc win.
