Miracle

The Miracle on Ice. The 1980 U.S.A. Olympic team that beat the U.S.S.R. Unbeatable team. The era was unforgettable, and the American win, although small, was the bragging point of American hockey for decades to come. U.S.A rocketed to become the team to beat.

Miracle was supposed to be the movie that chronicled the creation and the realization of this dream. Although it did this, and did it well, it missed a few very basic ideas behind the win that made it incredible. This team wasn’t supposed to win. This team wasn’t even supposed to get into the medal round, let alone beat the unbeaten Soviet Gold Medal team.

Before I get to far into discussing the Miracle on Ice, I should get back to the film Miracle. This movie is no miracle, it is ill produced, and ill written. Although realistic in its action and story, it was obviously overtaken in production by a group of non-hockey related producers. The story of the game and the players was almost completely removed and replaced with stories of the political environment in which this game took place. Granted, this is an important part of the team’s win, but it wasn’t THE story; and this was lost in the screenplay.

What a shame. Most likely the most intense game ever played between two of the world’s most bitter rivals, and we don’t even feel that heat or passion when the players step onto the ice. We are overwhelmed with images of hostages, nuclear war, nuclear meltdowns, and gas shortages. This isn’t a movie about hockey. It is a movie about the cold war in the late 1970’s, and oh yeah, this hockey game happened.

The acting was well maintained, with excellent performances given by http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000621/ Kurt Russell and the entire team of actors. Russell’s Wisconsin specific Midwestern accent, although light at times, is dead on for a person that moved into the region (which Coach Herb Brooks did). As a sports movie, it did an excellent job of moving the action along from cut to cut, score to score. At part of the difficulty in reproducing the actually events of an actual game is not being able to have that last-second goal scored by the nobody on the team. U.S.A. Won the game in the second period, and held the lead all through the third period. Although this is not great for a dramatic movie, the decision to use the live broadcast as the game finished was a excellent decision and it added to the overall feel of the film.

So what was missed? Please allow me to expand a little, as a true hockey fan.

In the early 80’s, Olympic contestants could not be professional athletes, which forced the USA and Canada to pillage the college teams for amateur athletes. Olympics teams from other countries had only one purpose: to win in the Olympics. Most other countries did not have professional hockey teams, so to be on the National team was an honor. They didn’t need to pull from college teams, they were professional Olympic teams. They were seasoned, they were practiced, they had experience, they had age and wisdom.

Team USA and Team Canada were considered the long shots because of their youth and their inexperience. The median age on Team U.S.A was 21. The team only practiced together for 7 months before the first Olympic team, and only play a handful of games together. The Soviet team had been playing together for more than 15 years, had played countless games together, was older, wiser, and was unbeaten in almost 3 dozen games including Olympic challenges.

On paper, anybody placing bets on team U.S.A to even make it to the medal round was crazy. They didn’t have the size, the strength, the experience or the coaching to make it, and nobody expected them. When they faced the Soviet team before the Olympics (a game shown in the film), the 10-3 loss was expected, and some even commented on the utter surprised that Team U.S.A. Even scored 3 points them.

But they did, and it became the Miracle on Ice.

Unfortunately, this is not the Miracle on Film. Catch the game on Classic ESPN, if you can. It may not have same cinematic camera work, but at least you won’t walk away with such a strong political taste in the back of your mouth.