3/08/2004 10:10:00 AM|||Andrew|||Miracle

I've heard from several people at this point that the miracle on ice (when a scrappy, underdog US hockey team beat the undisputed best team in the world, the Russians, in the 1980 Olympics) was amazing to watch. This from people who were alive (and could understand a hockey game) in 1980, obviously. Well I'm sure that the movie can't by its nature measure up to the actual game, but it was itself amazing. I'm not going to go hugely in depth about it, because if you want that, go read some review (like at screenit.com); instead I'm just going to touch on a few things that stood out to me.

First, I was very impressed by Kurt Russell's performance. Given the kind of movies and characters he's done before (Escape From L.A., Soldier, Executive Decision), I was a little leary of his abilities. Wow, I just checked out his filmography and he's done a lot more than just those movies, most of which I haven't seen, so I suppose I can't really judge him too well. Suffice to say though, what I'd seen before said that he was little better than Steven Seagal. His character in Miracle isn't the best acting I've ever seen; he isn't particularly emotional or dramatic, but it fits with the character concept that the movie wants to portray. Russell isn't one to overact, and in this instance it fits very well.

Second, I was struck by the marked (and obviously purposeful) similarity between the philosophy expounded by the coach about how he wanted his team to play, and the way the filmmakers used the actors themselves. In the movie, the coach is always saying, always emphasizing (to the point of half-killing his players) that they play as a team, not as individuals. Early on in the movie, the coach begins to ask his players, at various points while they practice, to say who they are, where they're from, and who they play for. The players (and the audience) is led to believe that this is an ice-breaker of sorts, a way for people to get to know their teammates. The answers always run something like, "Bobby Bob, I'm from Minnesota, and I play for Minnesota Bob State." Then, in one of the most poignant moments of the film, while the coach is working them for hours after a friendly loss, the (soon to be named) captain of the team screams out his name, where he's from, and then, "I play for United States of America!" That's enough, says the coach, and ends the grueling practice immediately.

It would be one thing if all that emphasis were placed from a narrative perspective on the team over the individual, but there is a meta-narrative level that the filmmakers act on that highlights this even more. The way the actors themselves are used in the film does not highlight any of them noticeably more than any other. And in fact the feeling I got while watching the movie was not of several different actors playing a team in a movie, but of a team of actors playing a team. It was as if who they were individually as actors didn't really matter anymore, just as who the hockey players were individually didn't matter anymore in the movie. I'm confident that this was a conscious effort by the filmmakers, and I take delight in it. The only actor that the film is really more centered around than any other is the coach, and the narrative itself makes fun of (and reduces the significance of) this fact.|||107876943171632541|||