Running Time: 135 minutes
Rating: PG
Was Disney really taking a chance when they gave the green light to Miracle? They have already established that they could turn a sports story into a box office success with The Rookie and especially with Remember The Titans four years ago. Those same movies were rather play-by-the-numbers and got pretty good notices from critics, so they knew they could count on that, too. Those two movies also featured larger-than-life characters as the leads. This makes the writing process easier because if you have a colorful character at the center of a story, you are allowed a bit of shoddiness in everything
We open on Herb Brooks (Kurt Russell) getting an offer to coach the 1980 U.S. Olympic Men’s Hockey Team. With the knowledge that he was cut from the 1960 Men’s Hockey Team a week before they won the gold medal, he accepts. He then must go to a try-out staged by amateur coaches, where with their help, he will select the 26 (eventually 20) young men to represent the United States. This try-out is supposed to take a week, but by the end of one day, Brooks has selected the complete roster with some notable exceptions because as he tells one of the team’s managers, he’s “looking for the right guys. Not the best ones.” Brooks refuses to compromise with his choices and is equally staunch with his recruits telling them that he is their coach and if they want a friend they can see Asst. Coach Craig Patrick (Noah Emmerich).
Thus, the practices and the real story begin. This is also where the story heads off into generic sports story land. Brooks preaches the idea that the team is more important than the individual, but that idea shouldn’t have been hammered into the scriptwriter’s head. The twenty players come off as all looking the same, sounding the same (from either Minnesota or Boston), and acting the same. As we go through the course of practicing and up until the opening ceremonies, we get the obligatory side-plots: the grudge between two teammates that gets quickly (and amazingly) resolved, the player whose mother’s last wish was for him to be on the team, the player who has to be cut though everyone likes him, etc. As these are carelessly thrown in, the only well-rounded character is Brooks wavering between slight insanity (constant conditioning) and quiet reflectiveness. The scenes between him and his wife (Patricia Clarkson) are particularly affecting.
Finally, the opening ceremonies commence and eventually the U.S. has to play the undefeated U.S.S.R. Of course, the ending is obvious and kudos go to everyone involved for making the game between these two as suspenseful and interesting as it is.
So why did I feel affected, yet manipulated by the film?
The story here is a good and powerful one. While it is silly to say that this game was the first nail in the coffin of communism, the film presents the situation as one that was able to give Americans a reason to see hope amid hostage negotiations and inflation. Another point in its favor is the intensely real hockey action that the movie contains. While there is a lot of quick cutting (which enhances the speed of the game), there is enough panning of the camera to really see the hard work that playing hockey is. The acting by Russell as Brooks is also very good. He seems to have really had a connection to Brooks and plays him just right through tantrums and quiet points in the film.
The problem comes with all the other characters. Clarkson, as his wife, gives her lines and part more attention and care than deserved and Emmerich, as the assistant coach, is given little to do except look alternately bemused and exasperated. I’ve already mentioned that the twenty players emerge as nothing except Black-Haired Player #3 and while I see why they would go that direction, I wish they hadn’t.
The dialogue also is especially wooden at points and, again, feels like it was lifted from other inspirational sports movies already made. There is also a good amount of slow-motion flag waving at the end that, on top of the already obvious patriotic symbolism, made me want to wretch. Another fascinating observation is that there is so much made about the U.S.S.R’s team dominance and better skills than the American team that when they do win, it almost seems as if they won by pure luck. Isn’t that rather anti-climactic after Brooks’s droning on and on about conditioning and practicing?
It would seem to me that the reason that this movie was made, instead of simply presenting a documentary on the subject would be to present something that a documentary couldn’t. Perhaps some kind of heart or special unity that the team had. But that isn’t really present beyond a simple idea that the team is more important than the individual. I was affected by the movie, but only by the situations present, not by the actual storytelling. I get the feeling that I could have the same reaction watching Miracle that I could have had watching the tape of that fateful game 24 years ago.