Slap Shot

Paul Newman plays Reggie Dunlop, the coach of a pathetic minor-league American hockey team. His career at a standstill and his marriage in tatters, Dunlop has nothing to lose by taking on a new group of players who are one evolutionary step above Neanderthals. Only when the team begins winning does ...more

Raw and somewhat controversial in terms of its language and violence, the hockey comedy-drama Slap Shot was a departure for director George Roy Hill, whose previous 1970s output included the period adventures The Great Waldo Pepper (1975) and The Sting (1973). Writer Nancy Dowd carefully balances hilarious rowdiness -- both on and off the ice -- with surprisingly effective emotional tension. Despite the change of pace, Hill revisits some of his favorite pet themes, most notably that of a man ...more