The 10 best sports movies of all time, No. 8: ‘Slap Shot’
A week or so ago, we asked you to vote for the 10 best sports movies of all time. And, 9,280 ballots later, we unveil your picks.
No. 8: “Slap Shot” (525 first-place votes, 18,096 points)
Much like your choice for 10th best sports movie, “Chariots of Fire,” “Slap Shot” finished first on a number of ballots, but wasn’t even listed on a majority of ballots turned in. It was pretty much all or nothing for “Slap Shot.”
“Slap Shot” stars Paul Newman as Reg Dunlop, player-coach of the Charlestown Chiefs minor league hockey team, which is scheduled to be disbanded at the end of the season. During the season, the team picks up the Hanson Brothers, bespectacled goons with the maturity of 5-year-olds. Dunlop refuses to play them, but near the end of another hopeless game, gives them an opportunity. Their fighting and aggressive play excites the fans and the Chiefs win the game. Dunlop then retools the Chiefs in the image of the Hansons as he desperately tries to keep the team from being disbanded. At the final game, well, you have to see it to believe it.
Newman, claiming that he swore very little in real life before the making of “Slap Shot,” said to Time magazine in 1984: “There’s a hangover from characters sometimes. There are things that stick. Since ‘Slap Shot,’ my language is right out of the locker room!”
Newman also said “Slap Shot” was the most fun he ever had making a movie.
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