Did 'Slap Shot' really deserve the 1977 -- or 1978 -- Oscar for best picture?

… Gene Collier thinks so 

While the city of Johnstown was celebrating the 40th anniversary of the hockey movie "Slap Shot," which starred Paul Newman and was shot primarily in the city, last week, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette sports columnist Gene Collier was having a conniption over the fact that it was robbed at the 1977 Academy Awards ceremony.

"No one embedded with the Hollywood royalty at tonight’s Oscars or even in the global television audience is likely to spare a stray thought for the worst injustice in the history of the Academy Awards, probably because almost no one shares the following opinion: 'Slap Shot' got jobbed," Collier wrote on Sunday.

Collier and I share a similarity: We both know more about sports than about dramatic fiction. Actually, I do know something about fiction, but not about the evaluation of movies. That requires more knowledge that I have of the cinema.

Nevertheless, Coller makes an interesting argument, one that many outside the sports world -- actually the hockey world -- do not share.

]The move was released in Feb., 1977, so would have not been considered for the Oscars until the next year.[

So, I thought that it would be a good time to discuss it.

The movie

Slap Shot, written by Nancy Dowd and directed by George Roy Hill, features a minor-league hockey team called the Charlestown Chiefs, which is coached by Reggie Dunlop, played by Paul Newman, who also plays a little. The town is devastated when the steel mill shuts down -- similar to what ultimately happened in Johnstown after the 1977 flood -- and Dunlop wants to save the team from extinction. In order to do that, he resorts to having his team play with tremendous violence, which excited the fans.

He also wants to save his coaching career, and to do so, he must bend and break the rules, particularly with regard to fighting. The fans love seeing blood on the ice, and his team packed the arena -- and eventually, won the title.

The film also shows the challenges off the ice, including the relationships with the player's wives and how the management is concerned only with the bottom line, not with the players or their coach.

The film is also very violent, very raunchy with its language, and crude with its nudity and sex. It received an R rating because of the sex, language, and violence. In short, it was not one for the kids to watch.

Reviews

The reviews at the time were mixed, with many denigrating the film because of the language and violence. As time has moved on, more people give it positive ratings, but it is still not regarded as an "Oscar-caliber" quality film, as Collier would prefer.

Nevertheless, he believes that it has stood the test of time. "Four decades on, 'Slap Shot’s' quasi-twisted ethos has informed and tickled and in its weird way validated multiple generations of players and fans alike, and even today’s youngest NHLers consider the crown jewels of the film’s histrionic/ hysterical dialogue to be the game’s semi-official language," Collier wrote.

The problem with that analysis, as I would explain to any literature student, is that a story must have universality. Everyone should be able to relate to it, not just hockey fans and players. That is where this fails.

However, Collier is correct in that the film is beloved by hockey fans since it is the only real attempt to create that sport in a movie. It is also entertaining in that aspect, so that is positive.

Realism

Many hockey fans -- and sports fans in general -- enjoy the realism of the dialogue. "While some aspects of professional hockey are exaggerated for humorous effect in Slap Shot, the dialogue, particularly the way the players talk during the games and in the locker rooms, is unflinchingly realistic; it's unashamedly profane and has the ring of authenticity," a recent review noted.

That, however, goes only so far.

One reviewer said this about the movie. "This cult-classic hockey comedy is well-loved among hockey fans probably due to being one of very few credible attempts to have covered the sport, but to those who don't have a passion for the game, this may be little more than an overrated bore … The film has an almost non-existent plot or purpose, and meandered for over 2 hours aimlessly with little more than hackneyed zaniness to try to make up for a lack of ideas."

Positive reviews

According to a review from 1977, Vincent Canby of the New York Times said that the movie had "a kind of vitality to it that overwhelms most of the questions relating to consistency of character and points of view … Much in the manner of Network, you know that it's an original and that it's alive, whether you like it or not."

Critic Pauline Kael also defended the movie. "Dede Allen's hot-foot editing moves the action along from zinger to zinger, and the Maxine Nightingale record 'Right Back Where We Started From' punches up the pacing. The beat gives the film a relentlessness, and expletives are sprinkled around like manure to give it funky seasoning...Paul Newman, as Reggie....is scarred and bruised, and there are gold rims on his chipped teeth; you don't see much of his eyes. He has never grown up - he's a raucous American innocent, an overage jock, thin-skinned but a little thickheaded. Newman's likableness in the role is infectious."

My evaluation

I did not watch Slap Shot when it was released. It was a busy time in my life, and I did not have the opportunity. So, it was a few decades later when I rented a video and watched it. I did not like it then, I do not now. I do not believe that it deserved an Oscar, though it would have been considered in 1978, not 1977, as Collier's column noted.

Here were my criticisms. First, I did not know if it was supposed to be a comedy or a drama. It was funny at times, but the violence and obscene language added a sense of realism, as if in a drama. It not dramatic, neither the violence nor the profanity added anything to the comedy. In short, the language was not funny.

Sports Illustrated's Frank Deford discussed that aspect of the movie. "The dialogue by Nancy Dowd is as puerile as it is unnecessarily vulgar. Apparently, Dowd believes that male camaraderie can be created with a lot of garbage mouth … Slap Shot is utterly betrayed by its language because it makes a point of its dirty words; it smirks at them, and men don't do that."

Finally, I loved Hoosiers, the movie about high school basketball in Indiana. That is the kind of sports movie that send a more positive message than Slap Shot did.

Focus on the theme of the movie

Another concern is that while the focus of the movie is on the reason for the downfall of the community because of a mill closing, we really learn little about that town or its fans. Why did they love the blood and violence? What caused the collapse of the steel mill? What does this say about society?

If this was strictly a comedy, maybe those questions are not as relevant. However, as the television show MASH did, many comedies make some social criticism. There was none here, though at times there were some indications of it, and that would have alleviated my concern about the language and violence.

Realism is good. It is necessary in a war movie to present it as it happened, but it always has to be tasteful. I found a lack of taste in Slap Shot. I am not a prude, but the strip tease scene in it was really unnecessary. I am not certain why it was included other than to sensationalize. That is the bottom line with me. The violence and profane language were more sensationalistic than realistic.

That is why I did not like the movie.

Competition

The other shows that were considered for the best movie were these:

Annie Hall, winner

Other nominees

The Goodbye Girl, Julia, Star Wars, and The Turning Point.

Conclusion

Again, I am not a movie critic, nor is Collier. To a point, each of us has an opinion based on our tastes, and we are both entitled to that.

So, I respect his opinion about the movie, but just disagree with his conclusion.

Collier column

http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/gene-collier/2017/02/26/Gene-Collier-Forty-years-since-Oscar-snubbed-Slap-Shot-Hanson-Brothers-Johnstown-Chiefs/stories/201702260119