#140RVW
The only thing surprising about this movie is it hasn’t been made before now. It’s such an amazing & inspirational story that tells itself.
What’s more:
The thing about inspirational sports movies is that if they are made well it doesn’t matter that you know the outcome, doesn’t matter that they are full of clichés. Miracle is such a case.
It hits all the marks, does everything you expect, yet is still good stuff because, hey, the story is fantastic.
Quick thoughts:
- Kurt Russell has a really good Minnesotan accent. Or at least what I think of as Minnesotan…
- Good young actors and the hockey action is perfection. So well executed.
- Interesting choice to retain the original commentary by Al Michaels & Ken Dryden. It works quite well, as the Michaels is a good play by play man and does well in the historic moment.
- The ending voiceover by Russell is totally unneccesary and pushes the schmaltz meter into the red, where it surprisingly really hasn’t been for most of the movie. The story is enough, you don’t need to tell us why it was important – we know.
- The end credits have a nice dedication to Herb Brooks, who died before the film was completed, and in a nice touch list what the players are doing now.
Poster:
Trailer:
Bechdel Test:
Fail
| Main Cast | Kurt Russell Herb Brooks, Patricia Clarkson Patti Brooks, Nathan West Rob McClanahan, Noah Emmerich Craig Patrick |
| Rating | PG |
| Release Date | Fri 06 Feb 2004 UTC |
| Director | Gavin O’Connor |
| Genres | Drama, Family, History, Sport |
| Plot | Miracle tells the true story of Herb Brooks (Russell), the player-turned-coach who led the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team to victory over the seemingly invincible Russian squad. |
| Poster |  |
| Runtime | 135 |
| Tagline | What America needed was a miracle. What it got was a hockey game. |
| Writers | Eric Guggenheim (written by) |
| Year | 2004 |