Winter Sports Blogathon – Miracle (2004)

This is part of the Winter Sports Blogathon being run over at LMDC

Tnx for letting me participate!
“Great moments… are born from great opportunity. And that’s what you have here, tonight, boys. That’s what you’ve earned here tonight. One game. If we played ’em ten times, they might win nine. But not this game. Not tonight. Tonight, we skate with them. Tonight, we stay with them. And we shut them down because we can! Tonight, WE are the greatest hockey team in the world. You were born to be hockey players. Every one of you. And you were meant to be here tonight. This is your time. Their time is done. It’s over. I’m sick and tired of hearing about what a great hockey team the Soviets have. Screw ’em. This is your time. Now go out there and take it. ” – Herb Brooks

Number of Times Seen – 3 (Sep 2007, 21 Jun 2012 and 2 Dec 2015)

Brief Synopsis – Based on the true story of how the American Hockey team was coached by Herb Brooks in the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympic Games

My Take on it – When trying to think of another movie to review for this Winter Sports Blogathon, I was reminded of how much I enjoyed this movie the  two times that I have seen it.

The story is truly an inspirational one about a team effort to be the best.

In order to achieve this feeling within the context of the movie, they close an ensemble cast of virtual unknown actors to portray the members of the hockey team.

This lets the viewer focus on the coach and the team and not on individual members of the team.

Kurt Russell is great here as the former player turned coach Herb Brooks and we can really feel his passion for the game and to beat the Russian Hockey Team at the Olympics.

Being that this is based on true events, I was quite pleased to see that we were given information about all of the members of the team following the events of the movie.  Their professions and abilities reach far and wide and we can see that each and every one of them found a place to continue their lives after participating in the Olympics.

Bottom Line – Very inspirational story that even reaches a few points when you might tear up. Russell is great as Brooks. I liked how they used unknown actors as the players in order to not distract us from the idea of it being a team effort and not an individual one.   Liked how we were given information on all of the players after the events of the movie. Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – The young men chosen to portray the members of Team USA were chosen primarily for their hockey skills due to the intense nature of the filming; acting ability was secondary. In fact, for most of them, this was their first major film. (From IMDB)

Rating – Globe Worthy

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