Miracle on Ice

[Báby_Fan]

No, this is not another thread about this season, but about the new movie coming out this weekend...

There is a good article on the movie at uscho.com



I didn't realize they used college hockey players as the actors! Should be interesting.

Just a few more days...

[Pete]

If you're in need of some pre-movie goosbumps, Sports Guy has a good column about the movie:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?id=1727178

[Larry72]

Author: Larry72

I was in Lake Placid in 1980. I saw all the Team USA games from the tie with Sweden to the Gold Medal winning game. I also saw many of the other 1980 Olympic hockey games during those two weeks. It was a hockey fan's fantasy come true.

I was working as a free-lance photographer so I couldn't cheer during the game. The games that I saw Russia in leading up to the US-USSR game were jokes. It was men against boys. The Russian players were some of the most talented hockey players I had ever seen - at any level. Team USA reminded me a lot of the better college teams (including Cornell) that I had seen over previous 14 years, but they were nowhere big enough or talented enough to take on the NHL+ caliber of the Russians. Little did I know.

Nothing in my hockey experience comes close to the US-USSR game. The Cornell 1970 NCAA championship game comes close, as do a couple of other CU games and a couple of Stanley Cup finals that I had the pleasure to attend. It was nearly impossible to keep a steady camera hand and staying focused with the nearly constant cheering for the last 10 minutes after Team USA scored the 4th goal. It was by-far the longest 10 minutes of my hockey career.

When it was over, I felt like the whole game had been a dream. I had to work the Canada game right after the US-Russia game so I had no idea what was going on outside the rink after the game. I left after the first period of the Canada game so I could go watch the tape-delay broadcast on ABC. There was absolute pandemonium in the streets of Lake Placid. It was like Mardi Gras and Carnivale in the snow. Watching the replay, I found myself gripping my chair during the last 10 minutes and screaming my lungs out. Even today, it's hard to believe that it really happened.

The other thing that was interesting was that we had very little idea of the effect the game had on the rest of the country. There was no Internet, no CNN, no ESPN, and even though I was in the media, it wasn't till the next day or so that we started getting reports of what had happened around the rest of the US. Lake Placid was at the time a really isolated little community without a lot of contact with the rest of the world.

So for what it's worth, I'll be at the movie this weekend. My son, CalgAri '07 will be my guest.

Larry Baum '72

[Dart~Ben]

[q]Nothing in my hockey experience comes close to the US-USSR game. The Cornell 1970 NCAA championship game comes close[/q]

Well, which is it? :-D ;-)

[Big Ben 03]

I caught the sneak preview last weekend. The movie is outstanding. Being that i wasn't even born in 1980, my judgement that they captured the era quite well is, well, up for debate. The movie, however, really really doesn't suck. Everybody nailed their respective accents perfectly (Boston, Minnesota, etc). The hockey is very good, too.



Post Edited (02-05-04 17:04)

[ugarte]

Ben Flickinger wrote:

[q]Nothing in my hockey experience comes close to the US-USSR game. The Cornell 1970 NCAA championship game comes close[/q]

Well, which is it? :-D ;-)

It comes close to coming close, but isn't quite close enough. :-D

[Roy\'82]

I watched the game in the lounge of UHall 4.  A good crowd had assembled.

Unfortunately, my memory is tainted by those boneheads at ABC who showed the live street scene in Placid with the crowd chanting "USA USA" and waving flages before announcing that they were showing the game on tape delay and they didn't want to spoil it for those who didn't know the score.  ::twak::

Of course, several people dashed into th lounge shouting "hey I heard we won" so I suppose it wouldn't have mattered anyway.

I did get the priveledge of seeing Jim Craig have his but kicked by UNH in the ECACs the previous year.

[Scott Kominkiewicz `84]

FWIW, I was a high school senior on a visit to Cornell when I watched the US-USSR game with a bunch of guys in a TV lounge on North Campus.  Talk about an impactful night -- phwew!

That was the first of many fun weekends to be had at Cornell.  (It was also the last I spent at a TV lounge on North Campus.)

[jtwcornell91]

Rebroadcast of Miracle on Ice game with studio segments with Eruzione and Craig (hosted by John Buccigross).

[pfibiger]

and with the original broadcast by Al Michaels and much more importantly, color by Ken Dryden

[rhovorka]

Barely 5 years old at the time, the 1980 Olympics are the first sporting events I remember attending.  Saw the opening ceremonies, luge, ski-jumping, and a preliminary hockey game in the 1932 rink between 2 European teams that I don't remember.  We were back home by the time the medal round began.

I'm a little suspicious of the film being too Disnified.  Some of my favorite anecdotes from this story involve a little off-color humor and language.  (See the excellent HBO documentary "Do You Believe In Miracles?" that was made a couple years ago).  Also, the story doesn't need any overdone Disney scholck to be emotional.  After all, the story wasn't all violins & hugs.  And what does this say about the Mouse's intentions now?  After all, to promote crappy films like "Mighty Ducks" and "Angels in the Outfield," Disney bought or created real pro teams.  (OK enough of my anti-Disney soapbox)

What I would love to see is a DVD presentation of the games in their entirety, similar to the 1972 Summit Series product: http://www.technofile.com/dvds/team_canada.html  The stuff that ESPN Classic shows isn't complete (they jump ahead in the action) and have many interview breaks.  I had a decent quality copy of the complete USSR game that was lost during the 2001 ECAC Tournament trip to Lake Placid, and to replace it, I eBayed original ABC broadcast tapes of the USSR and Finland games, but the quality is poor and because of tape-delay games are interrupted for skiing and other events, since they had the audience.  Anyway...so much material for a DVD!  The MSG lowlights, interviews, celebrations!  Maybe the new movie will prove that there would be interest.

[rhovorka]

Philip Fibiger '01 wrote:

and with the original broadcast by Al Michaels and much more importantly, color by Ken Dryden

With all due respect to God Dryden's hockey abilities, he's not very good as a colorman in that broadcast.  However priceless it is that he commented that the US was playing back on their heels and relying too much on Craig just as Eruzione was flinging a certain wrister at 10:00 of the 3rd, he nearly stepped on the toes of one of the greatest sporting calls of all time by muttering "it's over" and "unbelievable" around Al Michaels's now famous line.  He also fumbled quite a bit regarding his knowledge of international rules.

Can't beat those bright blue sweaters, though.  :-)

[Jeff Hopkins \'82]

[q] Idid get the priveledge of seeing Jim Craig have his but kicked by UNH in the ECACs the previous year. [/q]

Sorry, Roy.  Jim Craig did not get his butt kicked by UNH, but they were the only ones who didn't kick it that tournament.  I believe BU lost to Dartmouth in the semis, but then Cornell kicked his butt in the consolation (7-4 as I recall).  :-D

I missed the Olympic game, but my recollection was sitting in Uris Hall waiting for a movie to start.  Some guy walked to the front of the lecture hall and wrote:

               USA       4
               USSR     3
on the blackboard.  The place went absolutely nuts.  ::rock::

More frustrating to me was that my parents refused to give me any money to go up to Lake Placid for the games, then finding out that several of my fraternity brothers had 7th row seats for the gold medal game.  It still bugs me.

JH

[jeh25]

Rich H '96 wrote:


I'm a little suspicious of the film being too Disnified... Also, the story doesn't need any overdone Disney scholck to be emotional.

Agreed. I was a little worried as well. However, having seen Miracle last weekend, I have 3 word for everyone:

GO SEE IT!

Not only was it not Eisnerized, I felt they did 2 potentially difficult things very well. First, they did a nice job of making Brooks look hard-nosed and driven without making him come off as an asshole. Second, they did a great job building suspense and excitment even though you know how it is gonna end.

Oh, also, while I think of did, make sure to stay through the credits. They do a nice little "where are they now" bit.  Take notice of the hockey themed names for all the financial services consulting firms.

[jtwcornell91]

Jeff Hopkins '82 wrote:
More frustrating to me was that my parents refused to give me any money to go up to Lake Placid for the games, then finding out that several of my fraternity brothers had 7th row seats for the gold medal game.  It still bugs me.

Nitpick: it wasn't the gold medal game, it was just the last game of a round-robin medal round.  The Finns didn't end up with the silver or any other medal.