Do You Believe in Miracles?

By Jonathan Berohn

Yes—I know we all (or at least those of us old enough to remember) believed in miracles when the upstart US hockey team stunned the Soviets in Lake Placid in 1980. Yes, yes—that was great and all well and good—but the chances of Disney turning the Miracle on Ice into a successful—even good—movie? Now that’s truly a miracle.

A Focus on the Coach

And they actually manage to pull it off. Everything from the writing and acting, to the hockey playing and Herb Brook’s painfully plaid pants combine to give this film a sense of authenticity without the usual dose of Disney sappiness we’ve come to expect. Kurt Russell’s Herb Brooks in particular is so convincing that we can really identify with him. When he plays the mind games he was famous for with his team, you don’t get the sense that he’s a twisted martinet but someone who just really cares about getting the most from his team for their sake as well as his. Because of that, you also don’t have a hard time accepting the love for their coach that players express in the film (and still do—most of them flocked immediately to Minnesota in the wake of the real Brooks’ death last year).

The hockey action, too, is quite convincing. Unlike most sports films that pick actors then try to make them convincing athletes (see Field of Dreams), the makers of Miracle started with kids that actually play the game—they even use several professional hockey players as extras through the movie.

Not Quite Perfect, but…

Despite all this, of course, the movie isn’t perfect. My wife and daughter felt that the hockey was actually too long I don’t see how). My son and I, on the other hand felt that the movie took to long getting there (of course I could sit and rewatch the old games in their entirety, but that’s another story). I suppose that means it struck a good balance, but I’m still in favor of more hockey. One point actually brought out by Igor Larionov, the last of the old Soviet players still active in the NHL, is that the movie gives a rather bland portrait of the evil corporate Russians. Of course that seems to be much of the point of Miracle—once in a while an old-fashioned victory over the bad guys just feels good—and is just what we need.