George Roy Hill's underachieving "Slap Shot" wasn't a huge hit when released in 1977, but cable and video turned it into a word-of-mouth success and now the film is defended with solemn righteousness--as if it were anything more than a violent cartoon. Scrappy Massachusettes hockey team plays dirty to win, with player-coach Paul Newman getting to show off a rare mean-spirited side of himself which doesn't sit particularly well (the whole movie is full of gratuitous put-downs, but hearing Newman tell a bitchy woman, "Your kid looks like a fag to me" has no kick to it--it's just ugly). Nancy Dowd's screenplay purposefully makes the characters mangy and vile, though Hill still wants us to respond to them with hearty merriment (this isn't quite "The Longest Yard" where abusive Burt Reynolds grew up a bit). By putting the audience in the same position as the dolts in the stands who cheer vicariously, "Slap Shot" is actually rather insulting. *1/2 from ****
Review of Slap Shot
