Newman had worked with George Roy Hill before in 1969 "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and in 1974 "The Sting." No kidding it was the most fun, as he stated in later interviews, to make (out of those previous efforts). Its fundamentally a piece of raunchy camp but when you look harder it portrays some cultural changes that were ongoing since the 60's. But in high school when it came out in 1977, my friends and I went to the theatre to see it for a a Friday night out "downtown" and because doing so was preceded by knowing it was a raunchy R-rated party of over the top hockey antics, we were somewhat familiar with as avid Leafs fans in Toronto. We were watching hockey slowly evolving in that time from earlier decades where few wore helmets (goalies famously didn't either but were the first to start wearing 'masks' to protect their faces) and watching a scant few brave pioneers start to wear them, braving the criticism from fellow players and screaming fans (to the "modern" game where its a requirement). Of course, padding for players everywhere else was the rule, but helmets, nah, not so much. It was a sign of being a pansy to put it politely. At the same time, which the movie makes fun of, and goes over the top with, was the introduction of "enforcer" players, who unlike the greats of those days (Bobby Orr, Stan Makita, Rocket Richard etc) had really no hockey skills other than they could skate, and were on the ice just to throw their weight around and to check/hit people. But, now these years later, there is another more subtle plot going on, the threads about women's "liberation" rising up and allowing women more and more autonomy from men in the workplace, careers and choices in general (remember this was the decade of "Playgirl" magazine and the sexual revolution momentum from the 60's). Bottom line worth a laugh for the parodying of hockey violence, but also for a more subtle plot of "sign o' the times" (The 70's)
Review of Slap Shot
