Product Details

• Actors: Roy Dupuis, Michel Barrette, Rick Bramucci, Tony Calabretta, Normand Chouinard
• Directors: Charles Binamé
• Format: CA-Import, Widescreen, Color, Subtitled, NTSC, DVD
• Subtitles: English, French
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Number of discs: 1
• Run Time: 124 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000K9JEYY
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #16,007 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

In the late 1930s, a young machinist named Maurice Richard distinguished himself as a ice hockey player of preternatural talent. Although that was enough to get him into the Montreal Canadiens, his frequent injuries cost him the confidence of his team and the fans. In the face of these doubts, Richard eventually shows the kind of aggressive and skillful play that would make him one of the greatest players of all time as "The Rocket." However for all his success, Richard and his fellow French Canadians face constant discrimination in a league dominated by the English speaking. Although a man of few words, Richard begins to speak his own mind about the injustice which creates a organizational conflict that would culminate in his infamous 1955 season suspension that sparks an ethnic riot in protest. In the face of these challenges, Richard must decide who exactly is he playing for.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I'm not much for sports movies, but this was a good one, November 23, 2006

By	Billie Doux (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This is a period biopic about Quebecois hockey great Maurice Richard, starting and ending with the 1955 riots in Montreal when Richard was suspended unfairly for a fight he didn't start.

Maurice Richard was the epitome of the quiet, modest sports hero. He worked all day as a machinist, and played hockey at night. Hard to believe, considering how professional athletes are treated today, but Richard didn't even make enough money to buy his own home. Since French Canadians were treated like second class citizens, Richard also had to endure constant insults as well as physical attacks on the ice. The fact that he spoke little English but was interviewed in English made him look stupid. He literally lived the cliche: he had to be twice as good to go half as far.

Roy Dupuis turns in an excellent performance as Richard. Roy Dupuis has always done an outstanding job conveying a great deal of emotion with very little expression, and that's Maurice Richard to a T. (He even resembles the real Maurice Richard, except in coloring; the dark contacts and short black hair made me feel a bit of a disconnect, because Roy didn't look like Roy.) Julie le Breton was also fine as Maurice's wife, Lucille, although it was basically a one-note part. The real dramatic relationship throughout the film was Maurice's with his coach, Dick Irvin (Stephen McHattie, who was also terrific).

Although the film's climax was somewhat unclimactic, there were many moving moments. Maurice's stoicism in the face of such unfair treatment made it all the more effective when he finally did lose control. For me, the highlights of the movie were when the owner of the Canadiens told Maurice that he had just given him the greatest moment in hockey he'd ever seen, and Maurice literally burst into tears and sobbed uncontrollably. And Maurice's face when Dick Irvin congratulated his team on winning the Stanley Cup... in French.

Good news for English-speaking fans: There are English subtitles, of course. But the DVD extras, in French, also have English subtitling. That never happens.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fine film, January 10, 2008

By	T. Gahr - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a wonderful film to watch. The visuals are stunning. They do an excellent job re-creating Montreal in the 40's. The film itself is so much more than a "hockey movie". It's a period piece, and a warts and all study of Canada, Hockey, and French-Canadian society in the 1940's. It doesn't glamorize Richard, but portrays him as an immensely talented, humble, and driven man with a hunger to do nothing more than score goals regardless of what life put in his way. For the Rocket it truly was all he was about. The scene where he is in the corner getting worked over by three Bruins, only to come away with the puck and score is a great summation of his life. Those three Boston Bruins may as well have been named 1.) Poverty, 2.) Racism, 3.) Adversity

If you aren't familiar with the history of Quebec, and French-English relations in Canada (and prior to this I only had a small knowledge of it) then this movie will be enlightening. If you aren't familiar with Maurice Richard, you will be awed by what he overcame and begin to understand what he means to French Canadians.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Hockey Fans Dream, December 23, 2007

By	A satisfied customer - See all my reviews

I have always been a Montreal fan despite living in New England and thought I knew Montreal hockey. This movie taught me alot about the great Montral teams of the past and the riot. I never really knew how the French players were mistreated, to a level that almost equals the mistreatment of Afro-American baseball players. Prejudice is apparently world-wide. A must see for any sports fan and in particular for hockey fans.