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"Miracle" captures this spirit down to the smallest nuance; in a day and age when you are as likely to read about athletes in the police blotter as the sports page, it is refreshing to watch people play for the pure joy of sport and love of the game. The ability to capture this love of the game was made possible by the fact that every single one of the actors portraying a hockey player was first and foremost an actual hockey player. That's not to say they can't act, but they sought out the opportunity because they have scored Eruzione's game winning goal a thousand times on a rink or pond or even on asphalt and they wanted an opportunity to tap into a little bit of that magic. They didn't audition for "Miracle", they tried out for it, and once they had the job, they went to training camp to prepare for filming. This attention to detail comes through in spades; I know hockey, but you don't have to be an expert to realize these guys are in great shape and have been on the receiving end of a check more than once.
In contrast to these raw and unseasoned actors stands Kurt Russell, a Hollywood veteran (and admittedly a very big hockey fan). His portrayal of Herb Brooks is dead on; from the voice and mannerisms down to the single minded determination to beat the best team in the world. Moreover, his punishing conditioning regimen and mind-bending schemes are accurately portrayed without bogging down in details that would likely bore even dedicated fans. The supporting cast is likewise strong, and wisely limited in large part to just Brooks' wife and assistants. This focus mirrors the way Brooks lived the game and minimizes distractions.
So the film has real hockey players and fine actors in all the key roles but the most daunting task for the director still remained: how to portray a game where the outcome is know when the NHL hasn't found an entirely effective view for live games. The answer was to use as many ice level shots as possible, which serves a twofold purpose. The first is that it is much easier to follow the puck when it is the focus of the shot, and at the same time, when a hit or injury is the key part of the scene, the puck isn't a distraction. The other reason this approach is successful is because this player's eye view of the ice injects a sense of urgency that makes victory seem in doubt even when it is a known factor. A corollary to this approach is in the narrative of the game with the Soviets; the director wisely chose not to reinvent the wheel and used Al Michael's definitive call, which includes key commentary from Ken Dryden which can be informative for the non-hockey fan.
In the end, what this all adds up to is the perfect encapsulation of the joy I referenced above. The cold hard fact is that we are unlikely to ever see such joy in sport again, as professionals have come to dominate Olympic team sports and high schoolers join the pro ranks as soon as they graduate and middle schoolers go to strength and conditioning camps under relentless pressure from their parents. What "Miracle" portrays is a joy born of a love of competition, a love of sport and a love of teammates that has become all too rare. That's not to say that this movie only portrays sunshine and roses, but the ultimate goal transcended any one individual. Some of the best scenes in the movie have nothing to do with hockey, but rather the camaraderie that comes from sharing simple things with good friends.
Superb in its portrayal of perhaps the greatest sporting event of all time in every aspect - from acting to wardrobe to the game on the ice, "Miracle" is an absolute joy to watch. It wisely frames the geo-political import of the game and then sets it aside, focusing instead on the beauty of sport and the satisfaction of hard earned accomplishments.
Jake Mohlman.
Knowing what is going to happen in "Miracle" is important because if we did not know that this team is going to win the gold medal then we might suspect the means that coach Herb Brooks (Kirk Russell) is using to achieve that end. Brooks is haunted by the 1960 Winter Olympics, when he was cut from the U.S. team a week before it won the gold medal. It was also the last year the Americans beat the Soviets on the ice and Brooks knows how to pull off the upset against the best hockey team on the planet. All it will take is a team that he handpicks playing the way he wants them to play.
The best part of this film is watching how Brooks does exactly that and then becomes basically a spectator and cheerleader when his team goes out and wins the gold medal. Director Gavin O'Connor hits a bulls eye with the casting of Russell, who should get serious Oscar consideration for his performance. The hard driven coach who puts his sport before his wife and family is something of a cliché, but what matters here is how Brooks' determination and intelligence comes through as he molds his team.
The production also scores because they went out and got hockey players to act instead of trying to fake us out the other way around. The only real professional actor on the team is Eddie Cahill, but he plays goalie Jim Craig. You can put anybody you want behind a mask in goal on the ice (former Edmonton Oilers' goalie Bill Ranford in fact) and because Craig was such high maintenance and high profile he was the one role where you needed to up the acting level. But Michael Mantenuto as Jack O'Callahan, Patrick O'Brien Dempsey as Mike Eruzione, Nathan West as Rob McLanahan, Eric Peter-Kaiser as Mark Johnson, and the other 15 players on the team are playing exactly what they are: hockey players brought together to create a team.
One thing I was surprised about in the film was that there is never an explicitly stated reason why Eruzione was picked as the team captain. Yet in the context of the film I was right in thinking that I knew exactly what Eruzione was going to do that was going to make him stand out as first among his teammates. (You will know what I am talking about when the moment comes).
The fidelity to recreating the moments we remember from the 1980 Olympics was quite impressive. You can check out the added features on this two-disc DVD set to see direct comparisons of the television footage from the actual games with the movie's re-creations as well as the techniques used to give you a dynamic feeling of being on the ice. Of course getting Al Michaels to "call" the games again was a necessity and it is not surprising that they worked in the original version of his famous line that gives the movie its title. You can re-create history but you cannot really improve on it, although this 2004 film does a nice job of trying to accomplish that particular feat. I just wonder if those who know nothing about what happened at Lake Placid in 1980 can appreciate that as much as those of us who do.
Stepping into the fray is Herb Brooks (Kurt Russell), a veteran hockey coach who as a player came within one step of joining the 1960 U.S. Olympic hockey squad that handed the Soviets their last loss in ice hockey at Squaw Valley. As the film opens, in the summer of 1979, Brooks is given the task of putting a respectable hockey team onto the home ice in upstate New York for the Olympics. For Brooks, however, merely putting a respectable team onto the ice wasn't good enough for him. He wanted the best; and through his relentless drive and his not ingratiating himself to his players, he prodded them to put out nothing short of the best they had in them. The result was that miraculous 4-3 win over the Soviets in the first medal-round game that a few days after that propelled them to a Gold medal via a win over Finland.
Russell, never the showiest of actors but nevertheless one of the best, gives a superb performance as Brooks (who was killed in an auto crash shortly after filming was completed), a man who dedicated himself to putting a winning team into the history books and succeeded. As had been the case in THE THING, EXECUTIVE DECISION, TOMBSTONE, and BREAKDOWN, Russell shows us his professionalism by not necessarily being Mr. Nice Guy, but a man who strives to achieve the extraordinary in his players. Patricia Clarkson is good as his wife (in a too brief role), and Noah Emmerich does a good job as Brooks' assistant.
The gut-wrenching game between the U.S. and the Soviets is recreated in vivid detail with all the hard hits and chants of "USA! USA!" rumbling throughout. But MIRACLE is, thankfully, not about American jingoism and arrogance. It is about achieving the impossible, which is exactly what all Olympic games are supposed to be about. It is an incredible piece, well worth seeing more than once.
