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MoviesIfempo'Slap Shot': Mayhem on iceBy Gene S:skel145*0 CM CLast year ii took ■ girl pitcher with ■v'.rong arm to Him the inept Bad New*Hear* into a championship baseball tram.Thiv year. three hrutat hockey players Irani-form the mitrraWc. minor league Charlestown Chiefs Into winner* in the foul-mouthed I'aul Newman comedy. -Slap Shot, let the viewer beware: Sap Six* contain* the foulest language »ince the obscenity-filled The Last Det.nl Newman slurs a* a down and nul hnckey coach facta* extinction III* team Mink.* and may fold because It* owner Is looking for a ta* k*v Enter the Hansen brothers, three ot the strangestGjple ever la (trace a movie scrrm Actually. grace s nothing to do with tlx- Hansen-. Wlxu we lirvt meet them they're lucking the hell out of » t'oko machine They touk funny Each ho* shoulder length hair, a big nose, and thick glasses They talk lerr-ibly fa»t and usually at the tame time They arc Innocent kids. favoring slot cars as toys. But most important, they play a vicious game ni hockey.The Hansens join the Charlestown Chief* in a team economy move; ihcy'ro hired because they work cheap. Tho first time they're let loose on Ihe uc they i;o nuts, slamming their opponents Inm Hie boards and healing them with their lists and sticks.And yet. despite their vicious ami felonious be-TRIBUNE MINI-REVIEW havtar. the llamens atetotally likeable Why? Because their energy is so pure. ThryTe like puppy dogs. How can you hate them when Ihcy bite you?THERE'S much morn to Slap Shot than the H.mscn* — more to like ami to dislike. SiBp Shot wants to be a subculture picture, to showuv working-class life and sport. The film is set in a Pennsylvania mill town Just a* the mill ts being shut down. Ten thousand worker* will be laid off. That means there will bo truer people with enough spare change to afford Chiefs games. It's going to be every sucker for himself/* says the Chiefs' star center. .‘‘Slap Shot alto contains a series of strained mole female relationship* in which Ihe women are stronger than the men. Paul Newman'* wife has left him. ami even ihough they remain friends it's dear she considers him a child The star center's wife lias taken to booze to keep herself from committing suicide sooocr. She thinks her husband, a collegePaul Newman os a desporale hockey coach In theriotous comedy. Slap Shot”graduate. Is In an kllol's profession.Hockey playing, at least at the miner league level, I* a set maniac's profession, according to Slap Shot That'', because sex is nil tlx players talk about un and olf thu ice. In and out of the locker rou inTlx ribald script was written l»* a woman whose brother, i minor league hockey player, placed a tape r«Morder in his locker room.But what Slap Shot does lo Us ultimate failure Is iwaggerale every one of Its line facets It's .as if those locker room tape recording* had hern edited lo remove the silence* and the banalities, lo include only the most outrageous scv and violence.And. regrettably. Slap Shot1' moralizes about violence in its tacked-on. whipsaw ending. This, after lillmg the screen with nonstop mayhem. It's a hard picture to figure out You end up liking most of its hdv and pieces, and yet feel as though you've been had if you enjoy it as a whole. I would hive enjoyed seeing the film's original ending In which Newman tors mad.There arc a string nf solid performances in Slap Shot ’* Newman Is just right as the manipulative • coach with the morals of a pea Michael Ontkean standi out as the college-educated star who challenges Newman's every move with a judgmental stare, Lindsay Crouse is memorable as Ontkean's alcoholic wileAgain, one last word about the film’s language. Paul Newman makes Julie Christie sound like a nun In Shamuoo.'* You hnvc been warnedGcat Slskel renews the movie scene Monday, Wednesday, and Friday on Chmuid ; News at 5 and 10 p M.Minor l#»ou# mayhem + *ViSLAP SHOT•••0'««rn« Wy ()•«*■• RoyM H'-Jtif *#frf feVOTitrt *tlU *r ***J Wohiih *»•!»•** •IKirO't* *•!•••• »i tM yrftta# UK-im is.iv** n*m*« *«»4 nn* camfW« PmJJ**l '.'§m •»•■•*•#tv.*Ipp tarndgi *»*••*IMf trMBTAJm Ctn Anv— Ml*J«b kpni wte« rtiMinItIH !»•»• C*****
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Mon, Jan 01, 0001
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USA 21 Sep 2020
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