Miracle

So last night, Miracle was on, and as a huge sports and hockey fan, I decided I had to watch it for the first time. This movie is based on the true story of Herb Brooks and the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey team. Brooks takes the position as the Olympic head coach during a period of time when the Soviet Union dominated the world in hockey. He made most of the executive decisions and pushed his team to the limits for months in order to make sure they would be prepared for Lake Placid.

Three days prior to the start of the Olympics, the U.S. challenged the U.S.S.R. to a matchup in New York. The Russians demolished Brook's squad 10-3, squashing the Americans hopes of excelling in the games, especially against the Russians. They entered the Olympics and took on Sweden first, where they came back with just seconds left and tied up the game. After that matchup, they stepped up their game and moved up, beating team after team. Finally, they managed to meet the U.S.S.R. again in a meeting to go to the gold medal game. In a long fought battle, the U.S. defeated the Russians, 4-3, and moved on to the final match where they defeated Finland, 4-2, to win the gold medal.

I really enjoyed this movie, not just for the story of the miracle on ice, but for the way the final game is shot. Obviously, none of the actors were not also Olympic level hockey players, so they had to put a lot of attention to detail into shooting all three periods of the hockey game. They took a lot of shots from ice level, which added a new dimension to the film that I really enjoyed. They also had some great moments, for instance, when they dropped the puck for the face-off, the only sounds that you heard were the puck hitting the ice and the two sticks colliding.

Overall, this may not have been the best movie acting wise, but it greatly displayed the story of the 1980 Olympics and the miracle on ice.