While Disney's Miracle takes to the screen, Dan Nied looks at the parallels between 1980 and modern America.
I was six months old when the Miracle On Ice happened.
So I don’t remember it all that well.
But in the 24 years since, I have learned enough about it to somewhat understand its importance to our country.
Of course, that is all people of my generation can hope for. We never really understood the tension between the United States and Russia. To me, it seemed like a lot of bickering and one-upmanship that never posed a threat to my elementary-school world. In retrospect, that political ignorance of was bliss and made the 1980s a pretty damn good time to be a kid.
Until I started college, the most important sporting event in my world was the Red Wings 1997 Stanley Cup. That is only because Steve Yzerman finally got his ring. My favorite group on that Red Wings team was The Russian Five, a group of Soviets that baffled the NHL with fluid puck movement and skating so liquid that it looked like they were floating. The oldest defenseman on that unit was Slava Fetisov, who played for the Soviet Olympic team in 1980 which lost to the Americans in the semi-finals in what was, of course, the most important sporting event in this country’s history.
It’s amazing how things change in 17 years. As an infant, I’m pretty sure I inherently hated Fetisov. In 1997, I consciously loved him.
Team sports thrive on civic pride. That’s why Boston hates New York so much. But when you magnify civic pride to the point of national pride, then you have the possibility of igniting a country. If you take that national pride and fuel it with an unbeatable storybook villain, then you have the makings of a miracle.
And when that miracle happens, you have the makings of a Hollywood movie that Disney can buy the rights to and make money from. And of course, that could never happen in Communist Russia.
So as Americans, we really cannot blame Disney for making a buck off the gold medal-winning 1980 American hockey team. That’s capitalism and we love it. But we can, however, make sure they get it right.
So Disney released Miracle last week and it turns out that the Mouse actually did a pretty good job. By focusing on coach Herb Brooks instead of the players, director Gavin O’Connor lets us in on the method behind Brooks’ madness. Brooks picked a team made up of scrappers and character players solely because he thought they could beat the Russians. After he assembled his team, Brooks forced them to bond together in fear and hatred of him. It turned out pretty well in the end.
Kurt Russell turns in a solid performance as Brooks, and gets convincing help from Eddie Cahill as goalie Jim Craig and Patrick O’Brien Demsey as captain Mike Eruzione.
The hockey scenes are amazing, if a little scattered and confusing at times. And while Disney’s propensity for over-the-top emotion is evident here, the movie is no more emotional than the real story.
There isn’t a lot that can really be said about “Miracle.” But O’Connor did pull off an enormous accomplishment. Even though the ending to this film is already known, the energy in the movie is palpable up until the final seconds of the game. Although the final score of 4-3 was established with 10 minutes to go in the game, it is nearly impossible not to wince as Craig gets peppered with shots as time winds down. In the theater I was in, the audience cheered as Al Michaels delivers his signature line: “Five seconds left…Do you believe in Miracles? YES!”
I, however, was not cheering. I was paralyzed by the tingles going up and down my spine. And when the tingles take over in the final seconds of a film, you know it was good.
But this movie can not stand on its own merit. For someone that doesn’t know the story of that fabled hockey team, this just seems like another Disney emotion-manipulating machine. Sort of a “Mighty Ducks” for adults. But because this story is true, and it was crucial to national morale in a time of great need, every defense against this emotional manipulation is dropped. Which is the same reason this meant so much to the country at the time. With the Hostage crisis embarrassing the nation and a national gas shortage, Americans did not have much to be proud of in 1979 and 1980.
But Miracle is exactly what we need today. It reminds us as a nation that something great can come during a bleak period in history. In post 9/11 America, when millions of Americans are out of work or constantly looking over their shoulder for a dirty bomb, sometimes the only thing that makes us forget about our crappy economy is popular culture: be it sports, movies, television or music. The film itself is not a great American treasure, but does its job in helping us remember that no fight is too big to win.
The political implications of the Miracle on Ice may not have been that lasting. That team did not topple communism or calm the threat of World War III. But they did give this country pride, which is the greatest feeling in the world while it lasts.
There might not be a modern day equivalent to the Miracle on Ice. These days American hockey teams are expected to win Olympic Medals. Russians have integrated into this country and into our team sports. And right now, no country can be looked upon as a threat as great as the Cold War era Soviet Union. Today our greatest threat is from militant Islamic terrorists. But that is the reason the Miracle on Ice should be held close to the heart of every American. It was something tangible that we could hold on to prove that the United States is the greatest country in the world.
And, unless Al Qaeda takes to the ice in 2006, no sporting event will never spur such national pride again.