Customer Reviews
Great sports film, best hockey film - By: D. K. Edwards, 10 Nov 2008 
The word "Disney" might make people think this is going to be a fluffy film with a happy ending. It isn't. It's a pretty accurate factual account of the run up to an amazing Olympic event. How happy the ending is depends on whether you are American or Russian, I suppose...
Russel does a fantastic job portraying Herb Brookes, & gets across his somwhat confrontational style of coaching very well. One of his favourite expressions was apparently "You are playing worse & worse every day, & right now, you're playing like it's next month!"
In terms of hockey films, I think this stands out against films such as Slapshot or Youngblood, as they tend to show hockey as being a sport played by people who just want an excuse to beat each other up. Hockey is a very skillful & physically tortuous game, & Miracle really gets that message across.
I think one of the things that makes this film stand out is the background it is set against: the height of the Cold War. It's the USA vs the USSRin more ways than one. The opening credits to the film show the hard time that the USA is facing: soaring petrol prices, Watergate, the 3 Mile Island disaster, the threat from the East, etc. You know from the start that this team is being viewed by the public as more than just a sports team.
Tabloids had said the team would need a miracle to make it to the medal roundin the Olympics, & one of the best bits of the film for me is the last 11 or 12 seconds of the USA / USSR game, when the original commentary is used. I think that commentary rates right up there with the 1966 "They think it's all over - it is now!"
finally, a nice touch is that one of the actors, Billy Schneider, actually plays the part of his father, Buzz Schneider, who was on the USA Teamin 1980.
A really great film, even better if you are a hockey fan.
Where were you - By: M. A. Ramos, 07 Oct 2007 I remember watching the United States' defeat of the vaunted Russian Olympic hockey team at the 1980 Winter Olympicsin Lake Placid, New York. The Russians were undefeated since 1961. And 1960 was the last year we won the "Gold". The title of the movie is an apt description of the USA upset at Lake Placidin 1980.
This movie shows what it took to mold individuals into a well-coordinated teamin just seven months of very hard work. Up until 1980, no team was ever willing to train as hard as was required to defeat the Russian team. Not only is skill on the ice, but actually physical endurance. Our young team of average age of 21 years stepped up to the plate & exceeded that goal.
This movie also shows that you cannot win a team sport by choosing the best players & calling them a team. But that it takes a group of team players working together. This movie brought back all the excitement I felt watching the game. And also let's you see what it took back then to be an Olympic team player. Now we use professional playersin so called DREAM TEAMS. Well if you ask me, the 1980 team of amateur athletes that brought home the Gold Medal was the Dream Team. And I wish the Olympics had not evolved as it has.
This is a movie for everyone. You do not need to know about the sport of ice hockey to enjoy it. It is a pleasure to watch people play for the pure pleasure of the sport instead of money. The casting between a season actor like Kurt Russell, unseasoned actors, & actual hockey player was well done. You can tell that the cast & crew paid attention to details. Watch this movie.
Almost made me care about hockey - By: Joseph Haschka, 29 Dec 2005 People my age probably remember where they were when John & Bobbie Kennedy were shot, when Armstrong stepped onto the moon, when the Challenger blew up, when the Berlin Wall came down. Perhaps even when the U.S. Olympic hockey team beat the unbeatable Sovietsin 1980. And I don't even care for hockey that much.
MIRACLE is the story of that legendary upset, & the grueling training that led up to that glorious moment, told from the perspective of the coach, Herb Brooks (Kurt Russell). A member of the 1960 Olympic squad, Brooks was cut from the team a week before its first Olympic match & subsequent gold medal victory. After that, the USSR Olympians dominated the sport for the next twenty years. Through his "boys", Brooks sought personal redemption & an end to Soviet hegemony.
The first film of 2003 of Oscar caliber was SEABISCUIT, the story of an earlier underdog. MIRACLE was perhaps the first 2004 release deserving Oscar consideration. Not for Best Picture, but for Russell as Best Actor (though I didn't believe for a moment that was the actor's real hair).
MIRACLE is about Coach Brooks. While the young actors that portray the twenty-some players do a creditable job, they're all pretty much lost against the background of team identity. And that's as it should be because their amazing victory was, & necessarily had to be, a team effort. This point is effectively made for the audience during a tortuous set of punishment drills after a poorly played match against the Swedish national team when one of Herb's players finally correctly answers the question he constantly poses, "Who do you play for?" It's a moment of revelation for all concerned.
Just as the horse race actionin SEABISCUIT almost made me go down to the track & squander the mortgage payment on a first-ever bet, MIRACLE's camera work on the ice almost morphed me into a rabid hockey puck. You, the viewer, are right therein the thick of the furious melee expecting to be slammed against the boards or slashed with a stick at any moment. There's an adrenaline rush not felt with, say, curling.
At the film's end, a voiceover by Russell-Brooks reminds us that, soon after the 1980 Gold Medal upset, America's Olympic hockey team was opened to pro players of the National Hockey League to thus create the "Dream Team" concept - but no Olympic squad since then has ever captured "the dream". Honor is due Brooks & his amateurs.
this film should have won an oscar! - By: miss cecil, 02 May 2005 This is one of the best films i have ever seen! I like films that involve sports, as it is all about team work! i think that Kurt Russell played a great part as Herb Brookes & he was so inspiring, the skating techniques of the players are fantastic & the way the games are spitting image of the actually game played is excellent! i advise anyone who has not seen this movie to go & watch it & i hope that you enjoy it as much as i did!
What a fantastic movie - By: Steve H, 19 Jan 2005 Where do I start? This is a fantastic movie whether you are into hockey (aka ice hockey to the Brits)or not. I remember the 1980 Olympics & remember thinking it incredible that a bunch of College kids could beat the (professional) Soviet team - well - this is the film of how this happened.
It doesn't matter what your sport is, this is all about TEAM - if this does not get you going & motivated, nothing will! Kurt Russell's performance as Coach Brookes is worthy of an Oscar & the skating is top notch too!
Even if you don't know hockey, you will love this film - it isin my all time top ten - watch this now.
