Miracle on Ice

Miracle on Ice (1981)

The story of the 1980 United States Olympic hockey players, a group of amateurs from around the country who were whipped into a cohesive unit by controversial coach Herb Brooks to win a gold medal at Lake Placid during the winter games.

Date of release
1981-03-01
TMDB
6.6 / 10 (12)
Runtime
2h 12m
Genres
Action, Drama, Family, TV Movie
Director
Steven Hilliard Stern

Casting

Interesting facts

Miracle on Ice is a 1981 American sports docudrama about the United States men's national ice hockey team, led by head coach Herb Brooks, that won the gold medal in the 1980 Winter Olympics. The young United States team's victory over the heavily favored seasoned Soviet team in the medal round was dubbed the "Miracle on Ice". The film premiered on March 1, 1981, as an installment of The ABC Sunday Night Movie.

Production

Miracle on Ice was directed by Steven Hilliard Stern and written by Lionel Chetwynd. It incorporates actual game footage and ABC broadcasters Al Michaels and Ken Dryden's original commentary from the 1980 Winter Games.

Stern closely watched videotapes of the Lake Placid games before setting up his scenes at the Los Angeles Sports Arena. These staged shots generally involved close-ups of the actors. The original ABC Sports footage showed the games in long or medium shots. The new material, also videotaped, was then carefully edited into the factual footage, and the result was transferred to film.

Mike Eruzione was a technical consultant on the film saying "we all know the movie will never be able to equal what happened." Eruzione however, wasn't involved with the latter Miracle film at all. According to Eruzione: "I did not want to be involved in the movie. I felt if I was involved then my role would be different, and the guys on the team would have went [sic], he didn’t do this, he didn’t say that.

Karl Malden told Sports Illustrated in December 1980 that he had never actually met Herb Brooks in preparation for his portrayal of him, but he studied him on videotape, especially his eyes. Malden said of Brooks "I'd hate to meet him in a dark alley. I think he's a little on the neurotic side. Maybe more than a little. Any moment you think he's going to jump out of his skin."

Malden also remarked with disapproval that Brooks could've ventured an occasional smile during one of the less intense games. Malden also wondered how, after working hard over the course of seven months that Brooks could have simply walked away after his team clinched the improbable victory against the Soviet team.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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