| Miracle | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Gavin O'Connor |
| Written by | Eric Guggenheim |
| Produced by |
|
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Dan Stoloff |
| Edited by | John Gilroy |
| Music by | Mark Isham |
Production companies | Walt Disney Pictures Mayhem Pictures |
| Distributed by | Buena Vista Pictures Distribution |
Release date |
|
Running time | 136 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $28 million[1] |
| Box office | $64.5 million[1] |
Miracle is a 2004 Americansports film directed byGavin O'Connor and written byEric Guggenheim. It is about theU.S. men's ice hockey team, whose gold medal victory in the1980 Winter Olympics over the heavily favored seasonedSoviet team was dubbed the "Miracle on Ice".Kurt Russell stars as head coachHerb Brooks withPatricia Clarkson andNoah Emmerich in supporting roles.
Miracle was released on February 6, 2004, and grossed $64.5 million on a $28 million budget. It received positive reviews, with Russell's performance garnering the most praise from critics.
Herb Brooks, headice hockey coach at theUniversity of Minnesota, interviews with theUnited States Olympic Committee (USOC) for thenational team coach's job, discussing his philosophy on how to beat the dominant Soviet team who have won the gold medal in the previous four Olympics, calling for changes to the practice schedule and strategy. The USOC is skeptical, but gives Brooks the job.
Brooks meets assistant coachCraig Patrick at the tryouts inColorado Springs. Brooks selects a preliminary roster of 26, indifferent to the preferences of senior USOC hockey officials. USOC executive directorWalter Bush believes Brooks has their best interests at heart, and reluctantly agrees to take the heat from the committee.
During the initial practice, tempers flare as forwardRob McClanahan and defensemanJack O'Callahan get into a fight based on college rivalry. After the fight, Brooks tells all the players that they are to let go of old rivalries and start becoming a team. He has each player tell their name, hometown and which team they play for. As practices continue, Brooks uses unorthodox methods to reduce the roster to 20 players. The players themselves worry about being cut at any time, knowing that Brooks himself was the last player cut from the US squad that won the1960 Olympic gold medal, so he will do anything to win.
During an exhibition game againstNorway inOslo that ends in a 3–3 tie, Brooks notices the players are not playing up to their potential. After the game, he orders them back on the ice for a bag skate – a relentless skate from one end of the ice to the other, continuing the drill even after the rink manager cuts the power, until forward and team captainMike Eruzione re-introduces himself, but this time says that he plays for the United States. Pleased, Brooks finally allows the team to go home.
With their roster finalized, the Americans play theSoviets in an exhibition game atMadison Square Garden. The Soviets manhandle the young Americans, winning by a score of 10–3. During the game, O'Callahan suffers a knee injury that could keep him out of the entire Olympics and starting goaltenderJim Craig is told he may be benched in favor of backupSteve Janaszak. Brooks tells him that he hasn't been giving his very best, but decides to keep Craig as the starter for the Olympics.
As the1980 Winter Olympics begin, the Americans trailSweden 2–1 in the first game. Brooks fires up the team during intermission by throwing a table and accuses McClanahan, who suffered a relatively minor leg injury, of quitting. McClanahan plays injured, which inspires the team.Bill Baker scores a goal with only 27 seconds remaining in the third period for a dramatic 2–2 tie. They next earn a 7–3 win over heavily favoredCzechoslovakia. As the Olympics continue, the team defeats minor opponentsNorway,Romania, andWest Germany to earn a spot in the medal round.
In the medal round, the Americans are overwhelming underdogs to the Soviets, who lost only a single Olympic game since 1964 and whose players are professionals, whereas the American players areamateurs.[2][3] The Soviets score the first goal before O'Callahan, having healed enough from his injury, enters the game for the first time. He heavily checksVladimir Krutov on a play that leads to a goal byBuzz Schneider. The Soviets score again to retake the lead. Soviet goalieVladislav Tretiak stops a long shot byDave Christian, butMark Johnson gets the rebound and ties the game to end the period.
During the first intermission, Soviet coachViktor Tikhonov replaces Tretiak with backupVladimir Myshkin. In the second period, the Soviets score a goal to go up 3–2. Early in the third period, the Soviet team ispenalized forslashing, and Johnson scores apower play goal just as the penalty is about to expire. With 10 minutes left, Eruzione puts them ahead 4–3. The Americans hold off the Soviets to win the game, completing one of the biggest upsets in sports history. Two days later, the team would go on to defeatFinland 4–2 to win the gold medal.
U.S. Olympic Hockey Team Coaching Staff
U.S. Olympic Hockey Team Players
Miscellaneous
Gavin O'Connor directed, andMark Ciardi produced the movie. Both are drawn to inspirational stories, and they decided to take on the "Greatest Sports Moment of the 20th Century".[4] They chose to focus on the determination and focus of coach Herb Brooks. O'Connor knew from the beginning that he wanted to cast Kurt Russell as Herb Brooks because he needed someone with an athletic background and a fiery passion for sports. The casting of the team consisted of real hockey players to give the film a raw and accurate feel. O'Connor figured it would be easier to teach hockey players to act than to teach actors to play hockey. On-ice tryouts were held in New York, Boston, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Toronto, and Vancouver. Another tryout was held in Vancouver for the Soviet and European teams.
There are a total of 133 different hockey plays in the film. To accomplish this, the directors turned to ReelSports Solutions, who had helped with the producers on a previous movie,The Rookie. The ReelSports team referred to coach Herb Brooks for information on practices, plays, equipment, and uniform styles. Each fight and stunt scene was choreographed to ensure the actors' safety. Players went through a six-week training camp to relearn the game in older equipment.[5]
All the locations of the real life hockey games are replicated by hockey arenas in British Columbia. The team tryouts, set in Colorado Springs, were filmed at theQueen's Park Arena inNew Westminster. The team practices were filmed at the M.S.A. Arena inAbbotsford. The exhibition game in which the USA team lost to the USSR team atMadison Square Garden was filmed at thePacific Coliseum, former home of theVancouver Canucks. The Exhibition against Norway, the subsequent bag skate, and all Olympic game scenes were filmed at thePNE Agrodome.[6][7]
Al Michaels andKen Dryden re-recorded most of their television commentary for the film. However, the last 30 seconds of the USA-Soviet game, including Michaels' "Do you believe in miracles?", used the original audio, as Michaels didn't feel he could re-create the call effectively.[8]
Coach Brooks died in a car accident half a year before the movie was released. At the end, before the credits, it states, "This film is dedicated to the memory of Herb Brooks, who died shortly following principal photography. He never saw it. He lived it."
Miracle was released with a rating ofPG.[9]
Miracle was released onDVD andVHS on May 18, 2004.[10] The DVD version of the film isTHX certified, being a two-disc release.[10] The Blu-Ray was released on June 16, 2009.
Miracle grossed $19.4 million on its opening weekend on 2,605 screens, ranking second behindBarbershop 2: Back in Business.[11] It closed with a worldwide gross of $64.4 million.[12]
OnRotten Tomatoes,Miracle has an approval rating of 81% based on 166 reviews, with an average rating of 7/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Kurt Russell's performance guides this cliche-ridden tale into the realm of inspirational, nostalgic goodness."[13] OnMetacritic the film has a weighted average score of 68 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[14] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[15]
Elvis Mitchell ofThe New York Times stated that the movie "does a yeoman's job of recycling the day-old dough that passes for its story."[16]Kenneth Turan of theLos Angeles Times referred to the movie as "a classically well-made studio entertainment that, likeThe Rookie of a few years back, has the knack of being moving without shamelessly overdoing a sure thing."[17]Bill Muller ofThe Arizona Republic gave it a 2.5 out of a 5 scoring, saying, "Even for a Disney sports movie, this is a treacly affair, complete with anArmageddon-style hero shot that just screams manipulation."[18] Deborah Hornblow ofHartford Courant earned a rating of 3 out of 5, stating that "the result is something like theSeabiscuit of sports team films or aRemember the Titans of theCold War."[19] O'Callahan said in an interview that while the fight between him and McClanahan was fictional, the film accurately portrayed the "pretty intense" rivalry betweenBoston Terriers andMinnesota Gophers players, and was overall "pretty darn close" to actual events.[20]
As of May 2023,Miracle was rated the number six sports movie of all time with a rating of 9.06 out of 10 atSports In Movies, after maintaining the number one spot for several years.[21]
Miracle won theBest Sports Movie ESPY Award for 2004.[22]
American Film Institute recognition
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