Yeah, I only first saw that one a couple of years ago, but it did a reasonable job of capturing the flavor of the place as well.
A bit more useless ‘Slapshot’ trivia to augment the extensive IMDB listings:
The general background of rust-belt economic decay was no exaggeration; the town’s main employer, Bethlehem Steel, had been looking for a politically correct means to reduce its Johnstown operations for several years prior to filming. Six months after the film opened in February '77, the previously mentioned flood occurred, which gave them the excuse they needed. Severe damage was done to several components of the basic steelmaking facilities and although some of the plant re-opened temporarily, by 1981 major layoffs took place and most of the plant shut down for good. Much of the Franklin Mills, which turns up in the background of several shots in the film, has since been torn down.
The scene early in the film where Lindsay Crouse goes careening down a steep hill at high speed in a van, a la ‘Bullitt’, was filmed in Franklin Borough opposite the ‘F’ Blast furnace of the Bethlehem Steel plant. Pretty good stunt, considering that the bottom of the hill ended in a 90-degree right turn in front of a fairly sturdy brick wall.
One of my favorite ‘inside’ jokes in the film is that the character of the smarmy sportscaster in the film was a dead-on piss-take of Bill Wilson, the long-time sports reporter for local station WJAC-TV (“serving millions from atop the Alleghenies”), and who indeed was frequently snickered at by locals for his taste in plaid sportjackets and fairly obvious rug.
In a couple of scenes inside the War Memorial Arena, an advertising sign can be seen for a company called ‘Mafex Associates’. This was a small publisher of educational materials that I worked for briefly in the early '70s, and is now defunct.
Classic movie. One of my all-time favorites. There was an article in Sports Illustrated about “where are they now” on the guys who played the Hanson brothers. Apparently they are invited to these fan club meetings - regularly.
The article also mentioned how the movie is practically required material for all hockey players (or at least they’ve all seen it). A college coach mentions asking his team “what they’re doing ?” and in unison they reply “puttin’ on the foil, coach !” - a movie that was released before these kids were born.
I just mapquested “Johnstown, PA”, and came up with 3 listings: Cambria, Lebanon, and Union counties. Which is the Johnstown where they filmed the movie ?
And is there really a dog statue in the town square ?
Johnstown actually had three major floods in its history (and host of minor ones): 1889, which killed some 2000 residents, 1936, with little loss of life but with water more than ten feet deep in most of the downtown area, and 1977, with about 70 killed.
Although the statue itself was a survivor of the 1889 flood, in the movie I believe a character says something about it being a statue of “the dog that saved Charlestown from the 1938 flood”, or something like that.
While I’m rambling, the city’s slogan, ‘The Flood City’, wouldn’t seem to be the best of Chamber of Commerce tag lines, and indeed there has been little interest by business and industry in locating there since the mills shut down. There has been quite a lot of Federal pork coming in in recent years, however, thanks to the town being the home of influential Congressman John Murtha.
You go to da box, and you feel shame. Den you get free.
It’s been a tough year for him - what with the litigation, his subsequent deportation to Canada, and that country’s refusal to accept him… that’s more than most 18 year olds could handle…
“It’s him!”
“Who?”
“Oglethorpe!”
“Bleed all over him - let him know you’re there!”
“Jesus Christ, those guys are retards!”
“Now, I got a good deal on those boys…”
“They brought their fucking TOYS with them!”
One of my favorite films. And one of the most quotable.
Heh, yeah, I remember Bill Wilson well from good ol’ Channel 6. One thing about him though, I always looked forward to his Pirates spring training reports from Bradenton. Nice to see another Johnstowner on the Dope. Maybe we should have a virtual Dopefest for all of us far-flung Flood Citizens.
As a current college hockey player I can tell you that this has begun to trickle down to our ranks. Just the other day I successfully blocked/deflected 2 shots and attempted to block another 2.
As for Slapshot, this is the height of hockey on film. I love the authenticity that Miracle provided, but nothing can compare sitting around with the boys, having a few beers, and quoting the lines we’ve all heard a hundred times.
<nitpick> That’s the Quebec version. The France version is called La Castagne and is supposed to be more hilarious (just think of an American football movie “translated” in British :eek: )</nitpick>
For more trivia, Yvan Ponton who plays Jean-Guy Drouin in the movie continued his association with hockey-themed TV shows and movies, starring in the Quebec TV hit Lance et compte (He Shoots, He scores) as well as the serie of Les Boys movie.
Terry Sawchuk Terry Sawchuck was chopped up by slap shots and wrist shots for years before masks. Every now and then the sports page showed his face with the inches of stitches he had accumulated.
