"Miracle" - a film focused on the coaching profession

"Miracle" - a film focused on the coaching profession

Kurt Russell's play and Gavin O'Connor's direction recreate in a unique way the success of the USA in the ice hockey tournament of the 1980 Olympic Games

The figure of the coach in sports is extremely important. This is the person who builds the vision of a team, the behavior of individual players in it. This is the man who can change a player's fortunes, and in individual sports he is an even more influential figure. However, his work in teams is extremely difficult and it comes with its great responsibility. No wonder that almost always when the team is not going well, the coach is the first to be fired. Therefore, making a film about this profession seems to be an extremely laborious task.

However, Gavin O'Connor copes with this task and, based on the script of Mike Rich and Eric Guggenheim, directed "Miracle", or in English - "Miracle". This is a film about the success of the US national ice hockey team that won gold at the 1980 Olympic Games in Lake Placid. The whole story revolves around the selector Herb Brooks and the rivalry with the big favorite in the competition - the Soviet Union.

"Miracle" was released in 2004, when most similar cinema productions were primarily aimed at the young male demographic. In this case, though, instead of the focus falling on some of the team's most important young players, it's on Kurt Russell's mentor. Herb Brooks is a veteran of the trade, originally from Minnesota. He is tasked with assembling the best players and helping the USA win the Winter Olympics gold medals in the men's ice hockey tournament for the first time since 1960. It should take place at the American resort of Lake Placid and in competition with the outstanding team of the USSR, as well as the very good Swedes, Finns and Canadians who are the other great powers in the sport.

The role in which Kurt Russell enters makes him unrecognizable. He's a jovial, steady middle-aged man, but with his high school bowl hairdo. His wife, played by Patricia Clarkson, has only one function in life, and that is to complain that her husband's work takes up too much of the time he can devote to family. This role looks extremely worn, especially with the shot where the woman appears at the door of her man's office while he is at his hottest point. But that's one of the minor details in The Miracle.

Herb Brooks is a real person, and the movie is based on a true story. Brooks lost his life in a car accident immediately after filming on the production was completed. However, "Miracle" manages to present it in all its complexity. It is immediately apparent that he is a good coach, but he is not always liked by the players, and viewers can be left with doubts about this. The beauty of the film comes here because the focus falls precisely on the work of a mentor. Something that is rarely, if ever, seen in other sports movies.

Brooks knew the frustrations of hockey after being cut from the men's team in 1960 the week before the first game of the Squaw Valley Games. When it comes to the point where one of the contestants has to be eliminated in "Miracle" as well, Coach Brooks knows how it feels and empathizes with his contestant in a unique way.

After being selected as the coach of the US national team, Brooks immediately broke with the tradition of bringing together senior, proven players who are highly regarded by fans and the rest of his teammates. The coach has another idea and that is to find kids who are hungry for success and the passion for the game is even more than ardent. Therefore, the team is seen as a whole and you rarely recognize the faces of the players. The only exception is goalkeeper Jim Craig, whose role is played by Eddie Cahill. He refuses to take the psychological exam that Brooks gives the contestants, but it's a very good move for him.

"Miracle" also manages to sidestep most of the clichés of the modern sports movie. It only talks about training hard athletes and winning games. He doesn't even bother to make the opponents look bad, because we're talking about a true story, and there are no bad guys in sports. When the USA meets the USSR, the opponent is depicted simply as the other team. The coach of the Soviet Union has a gloomy look and does not smile much, but he is not a schemer, and his hockey players do not play any dirtier than other teams.

Because of its analytical style, "Miracle" does not focus on the trick scenes during the game itself. Instead, it brings us to the ice and lets us feel the energy instead of focusing so much on the storyline going on in between.

Kurt Russell's acting is perfect. It only makes the film even better. It appears that Russell has managed to land a very difficult role after much research. His performance and O'Connor's wonderful direction create more than a cinematic production recreating a real sporting event. They build a personality that leads young men to great success, and 20 years earlier it suffered a huge disappointment. The film doesn't even end with the outcome of the competition, but with another focus on the coach as the USA wins the gold.

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