Last night I watched a movie called Miracle, which is the story of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team that stunned the world by beating the Soviet Union and going on to win the gold medal. Event though I knew how the film would end, I was still very much interested in what was going on. In fact, I was positively riveted during the scenes of the big Soviet Union matchup — it was very intense!
Kurt Russell played Herb Brooks, who was the coach of the team. He was really the only actor I knew in the movie, but that didn’t matter. This one was all about the hockey, and fortunately those scenes were great. They were very realistic and I could tell that the actors were actually pretty decent hockey players.
Back in 1980 I wasn’t old enough to know what was going on. I knew about the “miracle” of the U.S. team beating the Russians, but I always thought that in itself was the gold medal game. After watching this movie, I realize that I’ve been wrong my whole life! The U.S. actually played Finland for the gold medal, winning that game 4-2 and cementing their place in hockey history.
Miracle is a fantastic movie, so be sure to check it out!