SLAP SHOT (1977): EMPOWERING WOMEN SINCE THE CARTER ADMINISTRATION

Please consider helping support this channel.   / obsessedwithcinema   https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted... https://ko-fi.com/obsessedwithcinema Twitter:   / cinemaobsessed1   Now with enhanced closed captioning (cc). Warning: Spoilers Make no mistake. Slap Shot (1977) has an entirely unexpected subtext embedded within it which has nothing whatever to do with hockey, hockey violence, team building, winning the Federal League championship or saving the Charlestown Chiefs, which—spoiler alert—Reggie is unable to effectuate. Rather, this subtext is about empowerment of the female characters. In this video, I thought that it might be interesting to examine how women are presented in the film, compared to male characters and what Nancy Dowd was trying to say in her script. To be sure, the relationship between men and women is an important part of how the film unfolds. It is hard not to notice that the men tend to function more as comic relief in the film and come off as children, whereas women are presented as hardworking, serious and frankly, the only adults in their (oftentimes unfulfilling) relationships. The men expend their lives in the childish pursuit of minor league trophies, while the women endure, trying to hold things together. Without their wives, however, the men appear adrift, whereas characters like Francine Dunlop (Reg’s soon to be ex-wife) feels liberated from a dysfunctional marriage to Reggie, which was mostly memories, but precious few plans or realities going forward—Francine knows that between the game and their marriage, she will always finish in second place. The basic plot of the film is childish wish fulfillment by Reggie, whereas Francine is fairly certain that she’s seen it all before and knows that it will end in failure, which it does. Ultimately, everything the men do in Slap Shot is largely a waste of time and effort. They are defined by their often toxic masculinity, whereas the women are more anchored in a much less fanciful view of life and engage in more tangible, constructive behaviour. When Reggie’s dream finally dies, it is a woman, Anita McCambridge, the Chief’s owner, who ends his dream by refusing to sell. The team is worth more folded, so the end of the team is entirely an accounting decision. When it comes to business, she is coldly rational and even ruthless (typically something one would expect of a man). To her, there is only one decision, regardless how popular the team has become. She is in control and knows what she wants to do. She couldn’t care less about what Reggie wants. The final decision, ending the franchise, does not seem difficult for her. In the end, she sees hockey players as goons, bragging to Reggie that she won’t even permit her own children to watch a hockey game on television. 0:00 Pre-Intro 0:10 Introduction 6:45 Nancy Dowd's Accomplishment 13:14 How Men Are Presented 23:31 How Women Are Presented 36:05 The Anita McCambridge Reveal 41:59 Outro #SlapShot #hockey #ReggieDunlop #PaulNewman #LilyBraden #GeorgeRoyHill #hockeyfights #LindsayCrouse #JenniferWarren #FrancineDunlop #empoweringwomen