All right hosers, listen up: Who own da Chiefs?
As any hockey fan worthy of the name knows, the answer is "Owns. Owns."
That answer and a lot even the most fanatical devotees of the greatest sports movie of all time may not know are in a new book put out by Wiley - The Making of Slap Shot. It is available in all the usual places, such as amazon.ca, and author Jonathon Jackson, who hails from a great little hockey town called Owen Sound, Ont., travelled many kilometres and made many phone calls to track down everything you need to know about Reggie Dunlop, the Hansons, Mo Wanchuk, Dickie Dunn and all the other great characters in the movie.
Like many classic movies, when Slap Shot was released in 1977 relatively few movie-goers (mostly university students in their 20s like your agent) appreciated its genius but its cachet has grown over the years. The great irony about the film is that it was a broad satire on the cartoonish violence that overran hockey in those days but turned out to be the most authentic movie ever made about the sport.
In addition to telling us what became of all those associated with the movie, from the famous like Paul Newman down to the kid who played the stickboy who told the Chiefs Oggie Oglethorpe was suspended for the big game, Jackson fills us in on the twists and turns taken to get the movie made.
For instance, did you know Al Pacino was the first major star considered to play Reggie Dunlop? Yes, I know, painful to imagine him telling a certain goaltender about the sexual habits of his wife or putting a bounty on the head of Tim McCracken. You will also find out that Nancy Dowd, the screenwriter who got the idea for her big break by hearing her brother Ned talking about playing for the minor-league Johnstown Jets, has a difficult relationship with her most famous project, including a dislike of what Steve and Jeff Carlson and Dave Hanson have done with their Hanson Brothers characters in recent years.
So put on the foil and go grab a copy. And get an extra one for that friend who is always talking about you know what in F-L-A.