Great movie from 1977, Slapshot, with 51 yr old Paul Newman playing an aging minor league hockey player who tries to save his team from being disbanded. Filmed in Johnston and Pittsburgh, at the height of the steel meltdown. the economy was destroying these traditional towns, thousands facing unemployment, and the violence, anger, of the game reflects the mood of the fans. As Craig Ferguson says, "sounds familiar?????" The height of the movie are the "Hanson Brothers," actually two brothers and a guy named David Hanson, who brought a new level of insanity and violence to the game, kinda like the marx brothers compete in world wide federation wrestling. David hanson was there before the movie and clarified a few things: 1) the brothers were NOT too stupid to play with themselves, he said he plays with himself to this day; (2) they did not actually take their slot cars on the road, but yes, they did play slot cars on their days off (3) Paul newman did his own skating on the film, except for a couple scenes of really fast action (4) paul newman was great, not some stuck up movie star, liked to have a cold one with the boys, and they kept in touch long after the movie was made. That confirmed my opinion of Paul newman, i am still sad when I think about his passing. he was one of a kind. anyway, at the early part of the film, after the hanson brothers started a free for all brawl BEFORE the national anthem was even played, the players and referee are lined up, national anthem playing, the referee so pissed off he walks up to david hanson (maybe, they all looked the same with those coke glasses on) and threatens him, if you guys try any rough stuff I'll throw you out and so forth and hanson tells him loudly, "Hey! I'm listen' to the fucking song!" (about 2min 5 sec into the 2 min 7 sec video). I laughed so hard I embarrassed myself.
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