Slap Shot

Paul Newman plays the coach in George Roy Hill's confused foulmouthed comedy, about a down-and-out minor-league hockey team, that resorts to violence to sell tickets. The film falls into the trap of glorifying the violence it pretends to deplore, and Nancy Dowd's script takes a rather naive delight in its own naughtiness. The women (Jennifer Warren as hockey coach Newman's estranged wife and Lindsay Crouse as the well-educated, hard-drinking hockey wife) are intriguing, and the roughhousing is often hilarious. Newman's performance is one of his best, and the striptease Michael Ontkean does on the ice is funny and sexy.