January Recommendation: The Rocket-The Legend of Rocket Richard

 

                        Well it's the new year ladies and gentlemen and no the year that shall not be named will never be talked about nor ever will me mentioned about at all, so let's just leave it at that because well I don't even want to mention last year. But, hey it's a new and hopefully a better year so it's time for a monthly recommendation, and luckily since it's the beginning of NHL (Hockey Time) this month I figured what better way to start of the new year than to recommend a Hockey film that no one has pretty much ever seen in their life time well, other than the citizens of Quebec, Canada has, but I'm not quite sure if anyone else had the pleasure in seeing either. The film I'm recommending this year is called The Rocket: The Legend of Rocket Richard, and if you think Hockey is barbaric when it comes to the fighting they have, well ponder that thought when you watch a film like this when in the Original Six era (1942-67) for many reason's these guys were crazy mother f**kers, and I don't want to get into any further detail other than to say no goalies at that time were wearing any masks and none of the players were wearing any helmets, and so I'll just leave it at that. So, anyway let's talk about my January recommendation to start of the New Year.

                          The film itself is a biopic of Montreal Canadians superstar Maurice "Rocket" Richard (Roy Dupuis) who rose from the poverty levels in Quebec to becoming the French-Canadian hero in Montreal. The films start with him slowly rising to stardom in the NHL, then taking a stand to the league in recognizing French Canadian players out there.

                          Now how I found this movie I guess it was, in a strange description of fate for many reasons I kind of found this film by accident but in a good way. I was trying to create a list of the top five best Hockey films out there, and suddenly I found a trailer to this film and for some reason it peaked my interest because it has a lot to do with the blue-collar worker becoming a legendary hero in the sport of Hockey. A side from that, Richard played the game at a time were hockey players had to be tough in order to survive, give you a great example Richard's teammate Elmer Lach once had his foot slashed by an opponent’s leather skate, two severed veins were punctured and he's still playing hockey. And people doubted the Rocket especially when it came to his first and second season except for his Coach Dick Irvin who believed he was a special breed of wanting to win furthermore prove people wrong. And I personally have now knowledge of the what the tensions were like in French Canada during the World War II times but I thought the film alone was compelling on so many levels when it comes to telling the story of a Hockey player who became more of a Hero to all Quebeckers and still to this day, and this is probably my forth or maybe fifth viewing of this great film and I'm learning a lot of things every time I sit down and watch the film again. I watched a few documentaries about Maurice Richard and a lot of the historic facts actually happen in the movie as well such as my favorite moment in the film, is when the Canadians play the New York Rangers in New York, a defensemen named Bob Dill is task with trying to stop Maurice with any means necessary and the Rocket was at the point of wanting to fight Dill, but everyone including Dick Irvin was trying to stop Richard because they thought he was going to be hurt and with the whole tension expanding through the film till they meet face to face Richard his Dill with just one punch and Bob Dill goes down moreover everyone including myself was like "oh he's fine, he got this" and I thought that was amazing because I honestly didn't expect that. Roy Dupuis does a fantastic job playing the Rocket furthermore does a great job in really embodying the physical presents of the character moreover does a grand job showing so much of the emotions the real-life Richard burden himself with through his playing career and the attitude that went along with it especially when he went to score goals. Stephen McHattie whom I recognized after watching Watchmen a few years back, does a great job as well playing the real-life Dick Irvin who in a sense becomes the mentor/motivator to push the right buttons on Richard furthermore to be the best at what he can be. I should point out that this film is both a French and English speaking film, so if you don't want to watch this I completely understand, but deep down I this film alone is up there in the best of three Hockey films of all time third among Slap Shot and Miracle, furthermore I believe Maurice "Rocket" Richard's story should be told for generations of Hockey fans out there for many reason's without him we wouldn't have NHL greats like Gordie Howe, Bobby Orr, Super Mario Lemmieux or The Great One aka Wayne Gretzky. And in closing, if you’re a Hockey fan or not but do love a sports movie I would highly recommend this film to start off the New Year of 2021. And GO BLUES.