Slap Shot is a 1977 film comedy starring Paul Newman and Michael Ontkean directed by George Roy Hill. It depicts a minor league hockey team that resorts to violent play to gain popularity in a declining factory town.
Reggie Dunlop (Paul Newman) is the aging player-coach of the Charlestown Chiefs hockey team in the fictional Federal League. A perennial loser for years, the team's manager Joe McGrath (Strother Martin) has resorted to extreme cost-cutting techniques and embarrassing promotional antics to keep local interest alive. Dunlop, while not particularly talented as either a player or coach, is a skilled con man, and regularly manipulates the team to his own advantage. During a hopeless season, the team picks up the Hanson Brothers, bespectacled violent goons with child-like mentalities, complete with toys in their luggage. Horrified at being given players who seem stupid, immature, and unreliable, Dunlop initially chooses not to play them.
When it is announced that the local mill will be closing and 10,000 workers will be unemployed, Dunlop grows concerned about the team's future. He makes several attempts to learn the identity of the team's anonymous owner (a running gag
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