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"The Rocket" A Blast From The Past

(from the Denver Post)

By Terry Frei
The Denver Post

November 4, 2007 - Fifteen minutes into watching an "advance screening" DVD of "The Rocket," the 2005 biography of Montreal Canadiens great Maurice "Rocket" Richard that will be available for purchase on DVD in the U.S. on Dec. 11, I had an urge to hit "pause" and make popcorn. 

So I did. 

"The Rocket" is that good. 

After pulling the popcorn bag out of the microwave, I hit "resume" and watched the rest. 

This movie, mostly in French with English subtitles (in its Quebec release, I assume it was the opposite, with French subtitles for the film's considerable English dialogue) deserves to be seen on a huge screen. 

With a $7.25 bag of popcorn. 

The audience could include both those who can recite the Stanley Cup winners, year by year, over the past five decades; or who have never attended a hockey game and couldn't explain icing. 

Everyone would enjoy it. 

But we have to settle for the DVD. 

It's not only entertaining, but educational, especially for English-speaking hockey journalists, fans and even modern-era players who underestimate or are ignorant of the maltreatment French-Canadians faced in both their nation and even the NHL in the days of ... well, to a point, even today. 

The movie, previously shown under the title "Maurice Richard" in theaters in Canada, is one of the better sports movies I've seen in a long time. 

We're accustomed to "true stories" being mostly fiction or unadulterated malarkey (e.g., "Invincible" and "We Are Marshall"), and I don't doubt that there are liberties taken in the screenplay. I'm halfway through writing the screenplay adaptation of my book, "Third Down and a War to Go," and I understand that liberties have to be taken. In the case of "The Rocket," the film does get a bit syrupy at times, and it succumbs to the sports movie cliché of excessive use of slow-motion game scenes. 

But it never goes over the top. 

Richard and other French-Canadian players, even those in Montreal (!), had to deal with a culture, a league, official scorers, referees, coaches and opponents who wanted to tilt the ice and the system in favor of Anglophone players. Clearly, the film has an agenda, but all films do, especially because the term "propaganda" doesn't have to be the pejorative we have let it become. 

Roy Dupuis stars as Richard, and the cast includes a handful of NHL players, mostly seen and not heard - in some cases, so briefly and unobtrusively, you really have to look hard to spot them. Former Avalanche center Mike Ricci is an exception, getting a few lines and considerable screen time as center Elmer Lach, who joined Toe Blake on the "Punch Line" with Richard. 

Others in the cast are the Avalanche's Ian Laperriere as Bernie "Boom Boom" Geoffrion; Tampa Bay's Vinny Lecavalier as Jean Beliveau; two-ex Colorado goalies, Phil Sauve and Marc Denis, as a goalie and a radio announcer, respectively; and, in the ultimate irony, the Rangers' Sean Avery, who has gotten into trouble for his perceived anti-French attitudes, as a Rangers goon who goes after Richard. 

Some reviews pointed out that Dupuis is physically reminiscent of Richard, but I couldn't help but note what seems to me to be an uncanny resemblance - both in looks and, at times, in demeanor - to Patrick Roy. 

Oh, yes, the story. Richard was a young Montreal machinist, rejected for World War II service because he had suffered a broken wrist and ankle as a young player. With so many Canadians off serving in the war, he got his chance with the Canadiens, and overcame another broken ankle that shortened his first season (1942-43) to set an NHL single-season record with 45 goals in 1943-44. 

And from there, in the post-war era, he not only proved he belonged, but that he was the best. He did it while fighting prejudice against French-Canadians and at times generating controversy with his increasingly outspoken views and - in one famous incident in Boston - his retaliation, which caused him to be suspended by the NHL and set off riots in Montreal. 

Both thumbs up.