Miracle
Short description
Miracle is a 2004 drama about Herb Brooks, a coach who takes charge of the United States men's Olympic hockey team ahead of the 1980 Winter Games in Lake Placid. Brooks gathers a group of young college players rather than established stars and has only months to turn them into a unit capable of competing against the Soviet team, which is widely regarded as the best in the world. The players must overcome their own rivalries and doubts as they prepare for the tournament.
The film was directed by Gavin O'Connor and written by Eric Guggenheim, with Mark Ciardi and Gordon Gray producing for Walt Disney Pictures. It was the first feature O'Connor directed, before Pride and Glory, Warrior, Jane Got a Gun, The Accountant, The Way Back and The Accountant². Kurt Russell plays Brooks, with Patricia Clarkson as his wife Patty, Noah Emmerich as Craig Patrick, Sean McCann as Walter Bush, Kenneth Welsh as Doc Nagobads and Eddie Cahill as Jim Craig. Seventy-four cast members are credited.
Against a budget of about 28 million US dollars, Miracle took roughly 64 million worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7.5 out of 10 from around 64,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.1 out of 10 from roughly 700 votes. A critics' rating of 7.1 out of 10 from 163 reviews places it close to the audience scores. The film recounts the real American run at the medal.
What's left behind the scenes
- Kurt Russell agreed to reduce his fee so that almost a thousand extras could receive a full hot meal instead of dry rations.
- Bill Ranford, a former goaltender for the Edmonton Oilers, was the backup goalie for the American team's Jim Craig.
- Herb Brooks' wife, Patti Brooks, appears in a cameo as one of the spectators at the USSR vs. USA game. She sits to the left of the actor who played Jim Craig's father and appears in many shots of the game. She can also be seen in several scenes with Walter Bush, the director of the American Olympic Hockey Committee.
- Buzz Schneider, one of the players on the American hockey team, was played by his son, Billy Schneider.
- Director Gavin O'Connor's cameo: a fan wrapping the national flag around Jim Craig's shoulders at the very end of the film.
- The referee in the key game was played by Ryan Walter, a former NHL hockey player and resident of Vancouver. He was also a technical consultant on the film and was responsible for staging all the hockey scenes. Special attention was paid to ensuring that all goals in the film looked exactly as they did in real matches.
- Over 4,000 people tried out for the 20 roster spots on the American Olympic hockey team.
- Herb Brooks, the American team's coach at the 1980 Olympic Games, was himself a participant in the Olympic hockey tournament in 1964 and 1968.
- The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center were recreated using computer graphics. This was the first time this had been done since their destruction in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
- The scene in which coach Herb Brooks made the entire team skate back and forth across the ice after a humiliating 3-3 draw with Norway was filmed over three days, 12 hours a day. The director wanted to achieve maximum realism.
- The total length of the filmed footage amounted to over 450 kilometers – an absolute record for Disney projects at the time.
- Young people invited to play the American hockey players were primarily selected for their physical qualities and ability to play hockey. For most of them, this was their first work in film.
- Coach Herb Brooks died in a car accident on August 11, 2003, during the filming process. The film is dedicated to his memory, as mentioned before the end credits.
- Ken Dryden and Al Michaels, who commentated the 1980 matches on American television, reconstructed much of their reportage for the film's shooting twenty-three years later. At the same time, archival footage from ABC was used for the final seconds of the game between the USSR and the USA.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
