Blades of Glory
Short description
Chazz Michael Michaels and Jimmy MacElroy are two American figure skaters at opposite ends of the sport. Chazz performs like a rock star, courting the crowd with a showman's routine, while Jimmy, raised in an orphanage and trained from childhood, represents technical precision and discipline. Their long-running rivalry as singles competitors turns personal, and a public brawl at a world championship costs both men their gold medals and bans them from the sport.
The two discover a loophole in the rules: the ban applies to the singles event, but nothing prevents them from entering as a pairs team. To compete internationally again, the bitter rivals must skate together despite their mutual contempt.
Josh Gordon and Will Speck directed the comedy from a screenplay by Jeff Cox, Craig Cox and John Altschuler; Ben Stiller was among its producers. It was the second feature for both directors, following Angry Boy a decade earlier. Will Ferrell and Jon Heder lead the cast as the mismatched pair, with Will Arnett, Amy Poehler, Jenna Fischer and William Fichtner in supporting roles. Made for about 53 million dollars, it took in roughly 118 million worldwide. On IMDb it holds 6.3 from around 186,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.1 from nearly 2,000 votes, broadly in line with the critics' rating of 6.4 from 187 reviews.
What's left behind the scenes
- The preparation of the two lead actors and the choreography of the ice scenes in the film were overseen by renowned Canadian figure skater Sarah Kawahara, who trained world champions and Olympic medalists, and also staged world-famous ice shows. Her assistant was Lisa Marie Allen, a competitor in figure skating at the 1980 Olympic Games, who also appears in a cameo role in one of the episodes.
- Playing professional figure skaters required significant effort and long training sessions from Will Ferrell and John Heder. John Heder even broke his ankle during figure skating training in preparation for filming, and this rather serious injury to the actor caused an unforeseen delay in the project’s work.
- According to the flags of the countries raised at the awards ceremony at the World Championship, the medalists were athletes from the USA (the two main characters), South Korea, and Sweden. Figure skaters from South Korea have never reached the podium in the history of men's singles skating, and Swedish athletes last achieved this feat in 1929. Furthermore, this situation with four medalists directly contradicts the rules, and if two skaters were to share first place, both would receive gold medals, no one would receive silver, and only bronze would be awarded.
- The scenes of the World Figure Skating Championship were filmed at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.
- The figure skating style of Will Ferrell's character is partially based on the performances of the famous Canadian figure skater, three-time world champion Elvis Stojko.
- Many of the elements performed on the ice by Chazz and Jimmy, such as lifting each other, actually belong to dance, not figure skating. Their inclusion in the program is not explicitly prohibited by the rules, and they have been performed by many famous figure skaters in official competitions. Accordingly, the situation where a television commentator would see something like this for the first time and be amazed is unlikely to have happened in reality.
- In the opening scene of the film, when young Jimmy first discovers figure skating as a child, the song “Time to Say Goodbye” by Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli is playing. The same song was used during the performance of the compulsory program by German figure skater Katarina Witt in the film “Ronin” (1998).
- The hotel used to accommodate athletes at the Olympic Games in Montreal in the film is the famous “Habitat 67” building complex, built for the 1967 World's Fair. In reality, it never served as a hotel, but is a private condominium.
- Craig T. Nelson, who played the role of the coach, had previously appeared on screen in a similar role in the series “Coach” (1989-1997).
- The famous figure skaters appearing in the film include: Sasha Cohen, Scott Hamilton, Peggy Fleming, Brian Boitano, Dorothy Hamill, Nancy Kerrigan, Kyoko Ina, Yuka Sato, and David Pelletier.
- The loophole in the rules used by the two main characters is, in reality, a complete fabrication of the screenwriters. According to the rules of official pairs skating competitions, a pair consists of a man and a lady (lady being the accepted term for a woman in figure skating).
- According to the film's screenwriters, "88.773% of Will Ferrell's dialogue" was either improvised by the actor or specifically tailored to him.
- The role of Chazz Michael Michaels could have gone to Ben Stiller, but the actor felt that the character was too similar to roles he had played previously.
- During the press conference, Jimmy McEllroy (Jon Heder) answers a question from a Japanese reporter asked in Japanese. Jon Heder spent two years in Japan as a Mormon missionary, during which time he became fluent in Japanese.
- Copies of the film were delivered to American cinemas under the fake title 'Partners'.
- The fictional figure skating element called the 'Steel Lotus' is a parody of the skating performed by Anton Pamchenko in the movie 'Striking Blade' (1992).
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