Prodigal director Steven Soderbergh is quoted as saying what he hates the most is when every part of a movie looks the same. It is this crime, though, that many times the otherwise original, inventive independent films are guilty of. Ironically, Soderbergh’s career was birthed from this circle, and many of his early films were a bit monotone. It is a great treat, then, when such a film is able to blend imaginative story with inventive visuals.
The Rocket, directed by Charles Binamé, is just such a film.
Though natively from Belgium, Binamé is a Quebecer director who has a very distinct cinematic eye that should be given a look at broader fare. However, backhanded compliments aside,
The Rocket is a superb hockey film, a spectacular sports movie, and all together a really good effort.
Playing legendary hockey player Maurice “The Rocket” Richard is Roy Dupuis, who embodies the man with sincerity and precision. Richard may not be as familiar to Americans as Gretzky or Lemieux, but he is almost indisputably the best player to come out of Quebec. However, the film is more than just his story. It tackles the complexities and atrocities of the National Hockey League during the Great Depression (and beyond), as well as the era in general. Though this time period has been handled well in dozens of films, there is much more that allows this film to live up to the legend it replays.
For one, the way Binamé shoots the hockey scenes is just marvelous. I’m not sure a sporting event has been captured so majestically since, well, ever. It’s certainly not the best sports film ever made, but it belongs among the ranks of them. The ultimate test for a sports movie is simple: is the game captured in a more exciting way than it is broadcast on television? The answer, in this case, is a defiant yes. I’m a huge hockey fan, but I can assuredly say that I may prefer revisiting this film to watching some live games.
Despite the magical quality of much of the film, it is not without its faults. Some scenes feel a little clichéd, such as, early on, when an employer confronts Richard about the financial situation of his family. Also, the film becomes a little redundant in that many of the scenes don’t necessarily say anything new about Richard the man or the environment he inhabited.
However, the ending of
The Rocket can only be compared to one other sports film,
The Natural. Poignant, heart-pounding, and majestic, the ultimate fate of Richard is not what makes the conclusion so perfect. Rather, it is the way Binamé brilliantly captures the brutality of the sport in a way that is true to the story and, particularly, the character himself.
The Rocket is an invigorating, enlightening, enthralling film about the culture built around one man and the era he embodied. It leaves little unanswered about his life, and, more significantly, about the state of professional hockey. Extrapolating the conditions expressed in the film, one can imagine just how wonderfully reflective it is of the nature of sports in general. It was money that drove the managers, but resolve that impassioned Richards.