Slap Shot is a 1977 American sports comedy film directed by George Roy Hill, written by Nancy Dowd and starring Paul Newman and Michael Ontkean. It depicts a minor league ice hockey team that resorts to violent play to gain popularity in a declining factory town. Dowd based much of her script, as well as several of the characters, on her brother Ned Dowd's playing experiences on 1970s minor league professional hockey teams. While Slap Shot received mixed reviews upon release and was only a moderate box office success, it has since become widely regarded as a cult film. Plot In the fictional small town of Charlestown, Pennsylvania, the local steel mill is about to close permanently and lay off 10,000 workers, indirectly threatening the existence of the town's minor league hockey team, the Charlestown Chiefs, who are also struggling with a losing season and an increasingly hostile crowd. After discovering the hometown fans responding positively to an on-ice brawl with the opposing goalie, player-coach Reggie Dunlop goads his own team into a violent style of play, eventually letting the overly-aggressive Hanson Brothers, the club's recent acquisitions, loose on their opponents. The brothers' actively violent and thuggish style of play excites the fans, which increases revenue, potentially saving the team. The team's new style produces unintended consequences that affect not only Dunlop, but the Chiefs' star player, Ned Braden, along with the rest of the team. Braden refuses to take part in the violent antics, as Dunlop attempts to exploit Braden's marital troubles in his efforts to get him to take part in the team's brawling, but to no avail. Several games degenerate into bench-clearing brawls, including one that takes place before the opening face-off, and another that brings the local police into the locker room to arrest the Hanson Brothers after they attack the opposing fans in the stands. Nonetheless, the Chiefs rise up the ranks to become contenders for the championship, and a rumor (started by Dunlop himself to further motivate his teammates) spreads that the team's success could possibly lead them to be sold to a buyer in Florida. Eventually Dunlop meets team owner Anita McCambridge, and discovers his efforts to increase the team's popularity (and value) through violence have been for naught, as McCambridge's better option is to fold the team as a tax write-off. By the time Dunlop decides to abandon the new strategy of