1/11/2005 Add a comment

Living so close to the Canadian border, I get the CBC on my t.v. The other night it showed a movie titled, I shit you not, Men With Brooms. It was like "Rocky" meets curling. I only saw the last five minutes, but the final scene was of the three scrappy curlers winning on the final shot of the tournament by one of them throwing the stone so hard that it exploded on impact with the "evil" team's stone and a large chunk of their stone landed in the middle of the bulls-eye to give them the miraculous come-from-behind win.

The best part was when the underdog-guy lined up the shot, one of his teammates frantically said "Wait, what is he doing?" and the other teammate replied without missing a beat, "He's making poetry."

Poetry, indeed. The website has all the rules and history of curling, far more that you would ever, ever want to know.

My question to you is this...what sport hasn't been given the "Rocky" treatment? What sport deserves it most? least? I'm going to stick to the Winter Olympic theme and say the Biathlon. I want to hear the uplifting story of the tough-as-nails kid who was good at both shooting and skiing for no apparent reason but was from a down-on-his-luck family, and then had to go up against the rich (and hence evil) biathletes at the junior nationals. Other suggestions? ben

Comments

  1. Blogger William: Yes, your biathlete would have crafted his makeshift skis from wooden fence posts, and learned to shoot with a homemade slingshot.

    I think an even better one might be a modern pentathlon movie, including learning to ride a horse on a wooden rocking horse.

    Also, what's astonishing was that Leslie Nielsen is in the movie! I didn't even know that Canada made movies (although I do know that many Hollywood movies are now shot in Canada), and that they managed to get someone as talented as Leslie Nielsen! Tell me this, had he died in the movie with 5 minutes left? I'd put even money on the old guy dying of some terminal disease, which then sparked the scrappy underdog team to victory.     1/12/2005  
  2. Blogger ben: Leslie Nielsen must have been dead, so they could win one for old dead Leslie Nielsen. Either that or they dressed him up in a plaid shirt and beard and I didn't recognize him, which is possible but highly unlikely.

    Also the bad guys had some SS-looking uniforms and state-of-the-art brooms, while the good guys wore jeans and plaid shirts and had brooms that you find behind the refridgerator.     1/12/2005  
  3. Anonymous Anonymous: I'm Canadian and I saw "Men with Brooms" the other night, too. Unfortunately, I sat through it all. Bottom line: It sucked. (For that matter, so does curling.) It watched it through because of the talented cast involved, hoping it would get better. Believe it or not, if you only saw the last five minutes, you wouldn't have known there was actually a dead guy's ashes inside that exploding stone.

    Some may recognize Molly Parker, currently starring in HBO's "Deadwood."

    By the way, there are plenty of absolutely great Canadian films. Check it out on IMDB.COM sometime.

    My personal favorite: "Black Robe", the story of a Jesuit priests first encounters with Native Canadians in the 1600's. A little brutal, but the scenery alone is worth the price     1/14/2005  
  4. Blogger William: The dead guy's ashes were in the exploding stone? That's hilarious! (Somber, of course, but hilarious.) 1/14/2005