Miracle produced by Gavin O’Conner is truly a fantastic movie. This was the first time I had seen the movie and I really enjoyed it. Before watching the movie, I was aware of the brief overview of the “Miracle on Ice” event, but watching the movie helped strengthen my knowledge of the event and more importantly it’s impact on history. I believed the actors did a great job portraying what happened. As an athlete, I love the premise of the underdog defeating the seemingly invincible opponent. This past football season our team was an inexperienced underdog in the WCAC and many of the sports analysts said that we would finish in the bottom half of our league. We ended up having a great season going 11-2 and easily beating Dematha, the number two team in the nation. The reason we were able to beat most of our …show more content…
While watching the movie, I learned a lot about America in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. Before watching the movie, I thought that travel to the Soviet Union from the United States and vice versa would have been cut off due to the Cold War tensions between them. Instead the movie showed that the Soviets had no problem getting to the U.S for their games at Lake Placid and Madison Square Garden. I did not know that the United States were not allowed to play professional hockey players in the Olympics at that time. This created a big problem because the US team was full of young college players who had not played together, while the Soviets were much more experienced and had played together since a young age. I was not aware of the huge impact the game had on American society. During this time period America’s economy was not flourishing in any means and the Cold War was in progress, but this win showed the people that there is hope and that the Soviet Union was no longer an unbeatable world power. This helped spur American nationalism and led to a decrease in Soviet
... milestone game in 1980, hockey in the United States has grown significantly at the professional and amateur levels. (USA Hockey, N.d.)
In basketball, the National Championship game is the dream of every kid that plays basketball in college. NC State’s basketball team wasn’t well known in 1983. Jim Valvano was the coach and he knew he had a great group of kids. When they won the ACC tournament against the great Ralph Sampson and Virginia, people thought that the win was just luck and they probably wouldn’t make last when they got into the tournament. Throughout the tournament, NC State kept surviving and advancing. In Johnathan Hock’s documentary “Survive and Advance”, Hock uses stock footage of the games that were played during the tournament, different points of view from the players, and the sequence of the documentary to prove that NC State’s basketball team were the underdogs during the whole tournament; however they were able to win despite their adversity
In the book “The Boys of Winter” by Wayne Coffey, shows the struggle of picking the twenty men to go to Lake Placid to play in the 1980 Olympics and compete for the gold medal. Throughout this book Wayne Coffey talks about three many points. The draft and training, the importance of the semi-final game, and the celebration of the gold medal by the support the team got when they got home.
As stated in my thesis statement, the sport of hockey has been forced to compete with the growing mass popularity with other sports such as basketball and football. There once was a point in time where hockey had just as much popularity as those sports but because people are finding more interest in those sports, the National Hockey League found itself in a “drought” of unimportance with other sports. With not televising the sport as “commonly” as other sports.
People consider the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team to be one of the greatest things to happen in U.S Olympic history. Their game against the Soviets is known as "The Miracle on Ice." The world was stunned when the United States defeated the Soviets in the semi-final game of the 1980 Olympics. The Soviets hadn't been beaten in the gold medal game in years. This miracle game is still greatly known around the world and will not be forgotten by Americans any time soon.
To the U.S. team, the win over the Soviets was just another hockey game, even though it was special to them. To the nation, it meant much more. The game was proof that America could still hold its own in the world, and could compete with the most powerful countries. Having been caught in the Cold War for decades, defeating the Soviets on the ice provided hope that they could be defeated elsewhere as well. Hockey grew in the United States thanks to the popularity of the Miracle on Ice. The game was an opportunity for Americans to feel pride for their country again.
But, the most meaningful way I have connected myself to Russian culture is through ice hockey. I have played hockey throughout my entire life and many of my favorite players are Russian. I realized this connection when my teammates and I were watching the movie Miracle at a hockey tournament in Lake Placid, not in 1980 though. In the movie, it showed the Soviets having the best ice hockey program in the world at the time, while the young U.S. ice hockey program was developing. Throughout the entire movie, I was cheering for the Soviet Union because it was my homeland. But what I didn’t know at the time was that I was the only one in the room who had not seen the movie. During the first game that the U.S. played, the Soviets crucified the U.S. 10-3. … And then came the Olympics
In 1979, the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, and the lessening tension between the US and the Soviets was put on full blast. Due to this, the hockey game between the US and the Soviets in the semifinals wasn't just any game. It was during the Cold War, a period of great tension between the US and the USSR....
The 1980 Olympics Games in Moscow was supposed to be the usual multi-sport, international event where athletes from all nations come to prove their athletic ability. However, the Soviet Union’s invasion in Afghanistan led the United States to respond by withdrawing from the Olympic Games. As a result, a total of sixty five other countries, did not attend the Olympic Games. Although a number of countries did not participate in the Games, the Games went on as planned.
The Cold War of the 20th century is seen by many to be a war fought in order to spread the ideologies of the world’s two major powers, the Soviet Union and the United States. In order to successfully spread their communist ideals, the Soviet Union had to show to the world that their system was working better than the capitalist ideals of the West and the United States. In their attempt to do so, the Soviet Union used various methods of propaganda and persuasion to convince the outside world that their economy and people were flourishing under their communist system. One of these methods was through international sport. The Soviets built strong sports programs, mainly their prized hockey team and Olympic program, to assert their world power
The purpose of this study is to analyze extensively the role that Cold War tensions played in the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games. The analysis seeks to understand the effect that politics, have on the organization, implementation and eventually success of sporting events such as the Olympics. In order to do so, the analysis will address the events leading up to, during and after the Moscow Olympic Games of 1980. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 will be addressed to help place the games into perspective. Also, exchanges between the two nations before, during and after the games will be analyzed to understand if and to what extent they affected the games. To investigate the issue, the study will address the history, values, purpose and limitations of two critical sources; Olympic Sports and Propaganda Games: Moscow 1980 by Barukh Ḥazan and Dropping the Torch: Jimmy Carter, the Olympic Boycott, and the Cold War by Nicholas Evan Sarantakes.
The movie The Miracle Worker, directed by Arthur Penn was released in 1962. The Miracle Worker play was written by William Gibson in 1956. Both have several similarities and several differences.
The movie “Glory” tells the history and the story of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry. It became the first black regiment to fight for the North in the Civil War. The Regiment was made up of black soldiers – some were Northern freemen, some were escaped slaves. The leader was General Robert Gould Shaw, the son of Boston abolitionists. The men of the 54th Regiment proved themselves worthy of the freedom for which they fighting, and the respect of their fellow white soldiers.
Throughout contemporary history we see that movies and pop culture have the power to influence opinion and beliefs. During the Cold War the movies and the media was a means used to spread propaganda regarding the war. Individuals and directors used the movies they made to convey a message they wanted Americans to hear. At this time, it was used to garner support for the anti-communist agenda and to start conversations about the Cold War and the actions the government was taking to fight it. Although these two movies may seem conflicting, it reflects the mixed feelings Americans had about the Cold War.
“You will face your greatest opposition when you are closest to your biggest miracle,” was said by Shannon Alder to describe the nature of miracles. The play “The Miracle Worker” by William Gibson is the remarkable story of handicapped Helen Keller, and it has these phenomenal miracles with their struggles and obstacles in various forms. Out of the many miracles present in the play, the three most obvious were Annie teaching Helen the concept of a word, Annie changing the way the Kellers viewed Helen’s disabilities, and Annie’s capability of loving again.