Nothing in movies is surefire anymore, yet George Roy Hill, who directed … two of the ten biggest money-makers of all time, will probably have a third with his new Slap Shot. The picture is set in the world of minor-league ice hockey, and the theme is that the public no longer cares about the sport—it wants goonish vaudeville and mayhem. Hill's last picture, The Great Waldo Pepper—a box-office failure—was bright and clear; it had the coolness of a schoolboy reverie. This time, he's heated up his technique. Slap Shot is darker-colored and grainier; it's faster, noisier, more profane, and more brutal than previous Hill productions…. Slap Shot never slows down. You're aware of the seams and joins, but you can admire their proficiency; Hill directs with dispatch. (p. 273)

Hill's attitudes are elusive; he's making a comic hymn to violence, and yet you can sense his...