Miracle (2004)

A dumb Disney sports biopic. It still worked.

As a Minnesotan, I’ve been surrounded by hockey my whole life. Frankly, I never fully got it. I swam on the swim team and felt resentment towards the hockey kids for getting all the adoration. I dismissed Miracle for years as a dumb Disney adaptation of a sports event - a by the numbers biopic I didn’t need.

I was mostly right. It is by the numbers. But I have to admit, it still worked.

The pro-America propaganda against the communists doesn’t land quite right in 2026. That Cold War framing feels distant, a little too rah-rah for my politics. But by the end of the third act, I was overcome with emotion anyway. They got me.

Kurt Russell is great as Herb Brooks. The movie is really about his chemistry with the team - the way he pushes them, the way they resist and then believe. I love most things Kurt Russell is in, and he carries this.

It also helped me understand the inherent drama of sports. The tension, the stakes, the collective triumph. I get it now. A little. The hockey kids still got too much adoration though. I stand by that.

Also on Letterboxd