User Reviews

It seems to me that good sports movies in general, and ice hockey movies in particular, are hard to make. That's why Oddvar Bull Tuhus' Hockeyfeber(Which means Hockey Fever in English) is such a lovely piece of movie. It's about a Norwegian hockey team, who is trying to find out how to make a challenge for the top of the league. To do this they get hold of the Finnish coach Glenn, played by Jörn Donner, who makes the team practice much harder than before, and in different ways, including boxing. But there's still lots of conflict, both internally in the team and the organization, but also between players and their girlfriends. Then, in rage over a bad call by the referee, the goalie punches said official, and gets a long, hard ban. And the playoffs are on their way, while the team only has the inexperienced backup goalie. A funny little exchange at this point is when the reporters find out about the boxing practice, legendary Norwegian broadcaster Knut Th. Gleditsch, played by himself, asks the coach if he knows of any other sports that uses boxing as part of their practice. The coach looks back, before answering, "Well, boxing, I believe." And then the playoffs, including the final against the big, bad Inter team. And who wins? That's not hard to guess. The team in the movie, Manglerud Star, is an actual Norwegian hockey team, and many of the ones playing in this gem of Norwegian movies were players on the team.