|
|
|
It was Hall of Fame goalie Glenn Hall who probably described Richard's magnetism best. "What I remember most about the Rocket were his eyes," Hall once said. "When he came flying toward you with the puck on his stick, his eyes were all lit up, flashing and gleaming like a pinball machine. It was terrifying."
|
Roy will begin
filming on the Maurice Richard project June1st and it should wrap by July
31st, 2005. Below is a bit of history about The Rocket. The film will
focus on the year 1955. Maurice Richard grew up in the tough
Bordeaux section of Montreal and learned the game in the city's amateur
system where he skated with teams such as Parc Lafontaine and the Verdun
Maple Leafs. He also competed with the Montreal Royals before joining the
Canadiens for the 1942-43 season. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
His potential was obvious to coach Dick Irvin, and his talent helped reawaken a franchise that had been struggling for a few years. Richard scored his first NHL goal on November 8, 1942, against the New York Rangers. Irvin teamed him for the most part with Gord Drillon and Buddy O'Connor. He was enjoying a fine start to his career with five goals in 16 games when his debut was cut short by a broken ankle. Richard scored 32 goals in 46 games during his first full season, then contributed 12 scores in nine contests to lead Montreal to the Stanley Cup over Chicago in 1944. This included the first of his three career record hat tricks in the finals. Teamed with Elmer Lach and Toe Blake on the dreaded Punch Line, Richard became the NHL's first 50-goal shooter in 1944-45. This feat was accomplished in 50 games, a performance that wouldn't be equaled until Mike Bossy did it in 1980-81. On December 28, 1944, Richard became the first player in NHL history to score eight points in one game. This remained the league standard until Darryl Sittler's 10-point night in 1976. The Rocket went on to top the NHL in goal-scoring four more times in his career. He also gained a place on the NHL All-Star Team 14 consecutive times from 1944 to 1957, and eight of these selections were for the First All-Star Team. During the 1952 semifinals against Boston, Richard was knocked unconscious by a check courtesy of Leo Labine. He was revived but remained in a semiconscious state when he scored the dramatic winning goal on Sugar Jim Henry. This became one of the moments that defined Richard's image in the minds of hockey fans across the league. On November 8, 1952, he scored his 326th regular-season goal against Chicago to surpass Nels Stewart as the NHL's all-time leader.
On October 19, 1957, Richard beat Glenn Hall of Chicago to become the first NHL player to score 500 regular-season goals. The historic tally was assisted by future Hall of Famers Dickie Moore and Jean Beliveau. Richard was often at his best in the most important games. His six career overtime goals set an NHL record. In all, he played on eight Stanley Cup-winning teams in Montreal. Even when injuries slowed him down just before the end of his career, Richard's presence in the lineup inspired his teammates and helped them win their fourth and fifth consecutive championships in 1959 and 1960. During the late 1950s, he gained much satisfaction playing occasionally on the same line as his brother Henri. On March 20, 1960, he beat Al Rollins of the New York Rangers to score his 544th and last regular-season NHL goal. He scored his last playoff goal on April 12, 1960, to help Montreal take a three-games-to-none lead over Toronto on their way to a four-game sweep in the finals. The Rocket retired after this last triumph and was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1961 when the customary three-year waiting period was waived. Richard remained visible in the Montreal area throughout his retirement. He served as the first coach of the WHA's Quebec Nordiques in 1972 but stepped down after two weeks because he didn't like the pressure and the fact that he was away from his family. Richard officially rejoined the Canadiens in 1980 when he agreed to represent the team at various public events. He craved a job in hockey but was never given the opportunity even after his recommendation to draft Mike Bossy in 1977 made him look a great deal smarter than many people might have given him credit for. Richard also worked as a representative for Molson Breweries and S. Albert Oil Limited. Richard was a hero to hockey fans across Canada, but he attained godlike status in his native Quebec. In 1983, when the Montreal daily La Presse conducted a survey of the top men of the 20th century, Richard trailed only folk singing legend Felix Leclerc. On June 25, 1998, the NHL board of governors voted to honour Richard with a trophy in his name to be presented annually to the league's top goal scorer. The Rocket was on hand at the 1999 NHL Awards to present the trophy to its inaugural winner, Teemu Selanne. As the century came to a close, Richard battled cancer with the same determination that brought him so many admirers as a player, but he succumbed to his illness on May 27, 2000. He was given a state funeral that was broadcast across the country - the first time such an honour was accorded an athlete.
|
Captures by Gayla
Roy and Remy
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Memories of a Hockey Icon by Red Fisher
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
7/31/05 http://radio-canada.ca/nouvelles/Index/nouvelles/200507/31/001-maurice-richard.shtml

http://www.voir.ca/cinema/cinema.aspx?iIDArticle=37713
|
November 24, 2005
Rocket biopic colours history
The red stands out because Maurice Richard
is a dark and moody film, part sports-idol biography, part political
documentary of 1940s and '50s Montreal. History buffs will love the
grainy black-and-white period shots of the city and its tramways,
newspaper hawkers and the sea of fedoras crowding Ste-Catherine
Street.
The politics of the time are equally black and
white. We are introduced to the future Rocket (or "la comète" as he
was initially known) as a doe-eyed 17-year-old rushing from his
grinding job at a machine shop to the championship game at an
outdoor rink because his evil anglophone boss kept him late as
punishment for not stooling on a union activist.
Political issues pursued Richard throughout
his career. Fuelled by the passion they watched Richard display on
ice, the downtrodden Canadiens Français - yet to be Québécois -
projected their hopes and dreams onto the Rocket, who was torn
between his desire to play hockey, pur et simple, and the pressure
to give voice to an emerging nationalism. Maurice Richard,
the film, is equally torn between these poles.
The movie works best when it simply tells
the story of how the legend of the Rocket was born, from his
first kiss to (barely) making the big club,
to being named third, second and first star after a five-goal game.
Richard, as played by Roy Dupuis, is
famously mute, preferring to let his play speak for him. Asked
in English by a reporter for his reaction after surpassing Roy
Malone's NHL single-season scoring record (44), Richard
responds with a story-killing quote: "It is good."
Later, on the train back to Montreal,
Richard is teased by teammates about his horrible English
interview skills. He suffers a telling blow from Habs
defenceman Butch Bouchard (Patrice Robitaille): "He's no
better in French."
Richard finally chose to speak out
against the bigotry of the league and its commissioner,
Clarence Campbell, and as a result Richard became a
lightning rod. At this juncture, Habs coach Dick Irvin Sr.
(Stephen McHattie, of TV's Cold Case) plays a vital
role. He exploits the "Frenchie" epithets of the
anglophone press to inspire his players, especially
Richard. But when the political fires burn too hot, he
counsels his star player to cool down and apologize for
blasting Campbell in print: "You're a hockey player. Play
hockey!"
The pressure of being a target
both on the ice and off is almost too much for Richard,
and Binamé's lens zooms in close on his emotional
struggles. Conversely, he treats the famous Richard
riot, which in the film occurs shortly after Richard has
a locker-room breakdown, almost as an afterthought. The
focus here is sharp when it stays tight and personal; it
gets fuzzier on the wide-angle sociological portrayal of
cultural and political ferment.
More than 50 years later,
language still bedevils this city, and Habs hockey
still fires us up - that's why Richard is such a
durable symbol. His state funeral at the Montreal
Forum five years ago testifies to this. He was always
more than a simple hockey player, whether he willingly
accepted this expanded public role or not.
Maurice Richard poured his
heart out for this city, in French and English. His
passion added Habs red to the mid-20th century,
which history, all too often, imagines in black and
white. (Lyle Stewart)
Maurice Richard
Roy on the Rocket
In this province, Roy
Dupuis is as iconic as you get. He's the
personification of maleness in more Quebec
films than I can list. He's perceived as a
brooder, a deep dude, a silent type who only
rarely comes out of his shell. The choice
couldn't have been more astute, then, to
cast Dupuis as Richard, the only man in
Quebec history to outdo him both in acclaim
and intensity.
Roy Dupuis He
was a complex man, Maurice. It's a film
that is important to me. It has historical
importance, but also personal importance,
since I knew Maurice Richard.
Hour I
didn't realize you'd known him...
Dupuis
Yes, I'd met him during the shooting
of the television series [in which I
also played him], and we'd pretty much
become buddies. We really liked each
other. It was a beautiful encounter.
Hour
Was the political aspect of his
statement important to you? In other
words, are you proud to have worked
on a film that made that statement?
Dupuis
Well, it certainly is part of the
character - you can't talk about
Maurice without talking about what
he represented for his people.
Maurice was a public figure.
Maurice was an icon, a man who
practically involuntarily
participated in the awakening of a
people. He was also a product of
that people, who had himself lived
its injustices, and it's clear
that it's something that was very
much part of his character. He's
someone who always fought
injustice, on the level of hockey,
because that was his domain, but
at the same time what I find
beautiful and important about the
story is that it goes beyond
sport.
Hour
Do you think it will also go
beyond Quebec? Do you think
people in English Canada might
be defensive about the statement
the film makes?
Dupuis It certainly risks
provoking reactions, but you
can say what you want, it's
part of reality - in my mind,
it's fair. That was the
situation for the little
French Canadians at the time.
They weren't masters of their
own domain. They weren't
bosses of their own domain;
their bosses were the anglos.
Hour Have you ever
experienced that yourself,
in your own life?
Dupuis Not really... I
lived a bit in Northern
Ontario, but then again,
you're in Ontario, so it's
normal. But I've never
really believed in a
bilingual Canada.
Bilingual Canada, in fact,
is Quebec [laughs].
For the rest, sure, there
are francophones here and
there, but it's a bit of
an illusion. Anyway, they
can refute all they want,
I think that everything
that's in the film is
fair.
Hour In fact,
most of the big moments
in the film are inspired
from archives, from
moments captured on film
and on screens all over
the country. What kind
of research did you do
to prepare for the role?
Dupuis Most of
my work was grasping
the energy of that
man, understanding it
and feeling it. He's
someone I think I
grasped pretty fast,
pretty easily. I also
had access to all
sorts of archival
footage, written
documents,
photographs.
When I was
approached for the
TV series a while
ago, before he died,
I didn't know
Maurice Richard. He
wasn't a hero of
mine - I'm not at
all of that
generation. So you
see that that's the
importance of making
a film like this, to
show the impact that
this man had on the
history of Quebec,
mainly, and on
hockey for English
Canada. Because you
see it in the film,
that he was loved in
English Canada as a
great hockey player.
But for French
Canadians, there was
a whole other
dimension - the one
of an injustice, of
a frustration, that
resulted in the
Quiet Revolution. (Isa
Tousignant)
The Premiere at Place de Arts, Montreal |
|
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
interview & film clipcaptures by Lindy
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Biography of Maurice Richard with film clips
![]() Some people call me Maurice: Roy Dupuis as Maurice Richard in The Rocket. Courtesy Alliance Atlantis. For Quebec hockey fans, only one thing could be more exciting than the return of the NHL after a strike year: the premiere of the Maurice “Rocket” Richard biopic The Rocket, which opened on 150 screens across Quebec on Nov. 25. For Quebecers — in particular, francophone Quebecers — Richard holds a singular place in social and political history. He overcame physical difficulties (he broke an ankle early in his career) and prejudicial attitudes (the National Hockey League was run by English Canadians who had a clear disdain for predominantly working-class Québécois players) to become a hockey phenomenon. He helped make the Montreal Canadiens virtually unbeatable in the 1950s. Given Richard’s life story — a classic underdog sports tale that intersects with politics — it’s surprising that it’s taken this long for the narrative to wend its way into cinemas. Directed by Charles Binamé (who helmed the massive Quebec hit Seraphin: Heart of Stone) and written by Ken Scott (Seducing Doctor Lewis), The Rocket, which grossed $600,000 in its opening weekend, is a hugely entertaining and invigorating bit of filmmaking. Granted, much of its style is predictable, particularly composer Michel Cusson’s musical score, which swells during the multiple climaxes to let us know when to cue the goose bumps. There are other disappointments — especially the largely dimensionless role Julie Le Breton is handed as Richard’s long-suffering wife. But these are minor quibbles. For the most part, The Rocket is great fun, a beautifully shot, carefully rendered tale of a legendary sports figure. Quite surprisingly, its director confesses he’s not a big fan of the game. “I don’t watch it religiously,” Binamé confides. “I mean, I might watch the finals each year, if they happen to be exciting, in the same way I might watch the Rose Bowl if it’s a good match-up.” What drew Binamé to a biopic about Richard was the rich drama of his life. “The day after Seraphin opened, I was sitting in [producer] Guy Gagnon’s office. Without even recovering his breath from Seraphin, he asked me if I wanted to do a film based on Richard’s life. I thought about it for a quarter of a second. I saw what it could be. I could see the energy his story could take on in film form.” Binamé’s central casting call couldn't have been better. Roy Dupuis, iconic at the Quebec box office, delivers a commanding performance, bringing emotion to the role without crossing over into pathos. The fact that a household name like Dupuis plays Richard makes The Rocket something of a double whammy for Quebec audiences. The Rocket opens with Richard, played as a young man by François Langlois Vallières, struggling to make ends meet with a wretched factory job. We are shown how Richard saw his life as a Québécois shaped by anglophone bosses; the owners of the factory are depicted as cold, unfeeling union-busters. When Richard’s hockey career begins, there are initial questions about his ability, with sports journalists casting doubt on his ability to overcome a broken ankle.
They were wrong, as The Rocket makes entirely clear. When Richard returned to the ice, his goal-scoring ability turned him into one of the great legends of Canadian hockey. Along with the success, however, came resentment, too often taking the form of prejudice. On the ice, anglophone rivals called him “French pea soup,” a taunt that infuriated the hockey star. The Rocket becomes a story not just of a sports star, but of a working-class hero and champion of the oppressed.
That Richard came to symbolize something more than just hockey excellence became clear in March 1955, when, after a bruising fight (in which he was taunted and eventually decked a referee), he was banned from playing for the Habs for the remainder of the regular season and that year’s Stanley Cup playoffs. His tormenter, an English Canadian, received no penalty whatsoever. The verdict was seen by the Québécois as a slap in the face from English Canada and led to a night of rioting outside the Montreal Forum. The moment is seen as a key turning point in Quebec’s Quiet Revolution. “I didn’t want to demonize the English,” Binamé insists. “Rather, I wanted to show what we, the Québécois, have achieved since this time — how far we’ve managed to come. The film was not about being black and white. It’s about Maurice’s desire to express his own courage and difference. Resistance, after all, is about the creation of a hero.” Binamé is quick to add that, while the film is being released in the midst of more talk of sovereignty and fallout from the Gomery sponsorship scandal, there was no way the people behind The Rocket could have foreseen the current mood. “We really didn’t think about today’s political situation when we were shooting the film,” he says. Political issues and questions of national identity aside, Binamé manages to capture a great deal of the blood-and-sweat details of 1950s hockey — i.e. the pre-helmet era. “These guys were hurt all the time, it was routine. And they were exhausted. We talked a lot about [Ridley Scott’s] Gladiator. I really wanted to capture hockey the way Scorsese had captured boxing with Raging Bull.” The Rocket has received almost unanimously glowing reviews from the Quebec press, as well as nods of approval from Richard’s children and his former teammates. The film will open in the rest of Canada in March, and Binamé is hopeful that, despite differences between English and French, the common language of hockey will entice filmgoers in other parts of the country to see The Rocket. While Canada’s Governor General Michaëlle Jean has urged Canadians to see past the Two Solitudes, Binamé believes a “fire wall” still exists between French- and English-speaking Canada. “I was invited to do a miniseries, H2O, in Toronto a couple of years ago with Paul Gross. And you know, I didn’t know who he was, I wasn’t familiar with his work. And he didn’t know who I was, and didn’t know my work, either. The fact is that our two realities remain very remote.” The Rocket is now playing throughout Quebec. Matthew Hays is a Montreal writer. JAM interview 04-17-2006
The Rocket a thrill of a movie, with Roy Dupuis capturing hockey history
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
(CP) - Roy Dupuis wept and he didn't know why. Like many people on the night of March 11, 1996, the Canadian actor was moved by the ceremony commemorating the last game at the Montreal Forum, and by the long and heartfelt ovation reserved for Maurice (Rocket) Richard. "I was at home watching that, it still moves me," Dupuis, a lump in his throat, said in a recent interview. "You're talking about a 16-minute ovation. On TV. No one cut it. I had never seen that. I didn't know the guy yet, didn't know the real story. I remember thinking after that ovation . . . what just happened? Why am I crying? "It's what we call in French l'inconscient collectif (the collective unconscious). Three-quarters of the people that were there never saw him play." But they knew of the man, and why he meant so much to Quebecers. The Rocket, a film by director Charles Biname and distributed by Alliance Atlantis, does a remarkable job of telling that story. A hit in Quebec after being released last fall, the English-language version of the movie hits theatres in the rest of the country starting Friday. "This movie is going out in 150 theatres across Canada, that's never happened for a Canadian movie, never, it's like Maurice has done it again," said Dupuis, who stars as the Rocket. The fact the French-language version of the film was warmly embraced in Quebec is no shock. After all, it's the story of a blue-collar superstar hockey hero who helped carry an oppressed French-Canadian society on his shoulders. Before the Quiet Revolution, there was Rocket. "This guy gave pride to his people," said Dupuis, who first played the role of Richard for a Heritage Canada TV vignette and a 1999 miniseries. "At the time we were second-class citizens, that's what we were, that's the reality. "And then this guy, at the right time, happened. He became the greatest in something that was accessible to everybody - hockey. And all those people who thought they were second-class citizens thought: 'Geez, we can be somebody.' And that's where it all started." There are reminders throughout the film that being French wasn't a cakewalk in those days, from the fence that separated the poor French-Canadian fans from the elite (mostly English) of Montreal at the Forum during games, to Richard's tormentors - first the English factory boss, to Habs head coach Dick Irvin, and of course league president Clarence Campbell. And the feeling among the players that a French-Canadian skater had to be three times better than his English counterpart to make the Habs. "One of the concerns that Ken Scott (the script's author) and I had, was that we didn't want to demonize the English," Biname said during a recent press stop in Toronto. "There were a certain number of things that were irritating and frustrating, a certain of number of events that happened, and we just put them together. "The interesting thing is that Dick Irvin, who's supposed to be the real bad guy in the story, because he pushes Maurice to the end, insults him, uses whatever at hand to make him go crazy - he's the one who has the vision for the man. He's the one, you realize through the film, who believes in him in spite of everything else. So you have a great character opposing the hero which is actually the one that makes him the hero." Irvin is played brilliantly by Nova Scotia actor Stephen McHattie (most recently in A History of Violence). McHattie studied for the part by phoning up Irvin's son Dick Irvin Jr., a longtime Hockey Night In Canada broadcaster, and by reading books Irvin had authored on his father. "His son quotes him in a book saying the worst part of the job was having to hurt the guys that he really loved," McHattie said in an interview. "He knew right away that the Rocket played best when he was angry." The Rocket's life was too eventful for two hours so Biname had to choose where to start and end it. He starts with a 17-year-old Richard, bent on making it big in hockey while also supporting his family while working as a machinist. Nowhere in the film do we see Henri Richard, the Rocket's younger brother who goes on to win 11 Stanley Cups with the Habs. "Such a huge age difference," said Biname. "Maurice had left the house and was almost finishing his career when Henri came in. "We had Henri in there for a while (in the original script), we had a line in there for him, and then I thought: 'It's a plug, it's not right.' I don't like that. If it's not going to serve the story, why do that." The film builds up to the famous Richard riots of 1955, when Campbell suspended the Rocket for the rest of the season - including the playoffs - for assaulting a linesman during a brawl in an incident that was sparked when Boston's Hal Laycoe two-handed Richard on the head with a vicious high stick. What helps sell the film is that Dupuis is no slouch on skates. He played hockey growing up and plays his own scenes in the movie. No stunt actors needed. And Dupuis doesn't look out of place. Another nice decision by Biname is letting the characters speak in their native tongue, Rocket in French, Irvin in English, and so on. French subtitles in the Quebec release last fall translated the English characters. Now English subtitles tell us what Rocket is saying. It keeps the movie real, because that's exactly how it was then. Dubbing the actors would have taken away from the realism. The real test for Dupuis was pulling off the Rocket both on and off the ice, a task he took extremely seriously. "I met Maurice many times when I did the TV series at first. He became a friend, he opened up to me," Dupuis said of the Rocket. "Because of the kind of man that he was, that meant he agreed to the fact that I was playing him. What happens when you have access to the person you're going to play, you become very intimate with him, because you're trying to understand him and get inside of him. I think we became very close. And then he died (in May 2000). "So when they came up with the idea of doing a movie about him, it's like they told me they wanted to do a story about my best friend and they wanted me to play him. I said yes but I needed to read the script first and agree, I needed to see in that script the man I know. And that's pretty much what I saw."
© The Canadian Press 2006
| ||||||||||||||||