Herb Brooks Miracle Speech Analysis

Every hockey player knows of the 1980 miracle on ice where the young American team took down the international powerhouse of the Soviet Union. Going into the game against the Soviets in the semifinals of the 1980 Olympic games, Herb Brooks gave one of the most inspirational speeches known to date. This exact scenario was portrayed in the Disney film, Miracle, released in 2004 directed by Gavin O’Conner. The scene starts with the young American squad sits quietly around the dressing room knowing they are the underdog and may be playing the last game of their Olympic career. The entire speech relates back to the theme of seizing opportunity; he starts with saying “Great moments are born with great opportunity, and that’s what we have here tonight.” Throughout the speech, Herb Brooks does a phenomenal job of transitioning a beat down, hesitant team of boys to a motivated, fearless team of men.
The lighting in the locker room is very dim. The players are all sitting in their respective stalls as coach Herb Brooks enters the scene. Herb is wearing a tan blazer with tan plaid pants. This outfit draws all the attention of the audience onto him. The camera angle is pointed up at him as if he is a dominant figure. The room is so quiet that you can hear his footsteps as he paces the locker room. The director makes it known

Herb is the only focus of the camera shot. Immediately after he states “tonight we are the greatest hockey team in the world, you were born to be hockey players,” inspirational music starts to play in the background. As the speech goes on the music continuously gets louder and louder. The camera angles begin to shift from solely Brooks to the determined faces of the young men on the team. The speech itself is emotionally loaded; however, this line really strikes home with the young team. The music helps portray the transition between a worried team full of buys to a confident team of