Miracle

There were a lot of social contexts surrounding the game between the USSR and the United States, but the most significant was probably the Cold War. Essentially both countries were worried that they were in danger from the other. During this time there was serious tension between the USSR and the United States. The USSR was doing a lot of things that the United States did not agree with and wish they would stop and vice versa. One of these was communisnm and another was invading Afganistan with their troops. The US was worried that they might force their communist forms of governments on other countries around the world. Another thing that was going on during this time was the American hostage crisis in Tehran and the economy was slumping and there was a gas shortage.

As far as sporting contexts go, the USSR hockey team was basically unbeatable. They hadn't lost an Olympic match since 1968 and had won every Olympic gold since 1960. They had also crushed the NHL All Star team earlier that year and beaten the US team in an exhibition match.

In the movie the sporting contexts were much more relevant than the political contexts because much is made about how good the USSR team was. However, they did sprinkle in some of the political contexts by showing all of the nationalism and what was going on during the time with a collage of clips at the beginning. They also highlighted the gas crisis as well as the fact that the game almost didn't take place because they president called for a boycott of the games that were to be held in the USSR because of them invading Afganistan. They also used the news from the TV to show other news stories from that time.

I felt a lot of American Pride during the game in the Olympics. I also felt a lot of American Pride when Rizzo said that he played for team USA. Both parts gave me goosebumps. As an athlete I would think that representing your country in competition (and doing well) would be the greatest accomplishment you can achieve. During these times in the movie I wanted to chant USA along with the crowd. However I would disagree that this was like the Palestinians from One Day, mostly because the Americans were showing their pride on the the playing field and they weren't harming anyone to do so. The Palestinians killed innocent people to show their pride for their countries, where as the Americans in Miracle just did so by playing hard, wearing red, white and blue and by chanting and cheering on their country.