Maurice (Rocket) Richard is an icon in Quebec for more than just hockey, but that didn't intimidate Roy Dupuis.
If Dupuis felt any pressure taking on the lead role in The Rocket, it was from inside, not outside.
Dupuis and Richard, the legendary Montreal Canadiens superstar, were friends.
"For me it's different, because I met him," said Dupuis, whose cinematic portrayal of one of the best hockey players in history hits movie screens in English Canada on Friday. Coincidentally, Friday is Dupuis' 43rd birthday.
Dupuis cemented his fame in Quebec when he played the Rocket in a French-language TV series in 1999. Dupuis and the intensely private Richard met during the taping of the TV show and, according to Dupuis, they forged a close friendship very quickly.
"I met him many times during the shoot and after the shoot, when we'd go to hockey games together," said Dupuis, who is the George Clooney of Quebec in terms of star power but remains largely unknown elsewhere in the country.
"(Richard) opened up to me. Which meant to me -- I'm pretty sure it's what it meant - that he agreed, that I was the one. I tried to understand him."
Dupuis' eyes watered up slightly at this point.
"After that he died," said Dupuis, recalling Richard's death in 2000. "I don't know if you've lost someone close to you, but when my father died, he became even more present, more close to me, because he wasn't over there any more, he was in here (Dupuis gestured toward his heart). So that's pretty much what happened (with Richard)."
The Rocket already has been a huge commercial success in Quebec, where it was released late last year and is known as Maurice Richard. There is both English and French dialogue in the film, with subtitles provided when necessary.
Director Charles Biname has created a great-looking movie. But it remains to be seen whether the unabashed French Canadian slant of the story will strike a lucrative chord with English audiences. "This guy (Richard) came along at a time when French Canadians were second-class citizens, and treated like second-class citizens, which is normal in any civilization that has been conquered," Dupuis said. "The English conquered us, they were the bosses, and they wanted to keep it that way.
"But we (French Canadians) became too many families, too big, and what was missing was a bit of proudness. So this little kid became one of the greatest at something that was accessible to everyone, because it was hockey. It was simple to understand. So he woke up our pride."
The flash point for the narrative is the Richard riot in downtown Montreal in 1955. It was prompted after an on-ice incident when a frustrated Rocket slugged a referee, and NHL president Clarence Campbell subsequently suspended Richard for the remainder of the regular season and the playoffs.
Not every person who threw a brick on that fateful night was French Canadian. But in Quebec culture, the riot is remembered as one of the sparks for the so-called Quiet Revolution.
"When everything's there and ready to explode, that's what happens," Dupuis said. "It blew up. From there it started. It got organized, to the Parti Quebecois, to Rene Levesque, and now we're the bosses at home."
All the tales and rumours Dupuis previously had heard about the Rocket were confirmed during the brief time they spent together. Richard wanted to be a hockey player first and foremost, but he understood he meant more.
"Do you remember when they closed the old Forum (in 1996)?" Dupuis asked. "When Maurice Richard stepped on the ice he got a 16-minute standing ovation.
"Before that, Guy Lafleur was there, Jean Beliveau was there, and they were probably better hockey players than Maurice Richard was - and that was Maurice who told me that. Most of the people in the audience that day never saw him play. But 16 minutes!
"I was at home watching on TV. When it was over, I was like, 'What the f--- happened?'
"That's Maurice Richard."
All is not lost in love and war
Stephen McHattie can sum up his feelings on sports movies and war movies with a single theory.
"Ken Dryden has said it's tough to do hockey movies because it's a warrior sport, and that's a great point," said McHattie, a Nova Scotia native who plays legendary coach Dick Irvin in The Rocket.
"I played a bit of hockey, and the fact is, when you're on the ice, you're not thinking the way you do when you're shopping, 'Now I'll go to Aisle A.' "
Hockey does tend to bring out the beast in people.
"It's impossible to capture the real energy of a hockey game in a movie," McHattie said. "It's like war movies. I kind of hate war movies, personally. I'm not going to pretend I'm putting myself through the horror of what a soldier actually goes through. How can you act it?
"And even though every war movie basically is an anti-war movie, they always wind up being training films for the Marines. In truth, there are no anti-war movies. If you put it on film, it's a pro-war movie."
Nonetheless, McHattie strongly believes The Rocket is vastly superior to standard sports-movie fare.
"Yeah, I think this one cuts it," said the 59-year-old McHattie, who had to be "dried out with powders" for the role of Irvin.
"In many ways this is a movie about language. It's a love story. And it's about a figure who represented more than sports.
"A hockey movie can't just be about a guy who can skate faster than anyone else, because there are much better ways of capturing that in real life."
Movie's racial tension 'a snapshot of that era'
It's a touchy subject, but director Charles Biname had to be challenged on it.
It seems almost all the English Canadians in The Rocket are villains and racists.
Maurice Richard's boss at the factory is English, and a bad guy. Toronto Maple Leafs owner Conn Smythe is a bad guy. NHL referees don't protect Richard the way they protect the English-speaking stars in the league. And teams conspire against Richard winning the scoring title by awarding phantom assists to other players, presumably because Richard is French Canadian.
Even the Rocket's longtime coach with the Montreal Canadiens, Dick Irvin, is prone to outbursts such as, "You Frenchies are all alike!" Irvin turns out to have a heart of gold, but overall, English-speaking Canadians are portrayed rather negatively.
"No, I don't agree with that, so I'm glad you challenged me on it," said Biname, whose movie already has been a big hit in Quebec and opens on Friday in English Canada.
"One of the things I didn't want to do, and what (writer) Ken Scott didn't want to do, is demonize anyone. I think it's a true snapshot of that era (the 1940s and 1950s).
"I hear what you're saying, but I think the real salvation is Dick Irvin. He's the strong English character in front of Maurice. Although (Irvin) looks like a bad-ass, he really is doing that because he's a coach.
"He's pushing him to become Maurice Richard. I don't think we betrayed anything in doing that."
Actor Roy Dupuis, who plays the Rocket, said it's impossible to dissociate Richard from his era.
"I'm not saying all English Canadians were bad, but to tell this story, this was the reality," Dupuis said. "Not all the English in the movie are bad, either. Dick Irvin is tough, but he's one of the greatest coaches. And the scene when he starts speaking French, it says the whole story.
"We're telling the story of this man, Maurice Richard, so we needed to explain why he became what he became. We had to show some of the reasons for this anger, this injustice.
"That's what makes it a Canadian movie. It's those two cultures trying to live together." -- Bill Harris
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