Ice Guardians

A documentary telling the fascinating story of the ice hockey enforcers who protected their teammates and handed out well deserved justice to anyone who dared inflict harm on their team. This really interesting documentary is fantastically put together by exploring all sides of the arguments to whether enforcers are needed and wanted. A great group of ex pro's and enforcers tell their story along with famous fans. It's must watch for any sports fans and I fell on the side that Ice Hockey was much better with these wonderfully protective enforcers in it.

Brett Harvey's documentary Ice Guardians (released in 2016) is about very interesting subject. I am an ice hockey fan and enforcers are one interesting part of the NHL matches. I have noticed that fights have decreased in recent years. This documentary told some reasons for that.

Many former NHL players who were enforcers told about being enforcer and the evolution of the role in the history of the NHL. Former players and most fans who were interviewed hoped that the role of enforcer wouldn't disappear completely. Couple of interviewed said that the health of enforcers is a priority.

The documentary isn't completely objective and could be little shorter. On the other hand some interviews are emotional for example Dave Semenko's thoughts about winning the Stanley Cup when he played in Edmonton. Better than average documentary. 7/10

This seemed to be propelled along with the adrenaline of the fights featured in the documentary. It gave a really great overview of the enforcer role and the place of hockey fights in the sport; right from their origins to their present day decline.

I'm someone who only recently developed a love for the sport during my time living in Canada. One of the first things I found appealing and unique to hockey were the fights. How the entire game would stop as the fighters took center stage was something I found incredibly fascinating and entertaining!

'Ice Guardians' definitely gave me the hockey-fight-fix I'd been craving lately. As a documentary, I preferred "The Last Gladiators" though, which also features the role of hockey enforcer, perhaps from a more classic era. This one seemed to have a big focus on "modern day" enforcers/fighters, with not every 'segment' being as appealing as the other. The different segments seemed a little disjointed at times, interrupting the flow the film. It was also a bit overlong.

Parts of the documentary I found the most interesting were the unspoken "etiquette" of the fights ("Hey, if I don't fight you, I might get dropped for the next game." "Sure, okay, I'll help you out.") and the players' emotions when seriously hurting opponents. The concussion element was also intriguing, with 95% of hockey concussions coming from play and not fights themselves. It's that statistic that will stay with me and hopefully prove that hockey fights are here to stay!

Tries to be fair and balanced for the most part, although those that don't like fighting or enforcers are portrayed as out of touch and elitist, this is more about showing all facets of the characters that play and talking about their role. Solid movie if you're a hockey can, not sure if it would make one out of a non-fan though.

I thought the preview was better than the actual film. The documentary lacks any narration and ends up being an endless stream of clips from interviews with tough guys (oh and Jay Baruchel has a lot to say though I have no idea what makes him an authority on the subject). The story drags on far too long (this could/should be a one hour film!) and the constant footage of fights gets a bit tiresome, if not gruesome, over time. I played hockey my whole life and still struggle with the role of fighting in the game. I was looking for some stimulative thought in this contentious issue but didn't get any from this film. It is very biased, effectively glorifying the enforcers of the game (albeit in a rather covert way). I didnt watch a film on fighters without expecting to see some good fights, but at the end of the day this film lacked any balance or thought provoking ideas about the issue. Just more of a celebration of violence and a subtle resentment of how the game has changed over time.