Smudge the Blades, make no mistake, is not Heated Rivalry.
Unlike the hit Canadian TV drama and its off-ice romance,Cody Lightning’s underdog Indigenous hockey team dramedy is mostly high-energy on-ice play. And no actors needed training in how to skate before cameras on the indie rolled.
“I would rather cast hockey players and coach them in acting than to teach an actor how to play hockey,” says Lightning, who, while directing, also stars as coach Willie of the Treaty 6 Blades, a struggling team of teen hockey players in northern Alberta.
Of course,Smudge the Blades— Lightning’s second feature headed to the Toronto Film Festival for a world premiere (the first being TK) — does mirror, in parts, Disney’s 1992 hockey comedyThe Mighty Ducks. But Coach Willie in the Canadian indie is no win-at-all-costs lawyer-turned-coach, as wasEmilio Estevezas Gordon Bombay.
Cody Lightning in ‘Smudge the Blades.’
Toronto Film Festival
The high-strung coach inSmudge the Bladesis first played by Ed Helms, until the Blades are kicked out of the league. This being an Indigenous hockey team film, it’s left to Lightning as the local arena Zamboni driver to take over coaching the losing Blades team.
Significantly, Coach Willie has no Estevez-style motivational speeches to get do-nothings to push past their limits to championship glory.
“Coaches usually want players to have a team spirit,” he explains. “Mine is the opposite: ‘You guys are so hard on yourselves and just take it so seriously that you’re not having fun. Enjoy yourselves or let loose.’”
Lightning is also noKurt Russellin thehockey dramaMiracle when he is telling Team USA: “Great moments are born from great opportunity.” InSmudge the Blades, no one expects the indigenous team to win their games because of the historical trauma and systemic racism Canada’s indigenous peoples have endured, both on and off the ice.
Ed Helms, Cody Lightning in ‘Smudge the Blades.’
Toronto Film Festival
“There’s prejudice and racism and we face a high amount, not just in hockey, but in general, says Lightning. And that deflates your confidence as a young person. And when you know dysfunction continues to happen, it’s hard to break out of that.”
Resignation and gloom hang in the air of the Blades’ drab changing room as the young Indigenous players look increasingly depressed after each loss.
Having in real life coached young indigenous players, where racism is endemic in Canadian hockey arenas, and there are fights in the stands and outside in parking lots, Lightning adds that it can be challenging to get kids to fully buy in. “It’s hard to let your kids know, ‘hey, you’re worthy,” he says. “You’re worth it. You guys are great players and just keep playing your game if this stuff happens.’ That’s a life lesson, not just a hockey lesson.”
Being an underdog sports movie, however, Coach Willie eventually does channel his inner Herb Brooks and the Treaty 6 Blades, with newfound energy, catch fire as a united and driven team all the way to the championships.
Smudge the Blades will world premiere on Sept. 12 at TIFF Lightbox.