George Roy Hill's unruly, funny new comedy, "Slap Shot,"… dramatizes the age-old contest between good and evil as clean vs. dirty, and it's dirty that wins, hands (and pants) down.

"Slap Shot," which follows the fortunes of the [Charlestown] Chiefs through their last, dizzy season, was written by Nancy Dowd…. She's a young woman who appears to know more about the content and rhythm of locker-room talk than most men….

I don't know enough about professional hockey to judge how accurate a picture "Slap Shot" is, but it does seem a stretch of the imagination to ask us to believe in this day and age, that neither the Chiefs' manager nor coach would have known that a dirty, violent game, accompanied by a lot of publicity hoopla, would bring in the crowds. Which is pretty much what happens to the Chiefs, first by accident, then on purpose, as...