If last year’s surprise hit Goon was too fictional for you, we’ve got the perfect alternative. The prolific Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney, after delivering one of last year’s best documentaries with Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, recently premiered his latest doc We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks at Sundance last week, and now we’ve got a trailer for another project, The Last Gladiators.
Centerting around Chris “Knuckles” Nilan, the film takes a look at the famous NHL enforcer, as well as others in the league occupying the same role. While I don’t follow the sport, Gibney has proven time and time again that he can pull us into any subject with his skill at crafting compelling stories — this one looks no different. Check out the trailer and poster below.
Synopsis:
Academy Award® winning Director Alex Gibney takes an unprecedented look at the National Hockey League’s most feared enforcers and explores the career of Chris “Knuckles” Nilan. The role was simple: protect their teammates no matter the cost. For Chris this meant a shattered body, addiction to drugs, and harming the people closest to him. But in the process, he won the love of hockey’s holy city, Montreal, and helped the team win the Stanley Cup. Through interviews with hockey’s toughest guys, the film explores what it means to enforce the unspoken code of the NHL.
The Last Gladiators hits theaters on Friday, February 1st.