From Netflix and the directors of
Wild Wild Country comes
Untold: Crimes & Penalties. This documentary film directed by Chapman and Maclain Way. They were the bad boys of hockey - a team bought by a man with mob ties, run by his seventeen-year-old son, and with a rep for being as violent as they were good.
On April 1, 2004, the Danbury Trashers were founded as an expansion team in the United Hockey League (UHL) by James Galante, a garbage disposal mogul, who paid a $500,000 franchise fee to the league. Galante purchased the franchising rights after seeing the enthusiasm for hockey in Danbury at his seventeen year old son A. J.'s high school games. He also wanted to give A. J. experience in how to manage a professional sports franchise, naming him president and General Manager. According to UHL commissioner Richard Brosal some around the league thought it was an April Fools' Day joke. After graduating high school Galante attended Manhattanville College while maintaining his organizational duties. The new team was named the Trashers, a reference to the elder Galante's main business, with the logo being designed by A. J.'s friends. The Trashers were to play in the Danbury Ice Arena, a seven hundred and fifty-seat ice rink, used for the local hockey leagues. As part of the franchising agreement the arena needed the maximum capacity expanded. Galante invested an additional $1.5 million to renovate the arena, turning it into a three-thousand seat facility. Galante brought in Garrett Burnett, Rumun Ndur, Brad Wingfield, Jim Duhart, Brent Gretzky, and Michael Rupp. For the goaltender Galante acquired Scott Stirling, and as for the coaches, Galante hired Todd Stirling and Bob Stearns. In their first season, the Trashers set a league record for penalty minutes. The season witnessed two separate brawls and multiple player suspensions. Danbury finished second in their division and were eliminated in the playoffs by eventual Colonial Cup champions, the Muskegon Fury. In their second year, the Trashers won the Eastern Division and reached the finals. Though they lost the championship, Danbury handed the Kalamazoo Wings their only loss of the playoffs. At the end of the team's second season, Galante was arrested on seventy-two various charges including conspiring to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). He pleaded guilty, was sentenced to eighty-seven months of imprisonment, and had to forfeit his ownership interests in twenty-five trash hauling companies. During the same time the Trashers disbanded, citing financial concerns, including travel costs.
We think we all know the story of the Danbury Trashers, but the Untold entry on their lives and career is still a valuable and insightful biopic. It was pure madness and there was plenty of blame to go around - but Crimes & Penalties does a journalistically sound job of putting events in perspective. Crimes & Penalties may not be a game-changing film but it shows that Netflix has potential to rival ESPN in the sports documentary department.
Simon says
Untold: Crimes & Penalties receives:
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