The Final Gladiators

A Jigsaw production, in colaboration with Northern Lights Hockey, Locomotion Pictures. (Worldwide sales: Submarine, NY.) Created by Alex Gibney, Jim Podhoretz, Ray Weitzman. Executive producers, Craig Reese, Jesse "Dee" Rizzo, Michael Messner, George Gund, Robert J. Brooks. Co-executive producers, Harry J. Kenney, Tom Goebel, Thomas Kopf. Directed by Alex Gibney. Compiled by Ray Weitzman, Jim Podhoretz, Alex Gibney.With: Chris Nilan, Tony Twist, Bob Probert, Marty McSorley, Jesse Brashear, Paul Shantz, Henry Nilan, Leslie Nilan, Kim McCarthy, Craig Janney, Guy Carbonneau, Bob Gainey, Todd Ewen, Red-colored Fisher, Serge Savard, Jimmy Vessey.Alternately brutal and elegant, as is appropriate for its subject, Alex Gibney's professional-hockey docu "The Final Gladiators" sports a slew of archival goon-fight footage and it has an indelibly articulate central estimate recuperating enforcer Chris "Knuckles" Nilan. Alas, the filmmaker's choice to achieve the former Montreal Canadiens champion share ice time with several contempo gamers produces a pic that has a tendency to cut from Nilan just when it must be skating set for a closer inspection. Nonetheless, Gibney's "Gladiators" remains entertaining and lighting, a pic using the muscle gain smallscreen goals while pushing competing jock paperwork in to the boards. Besides filling the requirement for a clear, crisp documentary in regards to a broadly misinterpreted game, the hyper-prolific Gibney has been doing a bang-up job of detailing the physical and mental ravages of professional sportsmanship. Nilan, a local Bostonian who performed for that Bruins late in the NHL career, opens his battered hands for Gibney's inspection, and the heart too. Speaking candidly of his outbursts, his professional fall from sophistication, and the struggles with substance addiction, the ball player who drenched some 3,000 penalty-box minutes in 13 years, through a large number of surgical procedures, seems permanently hardened but going to achieve redemption. At first glance, this may appear a unique work for Gibney, whose docus -- including "Taxi towards the Negative SideInch and "Enron: The Wisest Men within the roomInch -- have generally preferred political subjects. But "The Final Gladiators" proves well suited for permitting Gibney to understand more about his subsidiary curiosity about maleness operating in the extremes of what's socially allowable. While Nilan was worshipped by rabid fans for generously giving expression for their less savory dreams, the enforcer's aggression eventually moved beyond the approved area of play, taking its toll on Nilan and numerous individuals around him. Between vintage hockey clips and glimpses from the player trash-speaking his way via a 2010 "old-timers' game," Nilan recounts his run-inches using the law and altercations with co-workers, such as the arch-enemy coach whom he half-accidentally gave eight stitches within the mind. The challenging guy tears up when talking about some subjects -- including his father, an old Eco-friendly Beret who developed in him an earlier need to fight, and also the Canadiens' 1986 Stanley Cup win, the peak of his career. Myriad other speaking heads, from sports bloggers to Nilan's former teammates, enable Gibney to grow his film's focus beyond Nilan towards the now-reduced culture of hockey enforcing -- a zoom-back strategy that work well except once the docu unnecessarily interrupts the Nilan narrative with intermittent small-portraits of lesser gamers for example Paul Shantz, Tommy Twist and Jesse Brashear. The pic's flow suffers too from an excess of pithy intertitles, even though editing within each segment -- including comic-relief clips in the immortal "Slap Shot" -- is both brisk and incisive. The visual texture of clips from decades-old games is naturally splotchy, however the pic's tech package causes it to be in to the internet anyway, with classic-rock tunes and David Kahne's score adding drama towards the real-existence action.Camera (color, DV), Laurent Beauchemin, Geoffory Beauchemin, Mark Berger, Benjamin Bloodwell, Stephen Chung, Body Estus, Lyle Morgan, Christopher Romeike Alex Margineanu, Ray Lecain editor, Jim Podhoretz music, David Kahne music supervisor, John McCullough seem, Ryan M. Cost re-recording mixer, Tony Volante. Examined at Toronto Film Festival (Real to Reel), Sept. 9, 2011. Running time: 96 MIN. Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com