D2 The Mighty Ducks

May 15, 2008

This is the best thing I've ever written:

Ideology in D2: The Mighty Ducks: Reimagining US - Icelandic Relations 1941-1994

Analysis Paper #2 / 20072

Jesse Spielman

While on the surface, Walt Disney's light-hearted children's film D2: The Mighty Ducks, seems like simple family entertainment, its subtext reveals a more intentional agenda. The story follows Coach Gordon Bombay (the inimitable Emilio Estevez), who, having given up on an attempt at playing in the minor leagues, returns to coach his beloved Ducks in the International Junior Goodwill Games. Through the typical conceits of a sports movie, we see the team struggle and eventually triumph over the obviously evil Team Iceland, coached by the malevolent Wolf "The Dentist" Stansson (Carsten Norgaard). While the simple narrative concerns the meteoric rise of the American Mighty Ducks in an international Hockey tournament against a slew of nationalist adversaries, the truth is that this film subtextually presents a revisionist account of the history between America and its rival in the film, Team Iceland. Indeed, its central ideology is devoted to exploring the possibility of a different historical account of US/Icelandic relations.

The early parts of the tournament, before their initial showdown with Team Iceland, represent America in the years before World War II. The Ducks easily defeat minor powers Italy and Trinidad, and become arrogant with power. This all comes crashing to a halt when they are crushed by team Iceland 12-1. Up until this point, these events correlate strongly with the first two important political events in the history of interaction between America and Iceland. The main reason for initial US involvement in Iceland was to supplement and eventually replace British troops stationed there.

Additionally, 1941 was of course the same year when Roosevelt enacted the Proclamation of Unlimited National Emergency, which authorized the exchange of diplomatic representatives between the two nations. While on the surface, Iceland pretended to accept the Americans with open arms, it is clear that Icelandic reactions to the US were more mixed. This came to a head on March 30th (nearly 45 years to the day of the release of D2: The Mighty Ducks in American theaters everywhere) when a mass of Icelandic citizens who opposed the nation's entrance into NATO rioted. For a relatively peaceful country, these riots were quite violent and only tear gas and riot police could beat back the thousands of protesters.

This is where our reality and that of writer Steven Brill diverge. Despite these riots, Iceland’s plans to enter NATO were finalized, and the country became a charter member of the organization. But in D2: The Mighty Ducks, Brill imagines a world in which these rioters were so successful, and by creating an atmosphere of xenophobia, managed to repel American forces from the nation. Outwardly, Iceland has remained our ally since its inclusion into NATO in 1949, but D2: The Mighty Ducks explores the separatist undercurrent realized during these riots. What if the separatist movement evolved over time and its central ideology was embodied in a hockey team? What would happen if this team faced the Americans? It’s perfectly understandable that such a complex ideological conflict would have to be disguised within a simple Hockey game in order for Brill’s theories to be free to evolve and develop.

In order to understand the connection between the film and the heart of the Icelandic separatists, we must understand the nature of the rioters on that fateful day. By becoming a part of the nascent North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Iceland would loose the isolationist foreign policy doctrine that had been its staple for decades. The very existence of the riots prove that a quorum of Icelandic citizens were for isolation and against the notion of integration with the world around them. Open opposition to Iceland’s involvement in NATO continues even to this day, through the slogan: "Ísland úr NATO og herinn burt!" which translates rougly to, “Iceland out of NATO and the (American) Army out!”

Indeed, the metaphor of hockey as a stand-in for violent uprisings is a sensible one. Hockey historians have traced the word puck to the Irish or Gaelic word "puc" which translated to poke, punch, or deliver a blow. And surely D2: The Mighty Ducks isn't the only hockey film to recreate a struggle between nations; a decade later, Disney's film Miracle portrayed an even more blatant ideological battle on the ice. This renders D2: The Mighty Ducks Miracle's more subtle cousin.

Flash forward to 1994. The coach of Team Iceland, "The Dentist," has a reputation for mistreating authority figures, namely his own coach, which got him removed from the NHL in the first place. He strikes terror in the hearts of his players, and rules the team under an iron fist. In fact, the most terrifying fact about him is that he has been known to remove his enemies teeth, not unlike some kind of underground separatist leader. Bombay, who represents the American foreign policy machine of the time, is gentler with his team, promoting a more "fireside-chat" like mentality in his coaching style, and offering gentle but firm support.

The style of play for Team Iceland also resembles a nationalist movement opposed to the direction that the rest of the country is running in. Team Iceland fights dirty, because they have to. During the initial match-up, two Ducks, Portman (Aaron Lohr) and Gaffney (Colombe Jacobsen-Derstine), are ejected from the game for violent penalties, but similar actions on the part of the Icelandic team (slashing star Center Adam Banks (Vincent A. Larusso) across the wrists) receives no punishment. The rink, for the writers of the film, represents an arena for guerilla warfare where fighting dirty gets rewarded. Indeed, it is the only possible way the rioters could overcome the more dominant treaty-minded Icelanders.

The implications of an initial American defeat at the hands of Team Iceland are important to understand. By rewarding the combative and threatening Icelandic team who are presented as being older and stronger than their American rivals, Brill is imagining an alternate reality in which the isolationist forces during the NATO riots were successful in their repulsion of outside forces. The previous champions of the world, the USA, are repulsed by a contingent within this already small nation of 316,000. The Ducks must strike back anyway they know how, and metaphorically retake Iceland, which means that the film develops historic American tactical advantages: diversity and technological achievement.

America is a nation made up of many ethnic groups, and this is a tactical advantage in the hands of "General" Bombay. By exploiting the different skills of some key players, Bombay is able to make a comeback in the American's second match-up with their Scandinavian adversaries. Players such as Luis Mendoza (Mike Vitar) from Miami, and Dwayne Robertson (Ty O'Neal) from Texas, exemplify the regional qualities that Team America brings to the table. As long as Bombay can keep Luis' speed and Robertson's inexplicable lasso strategy in check, while at the same time keeping the team working as a cohesive force, their power is overwhelming, and they are able to overcome their genetically homogeneous opponents.

On the technological front, the Ducks symbolically employ Russ Tyler's (Kenan Thompson) signature move the knucklepuck, which, for the uninitiated, is similar to a knuckleball in baseball. With this on their side, the Ducks are able to defeat the Russians after and eventually, Iceland. In Brill's alternate history, the Americans must somehow extend their power into Iceland and stop the spread of Nazi forces, as Iceland is critical to their plan of containment. Although the connections to established history become less obvious, Brill's intent seems clear: Tyler's use of the knucklepuck against first the Russians, and later the Icelandic is analogous to the American invention and deployment of the Atomic Bomb. Clearly, this explains the need for the Duck's famed flying V formation: the players in the V represent the fighter planes dispatched to guard the bomber carrying the atomic weapon to its symbolic target: Reykjavik. Sure enough, the Ducks use the V to distract the enemy and buy time in order to plant Russ inside enemy lines long enough for him to fire off one of his famous attacks. Obviously, Russ's name is a nod to the Russell-Einstein Manifesto, in which many of the scientists involved in the Manhattan project, as well as philosopher Bertrand Russell urged the world's nations to only use atomic weapons in the direst of circumstances. There is no doubt that the manifesto would also apply to metaphorical weapons of mass destruction, such as the knucklepuck. It is on the back of these cultural and technological, and thus, by extension, strategic advantages that the US is able to win the tournament, and retake Iceland.

The playing style and timeline of the Ducks during the virtual 1994 Junior Goodwill games proves to be an effective metaphor for Brill's theories on Icelandic-US relations. The Ducks, while initially humiliated by their defeat, learn to harness their nationalistic advantages, and eventually reassert the course of history. An off quoted line from the film, "Ducks fly together," proves to be an interesting vantage point to view the contrast between the teams. Since the Icelandic team was only really held together by fear of retaliation from their mad coach, they fail to really develop a sense of community and cohesion. The oppressive leader of the Icelandic team is able to briefly assert control over the tournament (the world), and hold his team together, but he eventually fall at the hands of the well organized, ethnically, and technologically superior Ducks.

As an interesting side note, Brill's alternative history theory seems oddly prescient as just a few weeks after the release of D2: The Mighty Ducks, international (Icelandic) singer/songwriter Bjork won the 1994 BRIT award for "Best International Female" and "Best International Newcomer." It was only 7 years later before Bjork publicly referenced Brill's theory by donning her famous "Swan" (a reference to the titular Ducks) dress during the 2001 Oscars.

If we accept the notion (promogulated by historians) that the rioters were mostly communists attempting a coupe d'etat, and that Stansson represents an ideological descendant of these of those forces, then it is plain to see that it is American's versatility that proves to be Iceland's undoing, whether you consult our history books or Brill's. In either history, it is clear that by the end, America has once again become the Champion.