Representing “The Rocket”: The Filmic Use of Maurice Richard in Canadian History

In the late 1950s, a team of French-Canadian filmmakers at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) began working in the new techniques of cinema verité (direct cinema). They focused their cameras on moments of everyday life, capturing folkloric elements of Québécois culture as well as sporting moments. One figure who appears in a number of productions is Maurice “The Rocket” Richard, star forward with the National Hockey League’s Montreal Canadiens and an iconic figure in French-Canadian society at a time when nationalist sentiments were bubbling to the surface. This paper examines two feature-length documentary films—Un jeu si simple (1964) and Peut-être Maurice Richard (1971)—as well as two short animated films—Mon numéro 9 en or (1972) and The Sweater (1980)—to consider The Rocket mediated through filmic images. It is about the myth as much as the man, seen through the filmmaker’s lens.