The Rocket: The Legend of Rocket Richard AND Conflict Theory

Cameron Fagan

Our textbook defines Conflict Theory as the way that sports are shaped by economic forces used by economically powerful people to increase their wealth and influence (Coakley & Donnelly, 2011, p.8). Throughout the movie, ‘The Rocket: The Legend of Rocket Richard’ there are numerous confirmations that such events take place.
Our first glance at conflict theory came when Maurice as a young man was working in a machinist factory. The workers bodies were covered in grease and other various factory products, hair drenched in sweat and bodies on the verge of exhaustion. The film depicts the job for lower-class individuals who were ‘lucky’ to even find employment. There were a few instances in the movie were the factory managers and foreman’s are walking around and at one point even literally ‘throw’ a worker out of the factory and into unemployment. During the era of the world wars, our country was financially unstable and left millions of people below poverty lines trying to make a living. These men who worked within the factories walls were not being properly compensated for the amount of work they were doing. The white collars were, “using their power to manipulate the workers their families to accept the existence of economic inequality as a natural feature of social life”(Coakley & Donnelly, 2011, p. 8). This is exactly what was taking place in Montreal; the upper-level management was treating the workers like objects and work animals because they had the ability to. They knew that no one would speak out of line against them because anyone that did was easily replaceable. Conflict theorists also state that large spectator sports distract our culture into reproducing their power struggle in our society. We were able to see