The new trailer for documentary "Red Army" tells the incredible story of the most dominant and politically influential sports team in history: the Soviet Union's Red Army ice hockey team.
The doc acts as a sort of untold story behind the 2004 film "Miracle," about how the U.S. Olympic hockey team defeated the seemingly invincible Russian squad during the 1980 Winter Olympics.
"It's not a typical sports documentary, and it's not a typical political documentary," says filmmaker Gabe Polsky. "Sports have always had a patriotic bent - that's what makes the Olympics so fun to watch. But this was a unique set of circumstances. Can you imagine representing a party about to crumble?"
After flying to Russia over a year ago to shoot interviews with former players and others involved, Polsky showed a rough cut to Hollywood bigshots Werner Herzog and Jerry Weintraub, who both immediately signed on as executive producers.
As the documentary explains of the political tone at the time, "Sports were a kind of warfare."
"From childhood, they picked out the best of the best of the best with a different concept of how you play the game."
"The skill level of that team was astounding, they elevated hockey to an art form ... those players will go down in history as the greatest of all time."
"The KGB guys were always there. The game for them wasn't just a game."
"It was also propaganda: we're the best and we're the best because of the Soviet system."
"We practiced four times a day in the summertime, but why play for the guy who doesn't respect us as a human being?"
Watch the full "Red Army" preview trailer below: