AllMovie

Chris "Knuckles" Nilan is the focus of Alex Gibney's The Last Gladiators, a documentary that examines the role hockey "enforcers" -- tough guys hired to protect star hockey players on the ice and get into fights with each other -- played for decades in the NHL. Full of entertaining fight footage, and interviews with uber-tough guys like Tony Twist and Marty McSorley, Gibney's film also addresses head-on how the personalities of the men who did this job better than others have often made it very difficult for them to have a problem-free life after they are too old to continue their careers. The Last Gladiators played at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival.