Roger Ebert on big mountain skiing/riding

[DerJaeger]

Roger Ebert has written a review of First Descent (click here to see it).

It's interesting, not because of his assessment of it ("boring, repetitive and maddening"... hey it was snowboards, what did he expect?), but rather because he expresses what I think might be very common sentiments for non-skiiers/riders watching any big mountain skiing or snowboarding film.

I enjoyed this one:

Here's my question: As they approach the edge of the ledge, how can they know for sure what awaits them over the edge? Wouldn't they eventually be surprised, not to say dismayed, to learn that they were about to drop half a mile? Or land on rocks? Or fall into a chasm? Shouldn't the mountains of Alaska be littered with the broken bodies of extreme snowboarders?

Humour value aside, I beleive anybody who wants to make a big mountain skiing film that could be enjoyed by mainstream audiences would do well to pay attention to his comments.

[alpinepronghorn]

Well, I'd go tell that thumb guy to go shove it...except that he's right. One of his points is well taken; given the formula for success that surfing films like Riding Giants have developed, they ought to have been able to put together a compelling movie with wide ranging appeal. I mean, there's nothing about surfing that makes it neccesarily an easier sell than snowboarding: surfing doesn't have better scenery than Alaska, and it wasn't the surfing market that made Riding Giants a success. Even Touching the Void, which deals with climbing (the most uninteresting pursuit to watch on screen) managed to have wide appeal.

I guess that's what happens when your film is driven by marketing, and marketing wants to be "Xtreme."

[LeeLau]

Here's one quote from Ebert

The movie's fundamental problem, I think, is journalistic. It doesn't cover its real subject. The movie endlessly repeats how exciting, or thrilling, or awesome it is to snowboard down a mountain. I would have preferred more detail about how dangerous it is, and how one prepares to do it, and what precautions are taken, and how you can anticipate avalanches on virgin snow above where anybody has ever snowboarded before.

The kicker on the trailer says: "Unless you're fully prepared to be in a situation of life and death, you shouldn't be up here." So, OK, how can you possibly be fully prepared in a situation no one has been in before, and which by definition can contain fatal surprises? Since the five stars of the movie are all still alive as I write this review, they must have answers for those questions. Maybe interesting ones. Maybe more interesting than what a thrill it is.

hell - yeah; I'd love to see how these things are set up.

[Buster Highmen]

I thought Roger Ebert was an expert on Big Mountain Eating.

[aspenskibum]

Roger Ebert has written a review of First Descent (click here to see it).

It's interesting, not because of his assessment of it ("boring, repetitive and maddening"... hey it was snowboards, what did he expect?), but rather because he expresses what I think might be very common sentiments for non-skiiers/riders watching any big mountain skiing or snowboarding film.

I enjoyed this one:





Humour value aside, I beleive anybody who wants to make a big mountain skiing film that could be enjoyed by mainstream audiences would do well to pay attention to his comments.

yea, i think it was high society, showed shane and someone else, i can't remember who, holding polaroids talking about that whole thing ("just go down there and jump off something for christ's sake") and i know waiting game talked about memorizing lines in comps, but theres one thing ebert isn't getting (that no mainstream non skier/boarder audience would get) this is PORN.

[shmerham]

but theres one thing ebert isn't getting (that no mainstream non skier/boarder audience would get) this is PORN.

except it's being released to the masses... to date the only major release that Jenna Jameson has been in was "Girl Next Door" and it was a cameo.

[bcrider]

Does he really think that you just go over the edge and hope for the best? If so, he makes a good point that the film should have done a better job of explaining the preparation that goes into big mountain skiing.

[Trackhead]

I would have preferred more detail about how dangerous it is, and how one prepares to do it, and what precautions are taken, and how you can anticipate avalanches on virgin snow above where anybody has ever snowboarded before.

Dude, I boarded the sick A-star helicopter, got dropped off at the summit, and rode down. Sick brah.

Good find for his review. Sounds spot on for a general audience review.

[truth]

I thought Roger Ebert was an expert on Big Mountain Eating.

He's half the man he used to be.

[Benny Profane]

I thought Roger Ebert was an expert on Big Mountain Eating.

He forever will be cool in my book for co writing Russ Meyer's Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.

[cj001f]

Does he really think that you just go over the edge and hope for the best? If so, he makes a good point that the film should have done a better job of explaining the preparation that goes into big mountain skiing.

"There are a lot of shots of snowboarders in the movie, mostly doing the same things again and again, often with the camera at such an angle that we cannot get a clear idea of the relationship between where they start and where they land." I can see why if you don't know anything about snowboarding (as he admits) you might have trouble understanding what the big deal is.

Has there ever been a non-surfing action sports movie that was a major hit? Endless Summer, Riding Giants, others (Everest is the Into Thin Air exception)

[PNWbrit]

Steve Mcqueen's Le Mans or Frankenheimer's Grand Prix?

Both used real race footage/drivers mixed with staged stuff/actors

[cj001f]

Steve Mcqueen's Le Mans or Frankenheimer's Grand Prix?

I was thinking along documentary lines. Otherwise there's the Hotdog/Ski Patrol/Aspen Extreme/In Gods Hands kettle of fish.

[Benny Profane]

Steve Mcqueen's Le Mans or Frankenheimer's Grand Prix?

Both used real race footage/drivers mixed with staged stuff/actors

Both are almost attached at the hip, because McQueen developed Grand Prix, but lost it as a project, and went on to do LeMans.

[PNWbrit]

How about Bruce Brown's On Any Sunday

[Benny Profane]

How about Bruce Brown's On Any Sunday

Ha, McQueen again.

[Big Blue]

to date the only major release that Jenna Jameson has been in was "Girl Next Door" and it was a cameo.

Don't forget her role in Howard Stern's movie.

[iceman]

I think Ebert makes a good point and not just for general audiences. Seeing what goes into making a sick line happen is at least as interesting to me as the line itself. The planning, scoping, testing, pit digging, etc. etc. that allow the thing to happen in the first place are integral to the whole process and showing more of this kind of stuff would make for a more "journalistic" (his word) final product.

But really he's talking about a different movie, one that hasn't been made yet as far as I know, but which should be, and which I think could be a crossover hit in the "Riding Giants" vein.

edit: maybe

[Benny Profane]

"Shouldn't the mountains of Alaska be littered with the broken bodies of extreme snowboarders? "

jeeeez....now there's a concept.

[gramps]

That review does kind of make one suspect that a larger audience would be interested in finding out what high-level skiing/riding is really about, and what goes into it. Sounds like the studio decided to keep it dumb and go more for the "mountain dew commercial" kind of thing. Ebert wants details, damnit!

[Bud Green]

Movies like Blue Crush and Riding Giants and Step into Liquid helped ruin surfing by showing inland yuppies what a cool sport it is. 10 years ago, nobody in Utah surfed. Now, everybody I know "surfs" or wants to surf. When you go surfing now, it's a bunch of kooks on 10' longboards turning turtle.

I think it's great that Hollywood made a shitty movie about snowboring. Do you want millions of new gapers from the midwest at your resort because they saw a good movie about skiing?

[shmerham]

Movies like Blue Crush and Riding Giants and Step into Liquid helped ruin surfing by showing inland yuppies what a cool sport it is. 10 years ago, nobody in Utah surfed. Now, everybody I know "surfs" or wants to surf. When you go surfing now, it's a bunch of kooks on 10' longboards turning turtle.

I think it's great that Hollywood made a shitty movie about snowboring. Do you want millions of new gapers from the midwest at your resort because they saw a good movie about skiing?

No, but it would be awfully elitist of me to actually deny someone something awesome, just so I could have more for me.

Besides, I honestly don't think it would make that much difference. People vacation in surfing spots without being surfers; no one vacations in skiing spots unless they're there to ski or do some other winter sport.