First Descent (Snowboarding)
Picture: C+
Sound: B- Extras: B- Film: B
Like skateboarding, snowboarding is a sport that is still
considered very new and not totally in the mainstream, but it is in motion
pictures enough. This includes the Kevin
Harrison/Kemp Curley documentary First Descent, released late in 2005
before the latest Winter Olympics made the sport’s stars Shaun White and Hannah
Teter Gold Medallists. He was already
as popular as any of the five stars of the film, Teter is gaining new exposure
and the equally skilled and groundbreaking fellow talents joining the two are
Terje Haakonsen, Shawn Farmer and Nick Perata.
All five are invited to go boarding in very untouched parts of Alaska
and it will not be easy, which is the whole point of doing it. They themselves are also very interesting
and engaging, but we meet most of the key figures in the sport’s young history.
Henry Rollins narrates the nearly two-hours of this very
smart and well-edited (by Curley) showcase for what amounts to a tribute to the
sport that shows the Alaska trip while doing a chronological flashback
throughout the history of the sport.
There is much heart and soul here all the way, tracing the rowdy early
days to the crazy road exploits that fans and participants constantly filmed
and taped (which helps this flashback history very much) for posterity. The title is a clever one too, telling us
that even for the best in the world, hitting a new mountain or slope is the
equivalent to being “like a virgin” all over again. No wonder the love of this sport grows and is a worldwide
phenomenon.
The anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image is a mix of new
Super 35mm footage and plenty of other formats going back to analog NTSC
video. The result is the usual mix you get
for documentaries, with Scott Duncan’s cinematography exciting enough despite
the generic format it is being shot in.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is not bad, with healthy surrounds often,
including some Rock music throughout.
Extras include the trailer, extended boarding clips, deleted scenes and
a couple of featurettes on the making of the film and its star athletes. All are good and enhance the film, but there
was room for more and I wish we had more here.
- Nicholas Sheffo
