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First Descent
R1 - America - Universal Pictures Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak (1st April 2006). |
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The Film
 If First Descent proves anything it’s that snowboarding is a damn cool sport, and that hip renegades that don’t play by anyone’s rules dominate the sport. Unfortunately that’s all it manages to prove, while providing us with an interesting history lesson into the origins of the sport. Filmmakers Kemp Curly (who possesses the funniest name I’ve ever come across) and Kevin Harrison put together a documentary film that covers the sport of snowboarding, the primary focus of this piece is Alaskan freestyle cross-country mountain riding, they take five of the worlds top boarders, Shaun White a multiple X games gold medalist (and recent 2006 Winter Olympics Gold Medalist in the men’s half pipe event), Hannah Teter the top female snowboarder in the United States and she’s only 19 years old (Also a recent gold medalist at the 2006 Winter Olympics in the women’s half pipe event), Shawn Farmer one of the snowboarding pioneers, Nick Perata an icon in the sport and Norwegian born Terje Haakonsen considered by most as the best snowboarder in the world. These five uniquely different people all share one passion and that’s to shred the snow. They embark on a journey to Alaska, to ride some of the most dangerous peaks in a journey that continues to add fire to each of their rebellious spirits - or some such s**t akin to that. Whatever you want to call it, these guys are paid to strap on a board and ride down mountains, lucky bastards! Along the way we also learn about the origins of the sport in an in-depth history lesson similar to what we saw in Dogtown and Z-boys (2001), the film doesn’t really follow a straight narrative and these aspects of the film are interwoven with the adventure these five pros embark on. It is here the filmmakers chronicle how the sport began and interviews some of its pioneers to the reputation it held among the ski community and the future of the sport which is in the hands of the young and hungry stars such as Shaun White and Hannah Teter (who by the way has got to be the most annoying person in this entire feature, she comes across an a airhead with the attitude exhibited by cast members of The O.C. which is nothing to be proud of). We also get backgrounds on the five major players here and how snowboarding changed their lives and all that stuff, which gets a bit tiring when you figure out that although they all say it differently these people are all telling you the same thing - snowboarding is cool. The film includes some of the most breathtaking aerial photography of these boarders riding down mountains and some amazing and exhilarating jumps; I wish I’d had the chance to see this on the big screen because this subject really does deserve a giant canvas. I was also impressed by the risks these boarders took while on this trip, one incident proved almost life threatening for Terje Haakonsen, while riding down a slope his moves incite an avalanche which he actually outruns. Yes you read that correctly, he actually outran an avalanche! Breathtaking photography aside I felt the filmmakers didn’t have enough of a story with these five for a film and that the historical aspect was introduced, these elements, although very interesting feel tacked on. If the history lesson was not included the films would have become a seemingly never-ending series of people doing tricky stuff with their boards, and as impressive as that is it does get boring, very fast. First Descent is an entertaining look at the sport of snowboarding with a dash of adventure thrown in, however I can’t really see this appealing to many people outside of the snowboarding community.
Video
Presented in the film’s original theatrical ratio of 2.35:1, this anamorphic transfer is brilliant, of course there are other elements involved such as older archive footage that doesn’t stand well, it’s usually soft and lacks detail but this is not the fault of the transfer and more so the source material. The footage of the five boarders is brilliantly shot and crystal clear, sharp detail is evident, blacks, however little (remember this is shot in a snowy white atmosphere) are bold, skin tones are fine although there have been a few instances were they were a little orange. I could not spot any dirt or other blemishes making this a top notch effort.
Audio
Only one audio track is included here, an English Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track. Dialogue is clear and distortion free and music is mixed well within the 5.1 space however that’s about all this track has going for itself, occasional directional sound is included in the form of ambient sounds and wind but an overall sense of depth isn’t really achieve. These flaws aside it’s a fairly suited soundtrack for this film. Optional subtitles are included in English for the hearing impaired, French and Spanish.
Extras
First ups we have the AK and Beyond featurette that runs for 21 minutes 29 seconds, and covers a behind-the-scenes perspective on the production of the film. This covers in brief the genesis of the project, capturing the love of the sport within these five people, assembling the right five to go on this adventure, shooting in the harsh environment of Alaska as well as safely concerns among other things. This provided a up-close look at how this team out this project together and was relatively interesting and sometimes informative but mostly entertaining watching the cast and crew interact during the production. Next we have the Top of the World: Wescam featurette which runs for 5 minutes 31 seconds and takes a look at the aerial photography achieved with the use of a specialized piece of equipment called the wescam. This is a gyroscopically stabilized camera mount that attaches to the front of a helicopter. Anyone with an interest in the photography of this film should take a look at this extra. A Thousand Words is a featurette which runs for 4 minutes 51 seconds and is a selection of photographs taken during the production process of the cast and crew spliced into a reel with music. Big-Mountain Riding is a featurette which runs for 5 minutes 38 seconds and includes Nick Perata giving us tips and advice if you want to set out going on a big-mountain ridging expedition and includes some footage cut in from the film. Next we have some extended snowboarding action footage which runs for 4 minutes 25 seconds and includes some additional riding footage set to some music, we get a variety of different shots from following tracking shots, static and aerial. Following that are 2 deleted scenes that include: - Bar Scene which runs for 2 minutes 46 seconds, the youngest of the group, White and Teter talk about what they’ve learned so far. - Weather Scene runs for 3 minutes 17 seconds, bad weather puts a halt on any snowboarding ad the group all deal with that in different ways. Rounding out the extras are 2 bonus trailers that play at the start before the menu, these can be skipped by pressing the Menu button on your remote, these trailers are for: - American Pie: Band Camp the unrated DVD, which runs for 36 seconds. - Jarhead which runs for 32 seconds.
Overall
Normally if a DVD doesn’t include an audio commentary that’s about the first comment I make, where is it? However in this case with the film and the extra featurettes I’m all snowboarded out and actually happy a commentary is not included. While the film is an interesting look at the sport and these five personalities it’s nothing but a glorified sports video, snowboarding fanatics will get a kick but this really does have a limited appeal, judging by it’s box office results alone.
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