Storm’s a comin’
By ADAM
TANOUS
Express Arts Editor
It is
hard not to get excited about skiing or snowboarding after seeing Warren
Miller’s annual installment of dramatic action and breathtaking
cinematography.
For 53
years now Miller has been making films. And these are films that play in
every mountain town in the country, turning the collective psyche away
from mountain biking to fun in the snow. Few do it better than Warren
Miller. Not only does he enlist some of the best snowboarders and skiers
in the world and find the most dramatic venues in which to shoot, he
does it with a sense of humor. Like the true ski bum that he is, he
never takes himself too seriously.
Chris
Anthony soars among Canada’s Blue River glaciers during the
filming of "Storm." Photo by Mark Weaver
"Storm"
is Miller’s latest production, and it will open Wednesday, Oct. 30, at
the Sun Valley Opera House. Showings will be at 6 and 9 p.m. Featured in
this year’s film are two Wood River Valley skiers, Reggie and Zach
Crist. The brothers Crist are Winter X Games Skiercross champions. They
are filmed skiing secret powder stashes in the local backcountry.
Another
valley resident, Kim Schneider, has done the editing for the film.
Stanley musicians Cody and Willy Braun and their band Reckless Kelly
have a song in the film as well.
The theme
of this year’s film is, obviously, storms. The cast and crew follow
storms around the world to find the lightest, deepest and best snow to
rip up. The locales include Valdez, Alaska; the Isle of South Georgia in
Antarctica, Lake Tahoe, Calif.; St. Anton, Austria; Breckenridge, Colo.;
and Cordova, Alaska.
Two of
the more memorable sections of the film are the "New School
Montage: Redefining Railings" and a sequence shot with the U.S.
Marines at their training center in California’s Sierra Mountains. The
former reveals the latest and greatest in rail riding and grinding. The
latter takes Miller’s skiers and drops them into Cobra attack
helicopters, frozen lakes and 10-kilometer biathlons. Both sequences are
not only different from the typical ski film footage, but they are
amusing.
As
always, Miller has set everything to music—everything from the
Reckless Kelly tune, to Dave Matthews, to something of the more
classical variety.
"Storm"
is a little fantasy in October, a primer for all those skier and
snowboarder souls out there. While it may be a little early to get out
on the snow by the end of the month, it’s never too early to dream.