Warren Miller "Higher Ground" 56th Year

Who has seen it? What did you think?

It's actually been brought up in other unrelated threads. Personally, I enjoyed the film and the HD res, but was somewhat turned off by the omnipresent commercialism.

mikesathome":38xjor3m said:

Who has seen it? What did you think?

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Saw it. Very cool to see how good a rider Bode Miller's little brother is. Also liked the guy in the flying suit: he wore this suit that made him look like a flying squirrel and he dove from planes and skimmed along the slopes of mountains at unbelievable speeds. Unlike anything I'd ever seen.
-H

This movie sucked!!
I was dissapointed way too comercialized. I expected way more from warren miller, I've seen every one of his flicks in the last 7 years. In my opinion First Descent was a better movie on all scales and you can see that at just about any theatre.
Don't waste your time and money - get the dvd next yr.

Also liked the guy in the flying suit: he wore this suit that made him look like a flying squirrel and he dove from planes and skimmed along the slopes of mountains at unbelievable speeds. Unlike anything I'd ever seen.

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it's been done before by warren miller, nothing new. also has nothing to do with skiing for that matter.

I was pretty dissapointed. There has always been a pretty set formula to the WM films, but the last few years have become rediculous....every one is virtually identical. Plake's piece on the history of skiing was pretty good (much better than his awful water skiing segment last year). Flying squirrel guy was cool, but, as mentioned, we've already seen that. Plus, it's strong evidence of how weak the ski footage is when everyone's favorite part is non-ski related.

Also saw the TGR movie (Tangerine Dream). This really emphasized how poor the WM films have become. Footage from TGR, especially J. Jones adn J. Nobis in AK, was so far and above what WM put together....not even in the same league.

Next year I'm skipping WM.

I saw it last night. We do have to remember that Warren's personal involvement in these films is minimal now as he's 81. I think his son sold the company to time4media, the division of Time Warner that owns SKI and SKIING magazines.

5-10 years ago Warren was not filming but he still did most of the narration, which presumably meant he also had a role in editing. The credits showed Jeremy Bloom as narrator. The WM ski films have nearly always had a short clip of some other adventure sport, though the "flying squirrel" was a repeat.

When I started skiing in the late 1970's Warren Miller lived in SoCal and personally narrated some that I attended in Pasadena and Santa Monica. He moved to Vail in 1991, then to the Yellowstone Club by 2001.

In 2003 Warren manned a booth at the L.A. Ski Show for 4 days, selling DVD's and chatting with anyone who came by.

Yes, I think the sale to T4M explains it. The content of the movie was like the content of SKI and SKIING: predictable, conservative, and uninspired.

It's great to see so many new film groups (TGR, Matchstick, etc.) pushing the envelope and following the grassroots type of production effort that Mr. Miller pioneered.