Tag Archive for: ski films

Jon Weisberg

Review: Warren Miller’s Latest Is A Winner!

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“Here, There, & Every Where” Brings Out Pre-Season Inner Child.

As he did with so many things, Warren finds his own way to wax. Credit: Warren Miller Personal Archive

As he did with so many things, Warren finds his own way to wax. Credit: Warren Miller Personal Archive

Warren Miller has been bringing out my pre-season Inner Child since I was a kid in Troy, NY. Every Fall he presented and narrated his latest film to a full house. For me he conveyed an impossibly aspirational message: Make a life choice that will allow you to ski, whenever and where ever you choose.

Like others, my choices were different, and it wasn’t until later in life that I was able to follow his advice. Over the years I’ve met many people who decided early to spend their lives in the mountains. They chose to work where they lived. Until 57, I chose to live where I worked.

Which brings me to the latest edition in the annual procession of Miller films.

“Here, There, & Every Where,” coincides with the release of Miller’s autobiography, Freedom Found, My Life Story (reviewed a few weeks ago on SeniorsSkiing.com). The book provides a loose plot line for the film, with two young guys reliving Warren and Ward Baker’s very early experience bumming around in a small teardrop trailer and enjoying the mountains.

The film starts with Warren, now 92, reminiscing on camera and over footage of his early days. He explains how, in 1946, after leaving the Navy, he and Ward met surfing in California. That summer he shot surfers with a wind-up 8mm camera. That winter they parked in Sun Valley’s lot and shot people on skis.

It “jump-started what I wanted to do with my life,” he explains. “It’s crazy how the whole thing happened. I couldn’t have orchestrated it.” These lines have typical Warren Miller delivery: after all these years, he seems genuinely surprised with his own life story.

For me and the 2000-plus people at the film’s premier in Salt Lake City, it all rang true. We sang Happy Birthday to this 92 year old ski film pioneer, which was streamed live.

We then entered a world of stunning beauty and of great ski and boarding scenes across the globe. Like all Miller films, this one presents a host of amusing mishaps and crazy stunts by those too young to drive.

Freestyler Jonny Moseley is the superb narrator with a style surprisingly similar to Warren’s classic delivery.

The enthusiastic Salt Lake audience was not as young as I anticipated. A company representative said audiences generally are in the 25-50 range. That said, I saw teenagers, entire families, and very generous representation of those in their 60s and 70s.

Here, There, & Every Where is touring the country and should not be missed. Link here for trailer and schedule.

This is a Warren Miller production at its best. If you ski or board, see it. If you’ve retired from snow, it may be enough to get you out there again.

Warren Miller and

Warren Miller and Ward Baker living the ski bum life. They went from surfing in the summer to Sun Valley’s parking lot in the winter, shooting movies along the way.  Credit: Warren Miller Personal Archive

Jon Weisberg

Warren Miller’s ‘Here, There And Everywhere’ Ushers In 2016-17 Season

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He’s 91. This Is His 67th Production.

Get ready for the new season with some mind candy from Warren Miller.

Get ready for the new season with some mind candy from Warren Miller’s Here, There, And Everywhere.

Warren Miller is back. The patriarch of outdoor adventure films is 91 and at the beginning of the trailer for the 2016-17 film Here, There And Everywhere, he asks, “What do people really get out of skiing?”

His answer? “It satisfies our innermost urges…for freedom.” He mentions being in square boxes, “This building…is square. The walls are vertical.” Then he delivers a prototypical Warren Miller punch line: “Out there nothing is straight. It’s all crooked.”

The beauty of the outdoors and the freedom of skiing are Warren Miller's trademarks.

The beauty of the outdoors and the freedom of skiing are Warren Miller’s trademarks.

And suddenly we’re transformed to the magnificent Warren Miller landscape we’ve come to know and to anticipate over the years: blue skies, bottomless powder, and endless runs.

Miller’s first film was presented 67 years ago. Since then, the genre he created has psyched and pumped snow sports enthusiasts for the coming season. Here, There And Everywhere features elite athletes descending exotic terrain in Alaska, Montana, Greenland, and Switzerland. Other locations might be more familiar to viewers, including Deer Valley, where the film pays tribute to the late Stein Eriksen. Warren, himself, participates in the narrative—a return to his origins when every Warren Miller film presentation featured him in person.

I haven’t screened the film yet, but I know it will be terrific. How could it not? It’s Warren Miller, and it’s the beginning of another ski season!

The website for Here, There & Everywhere has trailer, film excerpts, and a full schedule of where the film will play.

Warren Miller’s Newest: “No Turning Back”

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This one is not to be missed.

Flipping out: Lofoten, Norway Credit: Oystein Aasheim

Flipping out: Lofoten, Norway
Credit: Oystein Aasheim

My first Warren Miller film was in the early 50’s. That was when the Master, himself, was present to narrate each showing. You knew the season was

Chute running: Mt. Olympus, Greece Credit: Josh Bibby

Chute running: Mt. Olympus, Greece
Credit: Josh Bibby

starting when Warren rolled into town.

I’ve seen many ski films over the years. After a while, despite camera tricks, ski gymnastics, and the latest soundtrack, they took on a boring sameness. How many times can you watch a daredevil huck the big cliff?

But I just watched Miller’s newest production, “No Turning Back”, and I’ve gotta tell you, this is not to be missed. It is a beautifully shot travelogue of some magnificent lines carved through some of the world’s best terrain.

For the SeniorsSkiing.com crowd, there’s a segment shot in Chamonix featuring a few 50+ skiers (52 and 60) and filled with wisdom about aging and skiing. One line sums it up: “When skiers say 50 is the new 40 (I’d make that 70 is the new 60), what they’re really saying is, Thank you, fat skis!”

“No Turning Back,” Miller’s 65th film, is narrated by Jonny Moseley, who, in his own way, channels the Warren Miller feeling with artful script laced with philosophy and humor. Interspersed throughout are great snippets of skiing history, including a northern Norway search for a ski that was carbon-dated to 3200 BC.

There’s a beautifully shot segment in steep powder runs in Cordova, Alaska, boarding in the bottomless powder of   Hokkaido, Japan, and a piece on skiing in Greece, where there’s more than 20 areas less than two hours from the Aegean.

Two skiers hike and ski Mount Olympus while the narrator links it to Daedelus and Icarus.

A few hundred miles west, we’re introduced to two “speed riders” in Switzerland, guys skiing with paragliding kites, which allow them to huck enormous cliffs, touch down on a stretch of snow and get airborne within seconds.

Throughout, the film pays homage to female skiers, featuring several carving great turns on incredibly steep terrain.

Powder running: Chamonix, France Credit: Mike Hatrup

Powder running: Chamonix, France
Credit: Mike Hatrup

For me, the most enjoyable segment was shot in Montana with big mountain skiers Julian Carr and the charming Sierra Quitiquit. (Julian has done any number on mind-boggling cliff jumps, including a 210′ front flip in Engleberg.) Montana has many smaller areas known for steeps and deeps. And their towns, unaffected by contemporary ski culture, remain time-warped, non-commercial, and down-home friendly.

“No Turning Back” is being shown around the country (locations and schedule). If ski films are your thing, or if you’ve been away from that genre for a while, find a hall where it’s playing. Regardless of age, it will make you want to be on the hill.