Movie Reviews

Warren Miller's Fifty

26 May 2000

Warren Miller is a legend to winter sports devotees. Since 1949, he has depicted the excitement of these sports in about eight zillion films. (Well, 38, but who's counting?) Whenever his latest opus comes to Canberra, we know that ski season is on its way, as if we couldn't work it out already.

I saw his previous film, Freeriders, last year, on the same day as The Phantom Menace. As a science fiction junkie, with little interest in winter sports, I still found Freeriders far more enjoyable, if only because The Phantom Menace was all pizzazz and no heart, whereas Miller's heart is still firmly in his movies. Besides, George Lucas could never come up with lines like: "Getting into our films can have a direct relationship with the size of your IQ. If you're an idiot, it can definitely help."

Fifty is Miller's anniversary film. It has all the familiar hallmarks: gorgeous photography, energetic music, Miller's cheesy narration, and a cast of even cheesier characters. In general, these people are amazing skiers, which is nature's way of making up for the fact that they can't act, even though they are only required to play themselves (in amusing conversations with each other).

A typical character is Johnny Moseley. He apparently won gold at the Nagano Winter Olympics, so we can assume he really exists, but with those ever-grinning teeth, that California tan and air of cool confidence, you could be forgiven for thinking that someone invented him as a joke.

Miller's films are populated with such amazing dudes, captured by an equally impressive team of cinematographers, who portray skiing, snowboarding and other winter activities in all their glory. Miller might well have inspired some of the more gripping IMAX films, notably the recent Extreme.

Dedicated skiers will no doubt be entranced by Fifty, but others will enjoy the scenery, the sense of fun, and the action sequences that leave James Bond to shame. It is a lively mix of old and new footage, which only outstays its welcome towards the end because, let's be fair, we can only watch so much downhill skiing. An hour is fine, but 50 years? How does he do it?