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Doug Robinson
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
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Topic Author's Original Post - Sep 13, 2014 - 10:02am PT
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I'm on the road, so haven't even taken in all that's being said on the existing threads, but scanning quickly I see a lot of reactions to reactions. So here, very briefly, is a first impression from what I saw:
Valley Uprising played to a packed house, folding their umbrellas at Boulder's Chautauqua pavilion right below the Flatirons trail. A barn of a building, the premiere sold out at many hundreds. Dirtbags hunched in the rain outside plaintively called out "tickets?" just like at a Dead concert. A cold night in Boulder with snow on the Flatirons the next morning, climbers shivered in the huge drafty space. Largo in his t-shirt was typical, wrapped gratefully in a squaw-like blanket as he huddled at the celebrity-signing table after.
The film is excellent! In spite of some justifiable carping by Bisharat about all that was left on the cutting room floor to fit the Epic of the Gulch into an hour and a half, the essential stories, from the Golden Age feud of Harding vs Robbins to Chapman explaining how he punched out Bachar in the parking lot over bolting, all got told. The most obvious omissions, from Croft to Skinner, were acknowledged in an afterword. The impossibility of even touching upon all the skeins of Yosemite's history became obvious as the story unfolded. Climbing's counterculture underbelly quickly became a theme, beginning with the "rucksack revolution" passage from Kerouack's The Dharma Bums, and going on to highlight the perennial conflict with the rangers, nicely wrapped up in homage to Chongo Chuck, who after years of playing cat-and-mouse with the rangers, ended up banished forever, to live under a bridge in Sacramento. Especially good was imaginative animation of a tab of blotter acid shimmering in paisley on Bridwell's tongue, transforming to his eyeballs spinning. I, at least, liked that part. Also well done was animation of the story of the Lockheed Lodestar augering into Upper Merced Pass Lake carrying tons of weed, and the gold rush that followed, complete with a segue to how the story got twisted into a Stallone blockbuster and ending with Chicken Skinner holding up a piece of the wing. When his climbing museum gets built, that'l be quite a sidelight.
Overall the film is inspiring and great fun, highlighted by gripping climbing footage. Lynn Hill got the loudest applause, especially for "It goes, boys!" after freeing the Nose. And Alex Honnold finished the evening worn out from signing so many posters. Dean Potter was cool and enigmatic as ever, sipping his drink at the after-party. I was glad to see him slack-lining the Lost Arrow untethered and a healthy dose of BASE jumping footage, all hinting at the creative diversity blossoming out of climbing as it grows, healthy and divergent, beyond the Valley. Bravo!
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crunch
Social climber
CO
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Sep 13, 2014 - 11:15am PT
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Damn, Doug!
Watched it a last night. I was pondering trying to write something but you kinda already said it, only better...
thanks!
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hossjulia
Trad climber
Carson City, NV
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Sep 13, 2014 - 02:21pm PT
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Turns out I will be able to make facelift. Looking a forward. To seeing this!
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ms55401
Trad climber
minneapolis, mn
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Sep 13, 2014 - 04:04pm PT
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bridge under Sacramento is the new bridge over troubled water
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Rick A
climber
Boulder, Colorado
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Sep 13, 2014 - 07:00pm PT
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WBraun
climber
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Sep 13, 2014 - 07:05pm PT
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Hahahaha Ho Mannnn Ricky ..... lol
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MisterE
Gym climber
Bishop, CA
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Sep 15, 2014 - 07:28am PT
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Bump! Looking forward to seeing this show at Facelift this year!
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clinker
Trad climber
Santa Cruz, California
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Sep 15, 2014 - 07:45am PT
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Hmm. Where to watch this? SC or SF? For 20 or so of us.
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ec
climber
ca
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Sep 19, 2014 - 06:17pm PT
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Valley Uprising
Tues., Sept. 23rd, 7:00pm
Vine Theater & Alehouse
1722 1st St (between O St & N St)
Livermore, CA 94550
Fee: unknown
Doors open @ 6:30pm
Sponsor: Sunrise Mountain Sports
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BooDawg
Social climber
Butterfly Town
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Sep 21, 2014 - 07:35pm PT
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What night does it play at Facelift?
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phylp
Trad climber
Millbrae, CA
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Sep 21, 2014 - 08:34pm PT
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I tell you, these filmmakers are missing the boat: HBO, docudrama, series, it will be the next "game of Thrones".
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schwortz
Social climber
"close to everything = not at anything", ca
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Sep 21, 2014 - 11:55pm PT
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Friday October 17, 2014 in Davis, CA
Brunelle Performance Hall
Davis Senior High School
315 W. 14th Street, Davis, CA 95616
Doors open at 7pm, showtime at 7:30
Tickets are available for purchase in person at Rocknasium OR by phone at 530.757.2902 - tickets are $12.
Tickets will also be available for purchase ONLINE at Eventbrite!
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bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
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Sep 22, 2014 - 12:12am PT
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How much for half-a-ticket, Holmes? Will there be separate viewings for actual climbers, you know, people who climb cracks n' stuff, and the woebegone plastic crowd?
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Dingus McGee
Social climber
Where Safety trumps Leaving No Trace
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Sep 22, 2014 - 07:36am PT
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I seen it Friday night. A little pretentious at the start--declaring the start of free climbing begin there??--a yes to drugs mixed with climbing and yes to big walls. But the Conns were doing free climbing in the west--the Black Hills as early as 1948, some time before 1964.
Hats off to Warren Harding--a man who could use his head to act on his own ways--not the cute paper rules that some else would write.
And yes the Big Wall Man of Rules later announces how sport climbing is the baby that eats its mother. Well sport climbing started in Europe, not the Valley and was no progeny of the Robbins bullshit but the manifestation of other ways to climb that did ruin his narrow view of how the public will use the rock. The Sport climbing community is Not a group of self thinking no group input elitists.
And no mention of Don Peterson the man who could at youth tell Robbins where to shove it. A young man not to be domineered by Jackasses. Those that try to jack you around.
Great Movie -- don't miss it.
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The Larry
climber
Moab, UT
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Sep 22, 2014 - 07:26pm PT
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skitch
climber
East of Heaven
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Sep 23, 2014 - 07:35am PT
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I guess they showing this tonight on Yosemite. Too bad I ain't there.
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k-man
Gym climber
SCruz
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Sep 23, 2014 - 08:43am PT
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Need. To. Catch.
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Stainless
Social climber
SLC, UT
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Sep 25, 2014 - 07:06am PT
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I don't come to Super Topo often but, as I was watching this, I was thinking about the ranting that must be going on here. Don't know if I missed the right thread but this isn't the Super Topo I remember. Where are the rants?! Well, here is mine. Keep in mind I'm leaving a lot out.
I understand the need to tell a concise story in a three act structure but this film's going to serve as a history book, for some, and the number of errors, omissions, and sheer lies is egregious. Here are a few grievances.
Stonemasters were a SoCal club. They had nothing to do with Yosemite. Yes, they climbed there but calling all Yosemite climbers is akin to calling Dogtown's Z-Boys the entire California skate scene.
Stone Monkeys, wtf? I'm no longer a Valley local but I know many of the people in the film, some I'm in touch with regularly, and I've never heard mention of a Stone Monkey other than Johnny Dawes. If you started climbing in the 70s or 80s in SoCal you knew of the Stonemasters. I climbed Valhalla (entrance exam for SM) as my right of passage as soon as I could, even though it no longer existed. But 15 years of "Stone Monkeys" has somehow passed without a mention in the media. I don't think so.
Chronology. Events are placed out of order and are often off by decades. Chapman punched Bachar in the 90s, not the 70s. The 80s and 90s are basically ignored, which I'd submit was time of the biggest jump in standards. I assume they just didn't have footage of it.
Foreign climbers flocked to the Valley long before the 3rd act. It was the center of the climbing universe for most of the 80s. You could sit in the cafeteria on a fall or spring morning and see pretty much every person you'd ever seen in a magazine. This was somehow left out.
Dean Potter did not start base jumping and highining in the Valley. Good Lord, they'd been going on for decades. I've yet to do El Cap without someone jumping off it. Climbers didn't even start the base jump movement in the Valley. The filmmakers just wanted an excuse to use a lot of cool footage they had (much not from the Valley). And, hell, Chongo, who gets a homage in the film, had highlined the Lost Arrow ages before Potter.
Not to take anything away from Lynn, who's super rad, but Lynn Hill was not the first person to free climb El Cap. Skinner and Piana freed the Salathe, with much controversy, years before. Like Harding, they had the balls to try before anybody else and it was they, not Hill, who changed the big wall free climbing game. This is historically huge.
Most of all, the was PETER CROFT, not John Bachar soloing the Rostrum. Look, Bachar deserves any and all credit you want to give him but he does not deserve to be misrepresented. He changed the sport and so did Croft, who soloed Astroman and The Rostrum decades before they were repeated. Croft's contribution to Valley history is more impressive than some people in the film. Okay, you have to leave some important people out. I get it. But if a guy's accomplishments are so impressive that you can't leave them out, don't just give them to somebody else. That's worse than being sloppy, it's offensive.
Anyway, this is an entertaining film. I enjoyed watching it, especially the old footage (most of the modern footage has been in recent films), but it's not a documentary. It's a fictionalized account based on true events.
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