The Crash Reel

This is the most amazing documentary I have ever seen. Kevin Pearce, his fabulous family and his friends are an inspiration to us all. What an advert for the importance of family and friends, but most of all the human spirit and what can be achieved with the right attitude and support of your family and friends. Kevin Pearce has just jumped to number 1 of my all time favourite and most admired and respected people on the planet. Number 1 on my bucket list - meet Kevin Pearce!! Brilliantly made documentary, sadness, happiness, admiration, respect, the list goes on for the words I could use to describe everybody involved. Kevin Pearce - you are a legend!!

Shaun White and Kevin Pearce have been friendly rivals since childhood. They have known each other since 9 or 10. Shaun has always won everything. However in the years leading up to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, Kevin has started to win some. It's a struggle to put in more dangerous high flying tricks. Then 49 days to the Olympics, Kevin suffers a harrowing injury practicing a tough trick. He barely survives while Shaun goes on to win the gold. As he gets better, he wants to snowboard once again despite the fears from everybody.

This is an eye opening documentary. First there is a pretty interesting remembrance of the rivalry between Shaun and Kevin. There is his family life and a simple retelling of his life leading up to the injury. After the injury, it seems to be a straight forward traditional inspirational feel good movie. Then it becomes a suspense as Kevin keeps trying to relive his past despite everybody fighting him. The tension is really high as we fear for another brain injury. This is a very compelling tense revealing personal journey.

I saw the The Crash Reel several days ago after its debut on HBO. It has resonated with me ever since -- mostly because of the story and the humanity of its protagonist, the World Class snowboarder Kevin Pearce -- but also because of the exquisite soundtrack that director Lucy Walker utilized to fuse this very emotional subject to the viewer's experience.

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is a silent and insidious condition. The difficulty of documentaries such as this is that they tend to portray the victims in as positive a light as possible, with the most optimistic of outcomes. The sad truth of many survivors is that their lives are extremely difficult as they work inordinately hard to maintain just a fraction of the life they used to live. The documentary only hints at these lingering deficits, and it is impossible to know the truth of where Mr. Pearce presently stands in his recovery. I would muster to guess that his life is much more restrictive and frustrating than the movie suggests. This is the primary reason for my less than perfect rating. I would have preferred a more honest assessment of Mr. Pearce's functionality post-injury instead of what I viewed as an unnecessary, though human, detour into the struggles of one of his brothers with Down Syndrome.

All the synopses of this movie stress the rivalry between Shaun White and Kevin Pearce but I felt this documentary had very little to do with White (and the actual "rivalry" seemed very one sided). The footage (quality and volume) is admirable, but I wish the narrative was a little more focused. Is it a documentary about Kevin's struggle? Or about the snowboarding community? Or about the danger of extreme sports? If it's trying to be all three, I really wish they pointed the lens at the real culprit: events like the X-Games that celebrate and instigate athletes to do bigger, faster and more dangerous tricks in pursuit of glory. I appreciated the patience of this documentary, compiling footage over 4 years to follow Kevin's personal arc from desperate to return to what he believes makes him whole, to an understanding that he is not (and never will be) the person he was before the accident. He's an endearing protagonist, so this was a very watchable film.

The Crash Reel is one mountain of an emotional journey. It starts as one thing and it blossoms, changing its mind frequently but touching all possible ground for its subject. At first, it's a montage documentary from sports footage about a rivalry nearly worthy to be this year's Senna. Then it becomes a film about recovery, then a comeback film, then a film that spreads awareness about the incidents of extreme sports, but then it results in a film fittingly about accepting who you are. Despite shifting focus in a stream-of-consciousness way, it's still a very human story and it's told so elegantly and coherently that it's almost difficult to believe some shots are real because it's so ideal for the scene. Director Lucy Walker has a great sense for capturing the drama. It's the tragedy of someone not being able to do their life's passion that is truly felt even if the unfortunately true arrogant attitude of snowboarders lead me to struggle to sympathise with some of them at times. Perhaps if the documentary was framed with hindsight of Kevin Pearce's ultimate change at the start of the film then it wouldn't feel so unfocused but nevertheless, it never diminishes its emotional power as it tells us the physical and psychological expense athletes of extreme sports go through. An essential documentary for the year with vibrant visuals, kinetic editing and great soundtrack too.

8/10