The Crash Reel

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.

Absolutely loved this film! I randomly turned it on (on HBO) and was immediately interested, even though I don't know much about snowboarding. It was interesting to learn about competitive snowboarding & how dangerous it is. Clearly there needs to be more regulations in extreme sports- and at the very very least competitors should be covered under their sponsors, the venues or the media's (who's covering them) insurance. I was so glad to hear Kevin's sponsors stuck with him thru out his ordeal.

I feel in love with the Pierce family who are so loving!

Best of luck to you KP in whatever you choose to do now!

If you like snowboarding or not I think this is an amazing look into a life of and amazing person with an amazing family. Kevin is a superstar snowboarder when a tough break forces him into changing his entire life. This piece of work is so well done. One of my favorite documentaries of all time.

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!!

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.