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Warren Miller, Ski Bum Turned Filmmaker, Dies at 93

nytimes.com

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Re: Warren Miller, Ski Bum Turned Filmmaker, Dies at 93

#11

Post by ethagknight »

peterlk wrote: post #6

Warren Miller inspired a lot of skiers. Every time I went to one of the movies while I was growing up, I learned to have a better time on the slopes. In my mind, the thing that made the movies so compelling wasn't pushing the edges of skiing in a badass way, it was pushing the edges of skiing in a fun/silly way. For example: https://youtu.be/zD5RhNBmc_U My brother and I used to have spinning competitions down hills.…

His films always had silly stuff, but my favorite pieces of his films were the 'slice of life' looks into various people's lives surrounding the ski industry, for example following ski patrol's day-to-day, or even going to foreign countries to document ski culture in, say, Almaty, Kazakstan. I particularly loved this scene from Snowriders II:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq7Meb_pmMM

Important to recall that this was released in 1997, so probably filmed in 1996, and initiated in 1994-5, so its a look into a post-USSR culture a mere 5 yrs after the dissolution of the USSR.

Re: Warren Miller, Ski Bum Turned Filmmaker, Dies at 93

#12

Post by dmix »

peterlk wrote: post #6

Warren Miller inspired a lot of skiers. Every time I went to one of the movies while I was growing up, I learned to have a better time on the slopes. In my mind, the thing that made the movies so compelling wasn't pushing the edges of skiing in a badass way, it was pushing the edges of skiing in a fun/silly way. For example: https://youtu.be/zD5RhNBmc_U My brother and I used to have spinning competitions down hills.…

Was skiing more fun or laid back in the 70-80s? It seems that way from most of the videos I watch. Lots of comments on the Warren films I watched are saying it's gotten far too serious these days and people aren't letting go and having fun on the slopes (besides maybe the 'extreme' guys doing jumps but even they are working hard on a skill)... I'm not much of a skier, but I got that impression myself the few times I went.

Or is this just the usual nostalgic everything-was-better-in-the-past stuff?

Re: Warren Miller, Ski Bum Turned Filmmaker, Dies at 93

#13

Post by TYPE_FASTER »

appleflaxen wrote: post #2

I come to HN to avoid pop culture, including celebrities and their obituaries. If a person is a notable technologist I think it's of interest, but I would ask the community (who is obviously upvoting these celebrity death posts: I'm in the minority here) whether they really think this is important content for HN.

I'd say Warren Miller has spent the last 50 years using technology to create a new media audience. He was the precursor to companies like Matchstick Productions, Teton Gravity Research, and Red Bull Media House.

Watching his movies as a kid was the reason I started putting a video camera on my helmet and video camera in my backpack before GoPro was created.

WME wasn't really pop culture, and I wouldn't categorize Warren Miller as a celebrity. He did use technology to create a life-style business in a category that didn't exist before, which is why I think the post belongs here.

Re: Warren Miller, Ski Bum Turned Filmmaker, Dies at 93

#15

Post by lamp_book »

dmix wrote: post #12
peterlk wrote: post #6

Warren Miller inspired a lot of skiers. Every time I went to one of the movies while I was growing up, I learned to have a better time on the slopes. In my mind, the thing that made the movies so compelling wasn't pushing the edges of skiing in a badass way, it was pushing the edges of skiing in a fun/silly way. For example: https://youtu.be/zD5RhNBmc_U My brother and I used to have spinning competitions down hills.…

Was skiing more fun or laid back in the 70-80s? It seems that way from most of the videos I watch. Lots of comments on the Warren films I watched are saying it's gotten far too serious these days and people aren't letting go and having fun on the slopes (besides maybe the 'extreme' guys doing jumps but even they are working hard on a skill)... I'm not much of a skier, but I got that impression myself the few times I…

Definitely not, here's a classic example of the mainstream skier attitude of the time: https://youtu.be/XPZDEWBzneY

I think the people like Warren were more or less revolting against the culture of the time. Nowadays it's just the norm - most people aren't really wound up even if they're mostly focusing on improving their skills. Maybe there are fewer people dialing goof to the max but in my experience most young skiers and boarders drink and smoke on the slopes - that sort of thing. Also there's movies like G.N.A.R. that are recent.

Re: Warren Miller, Ski Bum Turned Filmmaker, Dies at 93

#17

Post by ghaff »

I still remember one of his older films, I think it was Snowonder that is pretty funny to look back at:

1. There's an aerial shot of pre-eruption Mount St. Helens with commentary of the effect of "Here's a dormant volcano of the Cascades, at least we hope it's dormant."

2. In many of his films, there's a sequence with some kind of oddball snow contraption: monoskis, bikes with fat studded tires, etc. In this film, it was this weird thing called a snowboard.

Re: Warren Miller, Ski Bum Turned Filmmaker, Dies at 93

#18

Post by [deleted] »

peterlk wrote: post #6

Warren Miller inspired a lot of skiers. Every time I went to one of the movies while I was growing up, I learned to have a better time on the slopes. In my mind, the thing that made the movies so compelling wasn't pushing the edges of skiing in a badass way, it was pushing the edges of skiing in a fun/silly way. For example: https://youtu.be/zD5RhNBmc_U My brother and I used to have spinning competitions down hills.…

[deleted]

Re: Warren Miller, Ski Bum Turned Filmmaker, Dies at 93

#19

Post by ghaff »

dmix wrote: post #12
peterlk wrote: post #6

Warren Miller inspired a lot of skiers. Every time I went to one of the movies while I was growing up, I learned to have a better time on the slopes. In my mind, the thing that made the movies so compelling wasn't pushing the edges of skiing in a badass way, it was pushing the edges of skiing in a fun/silly way. For example: https://youtu.be/zD5RhNBmc_U My brother and I used to have spinning competitions down hills.…

Was skiing more fun or laid back in the 70-80s? It seems that way from most of the videos I watch. Lots of comments on the Warren films I watched are saying it's gotten far too serious these days and people aren't letting go and having fun on the slopes (besides maybe the 'extreme' guys doing jumps but even they are working hard on a skill)... I'm not much of a skier, but I got that impression myself the few times I…

I think what you're seeing is that Miller's films (especially the older ones) always had a goofy aspect to go along with whatever extreme ski footage they showed. It's really a reflection of his formula whereas a lot of the footage you see these days plays things more straight.

Re: Warren Miller, Ski Bum Turned Filmmaker, Dies at 93

#20

Post by ghaff »

lamp_book wrote: post #15
dmix wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was skiing more fun or laid back in the 70-80s? It seems that way from most of the videos I watch. Lots of comments on the Warren films I watched are saying it's gotten far too serious these days and people aren't letting go and having fun on the slopes (besides maybe the 'extreme' guys doing jumps but even they are working hard on a skill)... I'm not much of a skier, but I got that impression myself the few times I…

Definitely not, here's a classic example of the mainstream skier attitude of the time: https://youtu.be/XPZDEWBzneY I think the people like Warren were more or less revolting against the culture of the time. Nowadays it's just the norm - most people aren't really wound up even if they're mostly focusing on improving their skills. Maybe there are fewer people dialing goof to the max but in my experience most young ski…

Snowboards were definitely controversial when they came out. A lot of it was probably "Get off my lawn" driven by the fact that snowboarders tended to be younger and more aggressive. So people didn't really like them although the same snowboarders running over their skis would have been doing it no matter what they had strapped to their feet. But people sort of justified their attitude with claims that snowboarders scraped the snow off the slopes, couldn't really see where they were going, etc.

In the US there's only one major and one smaller area that don't allow snowboards today. I didn't realize it but there was a lawsuit against one of the areas a couple years back but they won and still don't allow snowboards.

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