The Crash Reel

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.

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

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!

I'm a skier and have hitherto always found a certain type of snowboarder a little annoying. I'm not stating this to be confrontational or anything but simply to illustrate how successful The Crash Reel is. Not only is it very well made and emotionally strong but it has instilled in me a new found respect for snowboarding. It tells the story of Kevin Pearce, a snowboarder who was a favourite to make the American Winter Olympic team for Vancouver 2009. He was the main rival for Shaun White – the greatest boarder there has been – and he was slowly picking up trophies and his career was about to go into hyper-drive. It was at this point that he suffered an accident on a half-pipe that left him brain damaged. It's a story that has been told in different parts – firstly as a sports documentary about the rise of a new star, then about a man trying to recover from a brain injury and lastly about acceptance and wisdom gained through experience. In adopting this approach it covers a lot of ground and leaves you with a lot of different things to ponder over, such as the dangers of snowboarding and the importance of the family unit.

In some respects the scariest thing about The Crash Reel was how easily and innocuously the fateful accident happened. It wasn't a spectacular crash but one you could easily envisage happening to any boarder capable of tackling the big half-pipes. It makes you ponder the very real dangers involved in the sport and how quickly everything can change. The tragedy of Pearce is that he instantly became a young man unable to do the one thing he excelled at. But as the film later illustrates he was lucky, as we learn of different boarders and skiers who are actually killed. The film functions partly as a warning about the dangers of extreme sports both physically and psychologically. But it also celebrates the sport too with lots of incredible snowboarding footage. But it's the family scenes that often leave the biggest impression. The Pearce's are clearly a strong and loving family and their many scenes with Kevin, trying to reason with him about not getting back on a board again are heart-felt. It's in these moments that the other star of the documentary emerges, namely Kevin's brother David who suffers from Downs Syndrome. David was often the voice of reason and was an extremely fascinating character. It made me think that we simply never hear the voices of people who suffer David's condition. And judging by The Crash Reel it is a voice well worth hearing.

All-in-all, this is an excellent documentary that scores points in several areas. It made me go away and think about things and that's really what it's all about at the end of the day.