Excellent, Without a doubt!!

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

No doubt, First Descent is definitely one of the most versatile snowboard movies out on record BUT unfortunately the movie is very "American". Sure, the idea of the sport was basically mainly developed in the states but the other continents made a valuable contribution to the heart and soul as well.The movie features four US and one European rider and the title would promise that you are about to see an American conquering untouched mountains. In fact, the ONLY first descent in this film is being accomplished by an European, Terje Haakonsen. The rest of the riding activities can rather be considered as a training and comparison camp for pioneers and pro boarders from very different sections of the sport which is very neat to watch, no question, but the documentary parts lack heavily in essential information about the full (r)evolution. Europe and Japan are almost being demonized and pointed at for destroying the spirit that snowboarding stood up with to lay itself down.Protocolling each move, statement and achievement is rather pathetic at some points and appears like "time fillers" to me. "(S)He's so great", "We are so cool" and "Oh, incredible what we just did" are statements that really miss the point in my opinion. Some of the shots are very nice and "expensive" and definitely offer never-seen-before perspectives of the activities that these athletes are experiencing but it could have been less stagy.After all it is an interesting summary of the US opinion on the history of something that has obviously not reached its climax yet.

First, I am *not* in the least bit knowledgeable about snowboarding or any of the related sports (surfing, skateboarding, skiing). And I was myself fearful that this movie would include so much "technical" or "advanced" material that a mere mortal wouldn't be able to follow it. "Documentaries" can be very specialized, after all.I need not have feared finding myself out of my depth and neither should *you* if you're not yourself in the center of the "scene" and yet are thinking about seeing this film.Because this is really in the spirit of The Lords of Dogtown and ... and ... well, there was a Surfing quasi-documentary from last summer, I can't think of the name ... but it had the same flavor. The flavor was a special sort of humanistic excitement that for me arises from combining both (a) great footage of the Action; and (b) great narrative and interviews with the People involved.I liked the sort of back and forth from Present (a sort of Reality Movie type expedition to Alaska with 5 top boarders) and Past (History of Snowboarding).The scenery from Alaska was simply breathtaking, the descents gripping and exciting and full of vicarious adrenalin rushes.The interviews with Terje and Shaun and Hannah and Farm and Shawn were wonderfully engaging: fresh and convincing and sincere enough that I as viewer felt like I got a real sense of who these fascinating and delightful persons were.The history painted the whole Snowboarding Phenomenon with a vivid and appealing personality as well.The way that the entire film built toward what truly was a blazing, satisfying completion, was just delightful. In fact the sort of sustained baseline of excitement was modulated by a kind of rhythm back and forth from whiteknuckling action back to a little narrative or interviewing to let me catch my breath.Great job everyone ... and *thanks* for giving a viewer like me a little glimpse into a gripping and exciting and wonderfully human world.

The entire movie was breath taking as well as informative about the sport. The scenery was amazing and the stunts were a first time viewing experience for me and kept me on the edge of my seat. It's unbelievable what the human mind and body can endure in this sport. I congratulate the snow boarders in this film and the entire crew that put this film together. This was a movie I would like to see over and over again and bring other people to see it. Unfortunately, I had to drive 1-1/2 hours to see it. It is not shown in any of my local theaters. The trip was well worth while. This is the type of movie that doesn't end when the film is over, you keep talking about it to anyone who will listen.

I gave this movie an excellent rating not because I'm just some snowboard loving freak ( though I might just be ) but I think that they deserve it, if you've seen the movie ( heres the spoiler )terje goes down a freaking huge mountain, and this isn't Hollywood stuff, these are real people doing real stuff that could easily kill them, especially that mountain he went down... that thing was HUGE. And there wasn't really any dull moment, I enjoyed the whole movie, and I hope it did a lot better in other places than it did in central Illinois because it was only me and 2 of my friends seeing it on opening night... it was fun just hanging out with them and talking about it as loud as we wanted, but that movies needs to been seen. were all now Seriously planning a road trip to Alaska this summer... all I can say is, watch the movie, what them go down those mountains, putting their lives on the line the whole time, realize that it isn't fake at all, and try to tell my they deserve anything less than at least a 9