This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

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.

this movie had massive potential and they did some good things with it but just couldn't pull it all together.basically these five riders go up to ski back country peaks in Alaska. the riders are of 3 veteran riders around 40 years old each and two youngsters, a male and a female who have both been highly successful. the premise is good to document their trip along with accounting for the history of snowboarding and of each rider.what goes wrong is this: they spend way too much time discussing the history of snowboarding. basically if they would compile the history better and shorten it up they would have an excellent movie. i understand their want to illustrate the many aspects of the history of the sport and it is hard to sum things up on an entire subculture but it just needed to be done.the movie was 2 solid hours and probably an hour of it was talking about the history and really just repeating where it came from (skating and surfing) and the fact that skiers and the rest of the world didn't want to acknowledge snowboarders. which, most people know these two facts anyways, so i just didn't feel it needed to be talked about at such length. just shorten up that and make it into a 1:15 to 1:30 minute movie and we would be sweet.it was really a good concept and i like how they paid many respect to roots instead of just trying to market to the cool, young, more daring snowboarders and fans.its just too long. really is still an important flick, though. i would say wait until video but unless you've got a great, big TV, you might want to shell out the 8 bucks to see it in theaters. or if you've got a dollar theater around that the movies go to after they are done at the reg. theater then go see it there.

very redundant and just flat out boring. not a knock against snowboarding, just not a very entertaining film. it doesn't compare at all to a warren miller. there are some pretty sweet tricks done, and it was nice to see someone from Vermont on the screen,but i just thought it was really slow. they could have cut some stuff out to make it go by a little quicker and keep our attention onto the screen. i found myself kind of "day dreaming" through a few of the scenes because it was pretty much a a shot of the same thing over and over again. it was cool to see how it all began and how everybody got down when the sport was emerging, but after about an hour of it, i thought it was time to move on.

First Descent is not just a snowboard movie, but a great look at the history of snowboarding and beautiful look at heli-boarding, and the great land of Alaska. Not be confused with a Teton Gravity Research, which has a little bit of story, and a lot of riding; this movie has a good amount of riding, and a lot of history.The history is intermixed with the present Alaska shoot, and the 3 decades preceding today. I would say they picked some great boarders, namely Terje Haakonsen, and the young Shaun White. They show what a seasoned rider and a back-country neophyte can do.The history is great, it has a great humorous look at the old school boards and antics of snowboards of the 80's and 90's, both of which is laughable. The interviews are great with snowboarding pioneers, and even the CEO of Aspen.Now unlike the TGR and Warren Miller films, the film is evenly divided between the history and the new footage, but don't fret, the footage is great. I think the filming could crew could have used the experience of the TGR and WM crew, but they do a good job, and the visuals are fantastic. It is a great ride right to the end.