{"id":349,"date":"2009-02-28T00:31:05","date_gmt":"2009-02-28T06:31:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.14erskiers.com\/blog\/?p=349"},"modified":"2010-04-17T14:56:41","modified_gmt":"2010-04-17T20:56:41","slug":"movie-of-the-month-the-performers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/2009\/02\/movie-of-the-month-the-performers\/","title":{"rendered":"Movie of the Month: The Performers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Movie of the Month<\/strong>: <\/span>The Performers<\/p>\n

Director<\/strong>: Dick Barrymore<\/p>\n

Year<\/strong>: 1971<\/p>\n

Where can I find it?<\/strong> <\/span>Netflix, Amazon.com<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n

The Performers<\/em> is another one of Dick Barrymore\u2019s classic ski films. <\/span>At only 24 minutes in length, it is packed full of ski footage\u2014footage still considered as high quality even today.<\/p>\n

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The Performers<\/em> tells the story of five skiers sponsored by K2: Charlie McWilliams, Pat Bauman, John Clendenin, Bob Griswold, and Jim Stelling. <\/span>These skiers were selected by K2 to tour the US on a good-will mission. <\/span>They toured from California to Maine and back again in their red, white, and blue motor home\u2014colored to match the famous K2 skis of the era.<\/p>\n

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The first major highlight of the film takes place in Aspen, Colorado. <\/span>There, the K2 Performers were asked to judge two events. <\/span>The first event was a \u201cHot Dog\u201d contest. <\/span>This was a competition where skiers were judged on form, turns, and jumps down a steep mogul run. <\/span>The second even the K2 Performers judged took place in the evening where they judges the girl that looked best in a K2 t-shirt. <\/span><\/p>\n

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The second major highlight of the film takes place in the then new Snowbird, Utah. <\/span>There the Performers experienced over-the-head powder\u2014ski footage which would rival even some of today\u2019s powder segments inn our best ski flicks. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Highly noteworthy was the Performers style. <\/span>This movie was the beginning of what is today considered freestyle skiing. <\/span>The Performers not only hucked themselves off of large cliffs. <\/span>They hucked themselves in style, pulling 360\u2019s, backflips, mule kicks, and double spread eagles. <\/span>These skiers pioneered a new era in skiing that is still in force today. And they did so without helmets or goggles!<\/p>\n

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But, the most striking thing to me about The Performers<\/em> was the realization that this movie shows that the ski bums of today are just like the ski bums nearly 40 years ago. <\/span>The \u201cHot Dog\u201d contest can be compared to today\u2019s extreme competitions. <\/span>The t-shirt contest gave insight into the Aspen party scene at the time- a scene that has not changed one bit. <\/span>And skiers are still pulling 360\u2019s and backflips off of massive cliffs and shooting epic powder scenes.<\/p>\n

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The Performers<\/em> rings true to the age-old clich\u00e9 that \u201cThe more things change, the more they stay the same.\u201d <\/span>The ski bums of today are not pioneering a new lifestyle or a new era in skiing. <\/span>This new era was actually started 40 years ago by Dick Barrymore and the Performers. <\/span>I thank this movie for putting me in my place and giving me this lesson in history. <\/span>All avid skiers should experience The Performers<\/em> themselves to understand the true roots of today\u2019s skiing. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Update: <\/span>The Performers<\/em> had such an impact on the skiers of the era that a 25-yr anniversary mission was repeated in 1996. <\/span>You can read more about it here in this article from Ski Magazine<\/em>: <\/span>http:\/\/www.deadlinecom.com\/pdfs\/theperformers.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Movie of the Month: The Performers Director: Dick Barrymore Year: 1971 Where can I find it? Netflix, Amazon.com The Performers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movies-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1103,"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349\/revisions\/1103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}