No Name Column
“Step Into Liquid” Filmmaker Dana Brown Tackles the Baja in “Dust to Glory”
by our renowned film critic Steve Temple
After following in his father Bruce Brown’s footsteps by making a wave-breaking surf movie, “Step Into Liquid,” Dana Brown was reluctant to retrace his tire tracks as well. (Bruce Brown made “The Endless Summer” in 1966, and his next release in 1971 was “On Any Sunday,” a movie about motorcycle racing.) Yet, after witnessing the Baja 500 firsthand in 2003, Brown the younger became entranced and felt compelled to document the Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 held last November. The result is “Dust to Glory,” a film that will likely stand as one of the most gripping, real-life portrayals of this legendary event.
There’s something for Baja veterans and novices alike in this film. Even though it’s been in theatres for some time now, off-road adventurers will likely want to keep a copy of the eventual DVD in their film library (just as avid surfers watch the Browns’ surf movies again and again). A single viewing is simply not enough, as the action is as sprawling as the race itself. So much is going on, with so many different characters and classes of competition, you’ll need to take notes to keep track of everything. That’s the strength and the weakness of the film, because in capturing everything, Brown makes it difficult to focus on any single thing. Think of the movie as a big patchwork quilt blanketing the Baja, and you can relate.
Brown wisely decided not to emphasize the winners, but instead highlight rivalries and the behind-the-scenes drama. “Dust” isolates moments such as father-and-son speed freaks, women racers, and a who’s who of speed demons: Robby Gordon and Malcolm Smith. The coverage of Mario Andretti’s antics is especially amusing.
A recurring theme throughout the film is Mike “Mouse” McCoy’s effort to run the entire event solo, with no changeover in riders as is done on other bikes. The look on the face of McCoy, exhausted and battered by the Baja, is one of the movie’s most gritty and emotional moments.
The intensity of this documentary was unexpected. When he brought his cameras to Baja, Brown figured he would make “a little character piece” on the racers. Instead, he calls it a “war movie.”
Not surprisingly, there’s plenty of high-speed action and crashes involving Trophy Trucks and high-dollar desert buggies, not to mention a colorful stock VW Beetle presented as comic relief. You’ll feel like competitor and spectator in a movie that really puts the “motion” into motion picture. Cameras on helicopters, on motorcycles, on dune buggies, on helmets - the film puts you in the desert, in the landscape, and in the driver’s seat. You’ll feel like you’re bumping and skidding over ruts, through sand and silt, and dodging drops, local traffic, and spectators.
Also, just as you’ve see in NASCAR competition, the pit-crew action — with rapid-fire changes of BFGoodrich tires and struggles to repair vehicles at desolate waystops — makes for some intense moments. The driving sequences where entrants battle the silt are among the most dramatic, as the desert dust envelops vehicles like surfers getting tubed in a monster wave at Waimea.
In comparing his two movies, Brown admits that capturing big wave action is tame compared with filming off-road vehicles careening at more than 100 mph through washboard terrain. It took a production crew of 90 to shoot the 32-hour race from Ensenada to La Paz.
To create “Dust,” the crew trained more than 50 cameras on 270 trucks, ATVs, and motorcycles, along with numerous personalities and spectators. Cameras in cars and in helicopters, as well as handheld lenses scanning the crowds, recorded action that’s impossible to reshoot. Then some 250-hour’s worth of film was boiled down into this 97-minute movie. Yet the final cut’s aerial shots are so awesome, the driving action so intense, it makes you want to see what was left on the cutting room floor as well. Go to d2gfilm.com for more information.
On-Line OHV Recreation College Courses
Off-highway vehicle recreation has finally gained some legitimacy in the academic world. How is that? Well, at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, students can graduate with a degree in OHV Recreation Management! These are specific college-level courses for the folks who will be making a career (or who may already be engaged in one) in the service of implementing and managing the hundreds of OHV public trail systems throughout the country. Previously, many of land managers in those positions did not have any experience at all with off-highway recreation and were taking on the task blindly. That’s why the National Off-Highway Vehicle Conservation Council (NOHVCC) became partners with Marshall and the Nick J. Rahall, II Appalachian Transportation Institute to produce this groundbreaking curriculum. The courses cover the broad aspects of off-highway vehicle recreation, planning and construction of OHV trails and facilities, and operation and management of OHV trail systems. For more info, contact Marshall U. at www.marshall.edu/muonline or e-mail or call Dr. Raymond Busbee at Busbee@marshall.edu 304.696-2922.