Carl Boenish started
a company promoting the BASE-jumping movement. He was passionate about skydiving and this interest leads
him to even more dangerous foot-launched flights. Originally he was an engineer at Hughes Aircraft with a
regular job. He started taking leaves of absences in order to film
skydiving and cliff jumping. His
first film was his 1978 leap from Yosemite’s El Capitan. He met Jean, they married and she also
became a jumper. They started
wearing cameras on their helmets to film their actual jumps. Carl and Jean made a record jump at
Norway’s Troll Wall in 1984. Now
jumpers wear wing suits when they do their jumps.
There is a mix of
Carl’s 16mm archive footage, re-enactments and aerial photography to tell the
story. According to Carl and Jean,
it’s frightening before the jump is made but exhilarating during the jump and a
safe feeling when the parachute opens.
Even though every jump is planned and safety measures are taken there is
still the possibility of human or mechanical failure. 3* (This movie is OK)
100
min, Doc/Bio directed by Marah Stauch with Cecilie Bull, Marah Strauch, John
Long, Carl Boenisch, Jean Boenish, Rick Harrison, Jared Simmons.
Note: Imdb 6.8 out of 10, 91% critic 72%
audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 2 ½*, Amazon 4.0* out of 5* with 16
reviews.
Special
Note: Filmed in Norway. BASE-jumping stands for building,
antenna, span or Earth (this means a cliff). It denotes the starting place of the jump. Carl broke his leg, he had
a compound fracture and he didn’t’ have it set because he was a Christian
Scientist. The leg caused him to be much slower walking to jump sites.
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