I knew Waiting For Lightning was going to be good. I knew it would feature some outrageously good skateboarding. It’s a documentary on Danny Way. If you’ve never heard of the guy, just Google him. He’s taken the radical sport of skateboarding and moved the atmosphere higher and higher. The guy is just an amazing and rare guy. He’s the Evel Knievel of skateboarding, for sure.
The story of the movie was the dude’s jump over the Great Wall of China. But to get to that point, you had to traverse some incredible moments – like the little kid’s rise to pro skateboarding stardom (the youngest pro on the circuit when he started out), setting aerial height (big air) records, then dropping into a monster high ramp from a helicopter and then, of course, the Mega Ramp. The DC Video DVD is just a must-own disc. There’s not really much choice (if you’re making a list, make sure you have the Haarp DVD by MUSE, too), you just have to have it. The up-close and panoramic footage is breathtaking and the feats being accomplished are just mind-blowing. Then he took the Mega Ramp concept to the X-Games. And there’s a whole dramatic moment there where he takes the nastiest spill on the big ramp, refuses to get himself medical attention, comes back in and nails the high air. It’s just hair-raising.
The stuff is so awesome that it just transcends the sport of skateboarding. Not everyone gets skateboarding, but the pioneering heights being broken here are just so impressive that it’s compelling – kinda like Michael Jordan with basketball.
The movie dives in to his tumultuous childhood. He and his brother were the children of a couple of hippies. His doting mom and dad get tired of the rain in Portland, so they move back to Carlsbad, California. When they go to the power company to get electricity turned on, they run into dad’s ex-girlfriend, who takes him to court and gets him sent to six months in jail for a $50 unpaid settlement (I think it was alimony, but it might’ve been child support). A few days into his sentence and he’s hung to death. A step-dad takes him in and becomes another great role model (and I’m not being sarcastic here…the context implies I’m being facetious, but I’m not. The guy really bonds with his kids and teaches them sports and whatnot.), later on he loses him to death (guy died after surfing). He’s taken under the wing of a manager for H-Street and then later the “dream team” of skaters in Plan B. This guy named Mike was another great father figure, pushing him to accomplish greater and greater things. He gets t-boned in a car accident, so all three father figures are taken from Way. It’s a gut-wrenching tale.
And then there’s the big payoff – the Great Wall of China jump. This crazy idea took shape, it was planned, it was cleared by Chinese officials and then they built the ramp. The launch ramp was built on a portion of the wall. That narrow little strip that must feel like going straight down a vertical wall from six-plus stories high is on top of a wall. That means that a little speed wobble or some weak, shaky knees will send him straight to death. Just a fierce thing to pull off.
It’s funny how the movie captures all the drama and tension of the big jump. Even though it happened way back in 2005, there’s still an element of, “Man, I hope he doesn’t kill himself doing this.”
Right before the big jump there’s some Mel Gibson-esque editing below the ramp. At least it felt that way to me. A photographic collage of his three father figures flashes on the screen. The second shot is manager Mike Ternasky, which features motion and was taken in the context of a skating event. I knew the guy wasn’t there, but the motion of Mike looking at the camera with people around him made it feel for a second like he was there at the event. It reminded me of that climactic moment in both Braveheart and The Passion of the Christ – remember when the vision of William Wallace’s (dead) wife is passing through the crowd around him as he’s lying on the guillotine? Or when that Lucifer character is circling Jesus with that deformed baby in its hands?
I actually had the audacity to ask the film crew if that was an intentional homage to Mel Gibson and was assured that it wasn’t. One of ’em actually claimed not to be familiar with those two epic films (what?!). What was intentional, though, was to place those three men at the event. And, of course, he was very present (along with the other two) in the mind and heart of Danny Way, who stood at the top of the launch ramp. Turns out that mom delivered a special gift to Danny prior to the jump, too. She brought a small vile of her ex-husband’s ashes, so one of his father’s figures was in his pocket in a sense as he made the biggest jump of his life.
This was such a good movie that really did a good job of balancing the skateboarding with the human drama story. One doesn’t have to be a fan of the sport to appreciate it. I love what director Jacob Rosenberg said before the screening. He explained that his friend Danny Way had asked him to make this film and, “I couldn’t say no to him.” I, for one, am glad he couldn’t resist, either.
And the film crew promised that a “big announcement” was just days’ away, so I guess Danny Way has dreamed up something else (big, perhaps? may-be…) to blow our minds.
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