Dosage V Review & Trailer

Dosage V Review & Trailer

Posted December 15, 2008 at 7:37 am · Comments { 14 } ·

I wish I had some sort of excuse as to why it has taken me 5 months to share my thoughts about the latest release from Big Up Productions, Dosage V.  In my defense, the glut of information I provided in the run up to its release combined with Big Up’s reputation as the leading climbing filmmaker of our time should have been sufficient motivation for you to go out and get it.  If not, read on…

To get a better idea of what to expect in Dosage V check out the trailer, a few other reviews, and my exhaustive list of what you will see in the movie.  As a bonus, the extras section on the DVD has even more awesome action.  If that doesn’t pique your interest, I’m not sure there is much I can say in this space to convince you otherwise.  Suffice it to say, if you enjoyed any part of Dosages I – IV, you will almost certainly enjoy the fifth installment.

My review is quite simple, if you don’t already have your own copy of Dosage V, what are you waiting for?  The movie features the world’s best climbers, climbing the world’s hardest climbs, in some of the world’s best climbing areas, filmed by some of the world’s best climbing filmmakers.  It doesn’t get much better. 

As an aside to this review, I want to give Big Up some credit for how they handled the Michael Fuselier American Gangster (5.14b) footage in the film.  Without rehashing old news too much, there was controversy earlier this year over the alleged manufacturing of some holds on this route during the filming of its FA by Fuselier.  Given that this route was to be the centerpiece of the dose on sport climbing in China, it left the guys at Big Up in an uncomfortable position.  Should they keep it as the main part of the dose or would it be better to downplay it a bit (or remove it completely)?  I know that they wrestled with the decision, and in the end they decided to put more focus on other aspects of the China footage in lieu of American Gangster.  The American Gangster footage is still there, but if you don’t know what you are looking for you will miss it completely.  I think that this decision was pretty admirable on the part of Big Up, and the dose still turned out great.

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  • Ryan J

    I watched the American Gangster footage via the nike sweetspots. i think bigup did a great job featuring other climbs in the dose. Because we/i had already seen the American Gangster footage, i was excited to see more of the other routes, a short clip of the crux was all that was needed to remind me of the route.
    For this reason, the alpine blocks was one of my least favorite segments. The rest of the footage was good, but the culmination of the dose, jade, was ‘old news’ because the vid had been online for so long. I think if jade had been nestled into the dose rather than at the end, i would have enjoyed it better. btw, was there any footage of suspension of disbelief? THAT would have been a good finish!!

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  • http://climbingnarc.com Narc

    I agree. Obviously the Jade footage was hard to deal with as it had been online for almost a year (with multiple repeats on film a well). I guess we have to remember sometimes that not everyone out there is watching all of these videos online. Many people are, but not all. I too found it anticlimactic in the sense that I had already seen it, but it is hard to think of what else could have been used there to culminate that dose as everything tends to build to an uber hard send in the bouldering doses.

    I’m not sure that either send of Suspension has been caught on film. It seems like we would have seen it by now if they had.

    Thanks for stopping by to comment again Ryan!

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  • JE

    I stand firm that the Arkansas dose is by far the best one, shikidang, tag my fist, in the camera.

    suspension has only been climbed twice, not an alpine bloc at all, covered in snow now :(

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  • http://climbingnarc.com Narc

    Also agreed. In Dosage V I have watched the Arkansas dose the most followed by Yosemite bouldering. I think the dose with Dave Graham has been my favorite in each of the Dosages.

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  • http://www.straightouttabedlamv7-2.blogspot.com sock hands

    the reason that the arkansauce footage does indeed own the dvd is strangely NOT the climbing… usually climbers talking is super obnoxious in climbing flicks, but it is particularly well done in the arkansauce piece and gives the entire thing a very fun, chaotic feel… which i guess conveys the real soul of bouldering itself…

    that said, i also really like the northeast segment and the black grass song has achieved top honors in climbing video trax for me.

    finally, the alpine blocks segement should have culminated with wader jumping into one of the many trout-laden alpine lakes, emerging with a cut-throat in his teeth, and then eating it sushi smeegle style.

    THAT would have owned. or maybe something dealing with elk tipping in estes? big cat wrasslin’?

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  • http://climbingnarc.com Narc

    Yes, the commentary by Dave Graham is always MUCH more interesting than your average climber rambling. I’m not sure what it is, but it works. It is something that most climbers should not attempt to replicate should they be interviewed in a climbing movie.

    Much to my surprise, tagging your fist in the camera only works when there is someone there filming you. I tried it after sending a recent project of mine only to find that I was, in fact, alone at the crag. Disappointing…

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  • http://climbingnarc.com Narc

    Also of note with regard to the Northeast bouldering segment is the part where the guy explodes his ankle. Word on the street was that he broke it repeating the problem for the cameras after he had already sent that day.

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  • http://www.straightouttabedlamv7-2.blogspot.com sock hands

    note: whenever you send, either right at the top out or while you are taking off your shoes, there is ALWAYS a dog nose to tag w/ your fist even when humans are not nearby. if you would like a dog nose to tag, i will mail one to you, but understand that a live dog will be attached thereto.

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  • http://climbingnarc.com Narc

    If the dog is trained to re-arrange pads depending on where a climb goes then count me in.

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  • http://johnclimbrok.blogspot.com JV

    Re: American Gangster.

    In summary, I’ve heard accounts (from people in China I met while there just prior to the arrival of the bigup crew) that corroborate what others have said (http://jamespearsonclimbing.blogspot.com/2008/03/dont-forget-to-pack-your-ethics.html)

    The dude drilled out the hold while the film crew was hanging above him.

    Should the section have been included at all? Maybe it would’ve been more “admirable” if they included footage of the drilling process.

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  • http://climbingnarc.com Narc

    Big Up has corroborated that story as well.

    Perhaps “admirable” was the wrong word, but I think that it was a tough choice that they made. Instead of taking the easy road and focusing on AG (the hardest climb) like they had probably originally planned, they chose to downplay it in favor of other (less controversial) climbs.

    It’s not like AG is the first chipped route to be in a movie, although admittedly the chipping doesn’t usually occur with the camera crew right there.

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  • http://theadventurechannel.blogspot.com The Adventure Channel

    Nice trailer! Thanks!

    http://theadventurechannel.blogspot.com

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