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Review: The Island Volume 1
The Island Volume 1, Chad Greedy's first full-length movie, opens with shots of an impressive cast of world-class climbers; however, the caliber of climbers and locations is not reflected through much of the movie. Indeed, at nearly 12 minutes the intro is drawn out and almost schizophrenic in the way it half introduces all the climbers. From there, the movie becomes a chaotic blend of climbing footage, lifestyle clips, still pictures and repeated questions of "how'd it feel??"
The movie chronicles the adventures of the likes of Dave Graham, Daniel Woods, Jon Cardwell and Nalle Hukkataival with appearances from several other well-known climbers like Ty Landman and Paul Robinson as they climb the hardest boulders at areas like Fontainebleau, Hueco Tanks, Horsehoe Canyon Ranch, RMNP and Switzerland. These are all incredible assets, yet the quality of the footage and editing repeatedly detract from the flow of the nearly 90-minute movie.
This is not to say that the movie is without merits. From a pure climbing porn standpoint, it has a slew of notable ascents from the past 4+ years including Dave Graham's FAs of Wood Grain Grippin' (V14) and The Island (V15), Daniel Woods' FA of In Search Of Time Lost (V15) and Ty Landman repeating Practice Of The Wild (V15). Some of these ascents could be seen online in the past; however, there are quite a few other climbs done, particularly by Dave Graham, that were interesting to finally see.
If you're expecting a Chuck Fryberger or Big Up quality production, The Island Volume 1 isn't it, but for the price there is a lot of interesting climbing to be seen. If you want to check it out for yourself, the Island is available for download from iCLIMB right now for a pretty reasonable $9.99.
On a related note, iCLIMB is offering free T-Shirts on their site if you pick up the $6.95 for shipping. Full details on that here.
31 comments
Shoot, another video to pick up. And hearing about Landman reminded me to pick up Between the Trees. Probably would be a better buy than this from the sounds of it, but I'm still interested to see this as well.
You'll be able to buy Between the Trees soon (if not already) from iCLIMB as well.
agree with the review, nice footage, but the music/edit...
schizophrenic is definitely a good way to describe the intro/overall editing. There were definitely some cool scenes- that french guy Antoine Vandeputte is monstrously strong.
"How'd it feel?"
I must watch a lot of climbing movies as I am kinda sick of hearing him ask that after EVERY send heh.
I should have counted how many times he said it in the movie. After Liam Desroy sends Vecchio Leone he gets asked "how'd it feel" a good 5 times until he finally responds.
Yea that guy's ah " Douche - Bagggggg " somebody tell that kidd to shut-it !!!!
Jon you can always tell me your self , Im always right here ! I guess the appropriate response would be MAKE ME ! I would like however to say thank you for all the great support i have had with this lil video ... despite this site , the over all review has been nuthin but love ... thanx everyone !!!! and see you out there Brian ...
Glad to hear it Chad. This site is just one guy's opinion after all. Looking forward to seeing what future installments of the Island bring...
“How’d it feel?”
Chad, I am assuming you are talking to me? Is there another Jon you are calling out? If I was talking shit on the internet about you or your movies you would know it was me. See you around...
Jon Glassberg
Ok Narc, thanks for the review. For a moment there I was sorta looking forward to a Chuck Fryburger-esque production.
I might just purchase the video soon and let you know what I think of it...Seeing Dave Graham go at it is always cool though...
Does it have any good rants from Graham?
A couple good lines but nothing spectacular
Wait, no "Wizard of Climbing" videos?? Come on!! I watch that all the time.
Anybody else plagued with crazily slow download speeds? I have a 100mb/s connection, and it's telling me that it's going to take a day to download! Ay ay ay.
Oops, forget that comment, I restarted my machine and am now receiving the movie at blistering speed.
Mark,
Between the Trees is now available as a download on iCLIMB.
just got the video and could barely make it to 21 mins... editing is horrible and music at times is just bad. i wouldn't waste money on it, even if it is only $10. it shouldn't be painful to watch a video...
Just watched the video last night and I don't understand why everyone is being so harsh. From a pure climbing porn standpoint it is a great movie with tons of famous ascents, and climbers.
Sure the editing and music should have been improved, but for 10 dollars it was totally worth watching. And honestly there isn't a great wealth of new climbing movies for us to spend our money on. I'll gladly add any future installments into my collection.
i think it is because expectations were so high. the whole concept of the island (via DG's blog post) is pretty interesting, but the movie didnt touch on it really (at least not directly). there was also no narrative, and for some reason i expected one.
basically i didnt expect pure climbing porn, but that is what it was.
My sentiments exactly. I tried to go back and think why my expectations were so high and I can't really pinpoint why they were. I guess because of the climbers & problems involved and the long buildup to the release of the movie.
Can I get a link to Dave Graham's blog post about the island?
Why won't Uncle Somebody make another movie?
The Island... is worth 10 bucks. Buy it, just mute the music and play your own if it bothers you that much.
Is it just me or is there a lot of online and offline beef between strong well-known bouldering cliques going on right now (in Colorado)?
Can't all you mutants just get along and be friendly whilst enjoying all the fine climbing? Jeez...
One of the best bouldering videos. The music was sick and I like the stream of consciousness style of editing. I enjoyed it more than the new US offering 'The Swiss Account'. That felt like I was trapped inside some sort of nightclub. Hell.
I agree Will. I love "The Island V1". Back to basics old school bouldering vid. Dope music, lots of psyche and hard sendage. No gorgeous HD long wandering timelapse pans of clouds and mountains, bugs crawling and the such. Sure there are a lot of beautiful looking "Movies" out there now that are great to watch through once, but second, third , fourth, fifth, twentieth time through all you really want to see is sendage. You can flick the Island on for ten min at any point before you head out to the rock or to train and you are super psyched to pull down. By the way on the music front, this is what these guys listen to so that's why they want it in their vids. Ever noticed that about 80% of all the boulder problems Dave has ever done are named after tracks or lyrics from Buck65...
I guess I need to watch this again to see if my first impressions still hold up
Having just got this recently, I think it's a great effort and no better or worse than the 'The Swiss Account'. Two different styles, ones free and the others $10 and both with plenty of repeat value. Keep plugging away Mr Greedy and Mr Glassberg, both your efforts are valued. Very nice, I like!
i have loved this video. but i'm desperately triying to find the music at 16:30, when antoine vandeputte makes karma three times, anyone knows about it ? thanks
me too man, hit me up if you find it