On Mon, 17 Aug 2009 09:07:45 -0700 (PDT), Guy Byars
wrote:

To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the 1969 US Soaring Nationals
in Marfa TX, I have put the entire movie "The Sun Ship Game" on
youtube.

I have received some very interesting notes about the movie, from a
close friend of the Director. My translation is a bit poor, I'm sorry.
I hope you all can understand anyway.

Aldo Cernezzi



Some words on the film: AFAIK, The Sunship Game is the only real
movie, not a documentary, dedicated to soaring competitions.

It has been filmed at a great expense (about 300-400,000 USD in 1969,
equivalent to at least 10 million Dollars today), privately financed
without any perspective of reasonable revenues -- by the Director and
producer Robert Drew, for one of its great passions, soaring.

I came to know Bob Drew thanks to an italian soaring pilot, Enrico
Ferorelli, who later was to become one of the great professional
photographers in New York. In the 80's I usually was in NY once a
month for my work. Bob, Enrico and I shared partnership in an LS3.
It was Bob Drew that, after a successful competition in Rieti, asked
me to organize, in order to film it, the first flight on the slope of
Mt. Everest in a glider. The movie was not made because, during the
tests in Bishop (California) the TV cameras mounted on a Calif A21
failed to work in the very low temperatures. The idea to make the
soaring flight on the Himalayas, was later realized anyway, with good
scientific results but without a movie, in 1985.

I mention all this only in order to emphasize that, having known him
quite well, I consider Bob an exceptional person, and his movie, which
in 20 years I have probably watched and shown over 20 times, is a true
masterpiece dedicated to soaring competitions. Its beauty is revealed
gradually, when, through repeated viewing, one understands the untold
in the conversations between the pilots. I recall in particular a
confession: "…soaring pilots - a champion is speaking -we become aware
that our talent, when we win a contest, is inexplicable; and we live
therefore with the fear of losing it…"

I suggest a visit he http://www.drewassociates.net/ to see how much
and what Robert Drew, as one of the prominent figures of the "cinema
verité", has filmed in its professional life. The Sunship Game is not
even mentioned in his professional biography. This movie is a
wonderful "gift" that this director-soaring pilot has given to the
world of soaring.

The loss of the original soundtrack, which included the song "Down to
Earth" by the Bee Gees, reduces the aesthetic experience of the film.
The Sunship Game does not offer only beautiful video clips of soaring,
of which we now have many, but it's certainly a true work of art
illustrating competitive soaring and its human dimension -- the choice
of music, IMHO, is an inseparable, essential part, of the storytelling
that Bob has created..

A few notes:

1. The Sun Ship Game is still protected by copyright. The DVD edition
can't be found in commerce because the Drew Associates did not succeed
to come to an agreement for the use of the music soundtrack with the
owners of the Bee Gees' rights. If you happen to own a copy, you
should keep it for you and show it to your friends, but, as a friend
of Bob, I suggest we don't promote its copying -- it just belongs to
him.

2. The plot of the narration is based on the major difference in the
personalities of the two protagonists, Gleb Derujinsky, US (an
advertizing director, the first one to appear in the film, on a
bicycle in New York) and George Moffat, XX (a professor, who appears
in a classroom teaching English literature).
Gleb, an instinctive pilot, is described as "unbeatable when he's in
top condition", but he's also sometimes inconsistent. Moffat, on the
other hand, is a cold "analytical-numerical" pilot flying a modified
Cirrus with longer wings, but we finally see that he's also "human
after all" through his flying and the suffering against Wally Scott
who had a new ASW-12.

George will win (at least) two World Championships, Marfa 1970 and
Waikerie 1974. Gleb, instead, will drive form Marfa to Mexico in order
to get a divorce, always followed by Bob's movie cameras.

The movie features a gallery of prominent figures of soaring. Between
many others, Klaus Holighaus, Stouffs Sr., and Hal "The Judge"
Lattimore, contest director.