Sun Ship Game on Youtube - Complete

Many of us remember major events of the summer of 1969: Haight-
Ashbury, Manson, Woodstock, Apollo-Moon, Chappaquiddick. But a lot
was also going on that summer in a small town in southern Texas...
Marfa!

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.

Some notes about the movie on youtube:

To get under the 10 minute limit, the movie is broken into 8
parts.

The original movie had numerous musical tracks from the BeeGees. I
had to mute/remove these for youtube. Youtube has a very clever music
scanner that flagged them as copyright violations. So you will
experience silence instead of the BeeGee tracks. No major loss.

In some places, the audio and video get out of sync by a second or
so. But since most of the dialog is in the form of voiceovers, this
is not a serious problem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSj_POL6u0w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACpksxkyOTQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvQU4OqqVxc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eenw-cueqio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ae14HGvxSgc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfzMYIcrTMA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KCT5-lyw8g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzJmNSdA1u4

Many thanks!

On Aug 17, 9:07*am, Guy Byars wrote:
Many of us remember major events of the summer of 1969: Haight-
Ashbury, Manson, Woodstock, Apollo-Moon, Chappaquiddick. *But a lot
was also going on that summer in a small town in southern Texas...
Marfa!

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.

Some notes about the movie on youtube:

* *To get under the 10 minute limit, the movie is broken into 8
parts.

* *The original movie had numerous musical tracks from the BeeGees. *I
had to mute/remove these for youtube. *Youtube has a very clever music
scanner that flagged them as copyright violations. *So you will
experience silence instead of the BeeGee tracks. *No major loss.

* *In some places, the audio and video get out of sync by a second or
so. *But since most of the dialog is in the form of voiceovers, this
is not a serious problem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSj_P...?v=KzJmNSdA1u4

Nice one..

Al

'The Sun Ship Game' torrent is active right now also, I succesfully
downloaded the entire .avi file over the last 24 hours using the
following Torrent:

http://torrents.thepiratebay.org/447...22.TPB.torrent

Currently converting the avi to DVD format; will post again if there
are any issues with the video.

Regards, Bernie.

http://torrents.thepiratebay.org/447...22.TPB.torrent

Currently converting the avi to DVD format; will post again if there
are any issues with the video.


Hi Bernie,

I'm getting audio only on some of the half dozen or so media players
that I have on my system. No joy on any video.

Thanks for doing this!

Tony

On Wed, 19 Aug 2009 09:22:11 -0400, TonyV
wrote:


http://torrents.thepiratebay.org/447...22.TPB.torrent

Currently converting the avi to DVD format; will post again if there
are any issues with the video.


Hi Bernie,

I'm getting audio only on some of the half dozen or so media players
that I have on my system. No joy on any video.

VLC will play it.


Bye
Andreas

I'm getting audio only on some of the half dozen or so media players
that I have on my system. No joy on any video.

VLC will play it.

Yes, it will. Thanks, Andreas!

Tony

I was only getting audio too, then downloaded this program: VLC Media Player. Now the video plays perfectly.

Originally Posted by TonyV[_2_]

http://torrents.thepiratebay.org/447...22.TPB.torrent

Currently converting the avi to DVD format; will post again if there
are any issues with the video.


Hi Bernie,

I'm getting audio only on some of the half dozen or so media players
that I have on my system. No joy on any video.

Thanks for doing this!



Tony

Thank you for posting this

I had not seen this movie and had an interesting response to this
video. I was a 14 to 17 year old crew for a pilot flying in the CA
regional and national competition starting a year after this movie was
made. I don't remember there being quite as much carnage. Mostly
focused pilots a little on edge that howled at the moon at the end of
the contest. I do remember a very memorable bikini. Not sure if it’s
the same one. Hazy adolescent memory of the lovely Suzanne Moffat.
These folks seemed so larger than life to me then. It is interesting
to have them pop out of a stylized time machine and viewed with 2009
sensibilities. I met a 14 year old version of myself on a recent
flying trip. Highly in need of a hair cut and a bath. It is reassuring
to see that some things don't change.

Rodger (7D)

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.