Review: Won't Back Down - The Steve Peat Story
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 | As athletes we live more than any rich yacht owning motherf*cker could ever live in his life. When you risk your ass going down that hill and you stand on that podium. There's no f*cking drug in the world that gives you a high like that. And I've done a lot of drugs. And it doesn't even f*cking compare to that f*cking feeling of being the best in the f*cking world. - Shaun Palmer, Won't Back Down |
The most illuminating quote in the movie comes from Shaun Palmer. Now, that may seem a little contradictory considering the film in question is Won’t Back Down: The Steve Peat Story (and not The Miserable Champion, the Shaun Palmer documentary). Palmer’s quote, profane, and vitriolic, could never come from the mouth of Steve Peat. And that’s why Palmer burned so brightly and left so young. He loved the thrill of victory and the alpha male status that came with being the best. Peaty just loved (and still loves) riding his bike.
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The very first UCI-sanctioned Downhill Mountain Bike World Championships were held in 1990 at Durango Mountain Resort, in Purgatory, Colorado. The podium was swept by Americans, and Greg Herbold was crowned as the very first World Champion of downhill. Purgatory. It's a state of suffering in Christian ideology, and it's an apt term to describe how Peat probably felt when he finished second at the World Championships in 2000 at Sierra Nevada, or after his silver medal from Vail, in 2001, or perhaps in 2002 in Kaprun; or maybe it was in 2008 that he felt it, at Val di Sole, when it finally seemed as if luck was on his side. Sam Hill crashed on his race run while holding a 6 second lead, and Peat held on to the hot seat with one rider left. Then Gee Atherton stormed down the course en route to his first World Championship win. Peat was 34 at the time, with three World Cup overall titles (2002, 2004, 2006) and four World Championship silver medals. Questions had already begun to swirl regarding his age and a World Championship curse that seemed unshakable. But then Peat did what he always does on race day, he rode as fast as he could, and took home the 2009 World Championships in Canberra, Australia.
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Every die hard race fan, and most casual Pinkbike readers, will know something of the history of Steve Peat. It's a life story so deeply entwined with the World Cup circuit as to be inseparable, and that's what Won't Back Down is: the complete history of professional downhill racing as seen through Peaty's eyes. Covering the evolution of a sport over the course of 20 years may seem like a daunting task, but it's one that's taken on with consummate skill by co-directors Clay Porter and John Lawlor. Porter is the man behind some of the most iconic DH movies of the past decade, and his filmography: The Spectacle, The Second Spectacle, Synopsis, Hypnosis, Between the Tape, F1rst, The Tipping Point, and 3 Minute Gaps, spans from the pre-Youtube NORBA era all the way up to our current Red Bull sponsored World Cup live streams. Lawlor first collaborated with Porter on 2010's Three Minute Gaps, and spent the past decade racing World Cups (he retired in 2006), and subsequently documenting them for Specialized, and Santa Cruz. You'd be hard pressed to find two more experienced World Cup filmmakers, they know the cold muck of a World Cup course just as well as the athletes.
| Vouilloz was Darth Vader, he was the boss. - Steve Jones, Won't Back Down |
Won't Back Down is billed as the definitive story of Steve Peat, but how does one tell the life story of a man who has probably had more media coverage than any racer in history. You start at the beginning. The film covers Peaty's entire career, from his childhood in the town of Sheffield, where he gleaned his nickname Sheffield Steel (which, you'll learn, replaced his earlier monikers ''Pinball Wizard'' and ''Sketch Peat'' - he crashed hard and regularly), to the influence of Jason McRoy and the utter dominance of Nicolas Vouilloz, then to Shaun Palmer, Sam Hill, and an endless parade of World Championship silver medals. During that time Peaty started a family and became one of the biggest names in the sport, a three time World Cup champion, known for both his flat out riding and his good-natured personality.
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Earthed, Sprung, Porter's own filmography. There have been a number of classic race movies made over the past 15 years, but to my eyes, Won't Back Down is the best mountain bike race documentary ever made. Porter and Lawlor have crafted something extremely rare in mountain biking - a film that tells a real story. This is a film that will appeal to those nostalgic for the days before working suspension (never mind 650b wheels) and the ignorant few, who know nothing of Steve Peat. Porter and Lawlor have gathered an incredible array of archival footage and still photos, and their interviews with the likes of Rob Warner, Shaun Palmer, Nicolas Vouilloz, Greg Minnaar, and Nigel Page (among many others), allow the characters to tell their own stories. The film, Peaty's life story, is perfectly bookended by his World Championship victory, and it's hard not to wonder if we would have ever seen this film without Peat's 2009 triumph. True to the movie title, Peaty never quit chasing his dream, and he still has plenty of great racing left in him, in April he finished 7th at the Cairns World Cup and beat riders half his age.
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You already know the race results, so why watch this movie? Watch it for the history lesson, and the story, the characters, and the riding, but most of all watch it for Peaty. Won't Back Down will make you feel as if you've spent two hours with the man, an omniscient spectator on his life's journey through victory and defeat. And really, who wouldn't want to go for a pedal and a pint with Peaty? At 40 years of age (in June), Peaty has spent 21 seasons racing, and amassed 17 World Cup wins, three World Cup overall titles, and one World Championship. But his life, and this film are about so much more than that. Won’t Back Down is the story of one indomitable spirit, and the way that mountain bikes have shaped his life story. Nearly every piece written about him asks one of two questions: ''how do you stay motivated?'' And, ''When when will you retire?'' After 21 years of racing on the World Cup circuit (that's longer than Loic Bruni's been alive!), Peaty's answer remains the same:
| When I first started out in this sport, it was all about having fun - playing with my mates - with a bit of racing thrown in. Nothing has changed. - Steve Peat, Won't Back Down |
Won't Back Down will inspire you to let your fingers off the brakes, and that's something Peaty, Porter, and Lawlor, should be proud of.
Film directors: Clay Porter and John Lawlor
Still Photography: Duncan Philpott
Website: wontbackdownfilm.com
Author Info:
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he was riding a rigid Kona, and soon became a regular on the race circuit and in the bike magazines like MBUK
I grew up riding and racing with guys like Steve, JMC (my team mate at Hardisty Cycles before he signed Pro for Specialized), Rob Warner, Helen Mortimer, Bobby Blake, Will Longden, Mark Weaver and a host of others in the UK, and cannot wait to see this documentary as I will truly appreciate what an exciting time it was as mountain biking went through massive changes in what seemed like a short decade
in the UK we had great events like the Malvern Classic and the National Series, the Malverns got cancelled one year due to a stabbing in the car park during the night, and we entertained the waiting crowds including Steve and Rob Warner after the racing got cancelled, with some lake jumping where I learned quickly that water is not "soft"
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Steve is a true legend in our sport and a great example of an ambassador for mounting biking
Different strokes for different folks. Doesn't mean he's not a great example of an elite athlete that he likes to de-stress by drinking beer rather than do yoga or watch movies or read a book....
Thanks Clay, John and Steve.
And am I the only one that watches his World Champs run in Les Gets (and Sam's run at Val Di Sole) and even though the outcome is well and truly in the history books, hopes to see him win?
Such a great way to look back on the (still going) glittering career of a true legend.
Nice work this film is nothing like any bike movie before, it is focused on riding, but it shows everything around and all the legends. Really nice work.
For Americans: $12.99. Seems fair. Not cheap but fair, and I would happily pay that.
For me (living in Denmark): $21,76... For a download... A f*cking download!
See it this way: If you would buy it in a store on BluRay, it would cost somewhere around $60 and the makers of such epicness wouldn't get paid more. We live in a time and age where one has started to take free entertainment for granted, not thinking about how much work lays behind just a simple 3min edit. Paying $20 for 2hours of epicness and entertainment is, if you ask me, really cheap. If you still think it's expensive. Get a better paid job.
"Minimal wages in Scandiland are more than twice that of those in the US"
And our taxes are generally 2-3 times higher as well - just as the price we pay for food, cars, gas, etc.
"If you would buy it in a store on BluRay, it would cost somewhere around $60"
Are you high? Blu-rays are usually released at $24-27 AND they are in way higher quality than the brutally compressed 720p/1080p downloads.
See it this way: $12.99 to $21,76 is a 67.5% increase. Although Apple is obligated to charge the Danish 25% VAT of their sales (and not of the $12.99 retail price but the original price before American VAT) that comes nowhere near to a 67.5% increase in price! And since the files are placed on the same server (or servers) regardless of where you are downloading from, the distribution costs are exactly the same.
So tell me, where do you think that huge chunk of money ends up? In our respective government's budgets? Nope, we just disproved that. In the hands of the artists? I strongly doubt it since their cut is usually not a percentage, but a fixed price per play/download/sold copy. In the pockets of Apple's investors? BINGO!
They rip us off because THEY CAN, not because THEY HAVE TO.
That's a fair bit more than the actual price of 99.- in Norway and Sweden...
arrival 12.99$ ---> 35 min.
notbad : 9.99$ ---> 29 min.
Price on iTunes as of right now: 79.- DKR = $14.42, which IMO is fair for a DL... *Buy*
thanks!
Thanks