Audience Member
Riding Giants is a documentary made by Stacy Peralta about the prominent surfing culture from around the '50s to the 2000s. The film does well in many aspects in how it presents itself in terms of editing of footage, how the music fits well with what they show, and how it pertains to its audience. The most exciting part of the movie is when they talk about Greg Noll surfing the biggest wave at Makaha, Oahu. It's informative to its audience about how surfing first began and how through multiple people surfing became more of a way of life, a religion even. The movie incorporates the music very well into the footage it shows. For example, at the very beginning of the movie, it has organs playing suggesting an almost religious feeling with the sounds of waves and seagulls in the background, It then cuts more to more of a rock song with showing footage of people surfing which shows the chaotic part of surfing. It also shows really well in one part where some of the surfers describe wiping out in the water by cutting together the surfer's experiences into one story to show how every surfer goes through the same experience. Another thing that somewhat enhances the scene is the pictures they show of what wiping out looks like and edits it very fast and quickly to show how fast it is to get trapped under the waves.
The movie also does well with editing and together with the interviews of the surfers with the footage and pictures they show. The movie goes through multiple locations that were incredibly important to the surfing community such as Waimea beach where thanks to Greg Noll and others surfers big wave surfing started. During the parts where they show Waimea and explain how they all originally did not want to surf there because of the superstitions, the surfers had they did long shots of the waves crashing with some music that makes it sound like being around there is tense. They also mention Mavericks which was a big wave surfing area in California that many people thought was not an area to do big wave surfing at first until Jeff Clark who surfed it by himself for a long time until he eventually convinced others to surf it too.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
02/15/23
Full Review
Audience Member
The film Riding Giants was exceptional in its camera work. There were incredible shots of waves and surfers surfing these really high waves. Then there were these moments where it showed a picture that almost looked 3D. The way that the surfers themselves such as Laird Hamilton talked about surfing made it sound like something that people need to try. Along with the shots of them actually doing it makes it look even better than it sounds. Laird Hamilton talks about surfing being a way to forget all about your stress and to just let go of all of your problems. The music they put behind certain scenes really makes you connect with it. For example there was one scene where one of the surfers was talking about how surfing is a lifestyle and that it is something that makes you forget all your worries and problems. In that scene there was like a slower song that makes you feel like you could spiritually connect with surfing. Then on other scenes where surfers were riding these giant waves there was rock music that makes you think "Wow surfing is absolutely dope."
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/21/23
Full Review
Audience Member
The central idea for riding giants the documentary movie that was made in january 2004 it talks about surfing it missconepionts its legacy, how it's affecting us today and people who were heavily influenced by surfing. It really brings home how misguided peoples ideas of surfing were back in the early 2000 especially Hollywood's idea of it evidence supporting this is when Hollywood made a t.v show on what they thought surfers do the same with movies and made a stereotype for them .
This movie helped show us that to some people surfing has been their entire lives and how it has affected them greatly. Such as Laird Hamilton and how his entire life and family has been built around surfing. It showed us that the stereotypes aren't true in the slightest and how surfing meant everything to these people.
This documentary revealed to us How terrifying surfing is and that we are still mortal and can die. The writer of this film showed us many things through his work and it showed us how large surfing was in the past and how it affected many people. It also told us those who died doing what they loved and how many people spend their whole lives surfing like the people shown in the documentary.
His writing also conveyed how dangerous some of these places are to surf at and how people died to these many surfing legends who lost their lives to places such as Waimea Bay. His writing opens our eyes to how marvelous and dangerous the ocean and nature is. It also conveyed really well in the movie it really brought to light what message he was trying to get across. People tend to just assume surfing to the stereo type should watch this movie as they just debunk any arguments they may have about surfing if they've never experienced it themselves this whole movie can show us what surfing was and is really like and remove Hollywood's stereotyping of surfing.
Any and all people who claim giants like me or surfing should watch this movie first as it clears so much And fights off so many negative opinions. I myself did not think highly about surfing until I watched this movie. It just goes to show how much of an impact the writer of this film has made and can make on you!!
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
01/15/23
Full Review
Audience Member
The documentary Riding Giants, directed by Stacy Peralta, in the first half of the film there is a scene where surfers gather around to mourn the loss of Mark Foo. It then jumps through the early years of Jeff Clark, being that there is no footage of him during the early days surfing Mavericks because he was alone. And what a species of aloneness it was, to plunge into the cold ocean and swim out for 45 minutes only to gain a few seconds of exhilaration at the risk of your life. Clark and his kind live at the intersection of courage, madness, skill and obsession, a place where all that can remain is focus and determination.
Consider Laird Hamilton, the once golden boy of the sport. As a kid he hung around Hawaii's big wave riders from the 1960s. He even introduced his divorced mom to one of them, who became his stepfather and tutor; Laird grew up to become surfing's number one superstar.
Later on Hamilton decided to go further from land than any rider had thought to go, seeking "remote offshore reefs capable of producing unimaginable waves." The early stages of his plan had involved paddling for a couple hours and then waiting a couple more for a wave. After that stage Hamilton invented tow-in surfing, in which a jet ski tows him out to the reefs, where he is then slingshot onto fast moving waves. The jet ski driver has multiple jobs including picking up Hamilton again after his ride on the wave, or on standby to rescue him.
In August 2000, Hamilton went to Tahiti in search of a legendary wave so big it is "a freak of hydrodynamics." He then found it and proceeded to ride it. We see him precariously balanced on this freak of a wave in what the film calls "the most significant ride in surfing history." Other surfers, providing voiceover commentary, say the wave's characteristics were so different from that of an ordinary wave, Hamilton had to improvise new techniques, some which violated years of surfing theory and instinct, all in the moment.
Throughout the movie many filming techniques were utilized. Many of them weren't new or innovative such as fading in or out. However, one notable technique that was utilized was quite creative. Using a panoramic scene they proceeded by transforming the position of the camera to create a sense of 3 dimensionalism.
"Riding Giants" is about altogether another reality. The surfers all admitted to being "addicted" to big waves. They live to ride, and grow depressed when there are no waves. They haunt the edge of the sea like the mariners described on the first pages of Moby Dick. They seek the rush of those moments when they balance on top of a wave's fury and feel themselves in precarious harmony with the ocean. They are cold, tired, battered by waves, thrown against rocks, visited by sharks, and held under so long they believe they are drowning, over and over, year after year, they go back into the sea to do it again.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/03/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Riding Giants in my opinion was a film about young men that had a passion for surfing and wanted nothing in their lives but to surf. The development that went into the making of this film took a lot of digging for old videos and films for the making of this film. The music and the film of the slow moving waves makes you love nature more than you thought, but when you hear people talk about the danger and the consequences of hitting the water and suffocating it makes you think twice about the beauty of the ocean.
The way they start off the movie with slow acoustic music makes you fell the beauty in the waves and what they can do, but when the change it and use the hard rock music for the people riding these waves then you feel like "Woah man that looks sick" or "Oh my gosh man i need to try tha. The music affects the mind towards the film and it sort of plays with your feeling towards the film or these waves.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/17/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Stacey Peralta's Riding Giants, a documentary about both men and women surfers who have the desire, passion, and aspiration to become the biggest wave rider and take on the challenges of big waves. They also touch on how the waves have affected each of the characters personally, going into how having the desire to surf big waves caused them to find a sense of peace and tranquility. In the opening scene of "Riding Giants" it begins with an introduction to a black screen with soft background organ and choir music. The usage of the "church" type music was intended to tie into the religious aspect of the "surfing big waves" meaning, which plays hand in hand with what the waves have done for the riders, and how they have come to peace with themselves through surfing.
The film takes a turn from the black screen, fading into dramatic, crashing waves with heavy rock/metal, hardcore music to match the set vibe of the intense, thirty foot waves that are being surfed. The purpose of that switch was intended to build suspense and cause the audience to experience a dramatic switch.
From the faster cuts in the introduction with lower fading into scenes, the film makes a hard turn going into longer shots, with more meaningful shots that builds the emotionality of the movie and how the surfers feel connected to the ocean and desire for surfing big waves. The editing and color correction goes into the usage of black and white instead of color to possibly show the time frame that it's referencing an older time that's less recent. There is also voice over used in this film over both intense waves and softer waves to mellow out the vibe of the movie to tie back into the emotional connection that the characters have towards surfing and with big waves.
Near the middle to the ¾ of the movie, softer music is used, softer scenes with less cuts and longer shots which gives the film a more emotionality. Instead of constant hardcore, heavy-in-your-face surfing movie, it goes beyond the surfing culture and shows what connection the Mavericks and other surfers like Noll and Hamilton, had with surfing. Softer-type piano notes were played, like a symphonic style tied with ukulele-ish notes playing in the background while the characters gave their commentary throughout the movie. The narrative was played in the background while scenes of less intense, calming surfing were playing in the foreground. The spirituality and sort-of-healing aspect plays a part in these scenes. Going into how the waves made them feel and what the waves have "controlled" their lives and depicted their actions in life.
Rolling into the end credits, upbeat guitar music is played, overlapping with shots of surfers and the waves, focusing on softer waves. Other shots consist of up close people in the city alongside surfers and their boards. Scenes of the characters narrating and giving commentary with quicker cuts and less shot fading. Throughout the credits, background of a combination of big waves as well as softer waves, characters and in the foreground, rolling the credits of the movie. Greg Noll, Laird Hamiliton, Jeff Clark, and many other big wave surfers, all had their roles and experiences to share throughout the movie and show how impactful big wave surfing has been.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/21/23
Full Review
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