Richard Purves 'Into the Mind' is an intense, unrelenting, and at times difficult to stick with film. All the same, for those who want to sit down and watch a film that requires a little thought (a rarity in the extreme sports genre) it is a highly rewarding hour or so.Straight off the bat, this is not meant to be a ski-movie, but rather a movie in which the central character happens to be an elite skier. We follow him as he tries, fails, and then tries again to conquer the goal he has set himself. In aid of this we are treated to several flash-backs and cut-aways which illustrate his state of mind, his hopes, fears, aspirations and beliefs, as well as the path he has trodden (literally and figuratively) to get to where he is.All in all these scenes are highly effective, using extreme sports (in the main part skiing, but also touching on others) to illustrate the battle we have with nature and our own will during the course of our lives. However, the film-makers tend to take it a little too far adding symbol into symbol, allegory into allegory, with one too many wildlife shots, one too many rotating landscape sequences, and not enough human interest. This in one sense is understandable, as the stock in trade for more narrative extreme sports movies is just to cut in fly-on-the-wall footage or the protagonists talking to camera. 'In the Mind' is definitely trying something new, and largely succeeding, but in places it feels like the film-makers just finished their "101 in Image Metaphor" at film school, and are trying to bundle in as much as they can.Speaking of image... this film looks AWESOME. Clearly they had a budget for the highest quality of cameras, and had the people who knew how to use them. It is the kind of footage that brings tears to the eyes, and is so good that most of the time, even if you don't get/like what the film is trying to do narratively, it makes it worth watching anyway.Skiing wise this film is also mouth droppingly good... in my own subjective opinion, i've not been this wowed by the things they are skiing and how they are skiing them since snowboard film 'The Art of Flight' and Sherpas Cinemas' debut 'All I Can'.That said, I'm only giving this film a 7. Why? Whatever the producers might say, it's clearly a ski film. It has been marketed as a ski film. Although there is some amazing skiing in the film, I don't think the film makers have managed the balance between providing enough awesome skiing and telling the narrative story they wanted to. Considering that ultimately the protagonist decides not to take on the quest that is driving him, there is no pay off or climax in terms of the amazing line we are waiting to see at the end. For those who have bought into the premise of the film, that's not too much of a problem, but for those who started watching just for great skiing, and stuck with it in the hope that at the end the guy would smash the monster mountain, that might come as a massive let down. I started watching this film as a ski film, and it was luck that I happen to like art film as well, but I don't think I can recommend this to a lot of my ski friends, and that has to speak volumes.

Zen Panda Beautiful enchanting artistic movie of epic proportions in my humble opinion. To all the naysayers on here looking for your typical run of the mill warren miller ski movies galore, then look away. To anyone who wants to see a gorgeous artistic masterpiece, then you've found the right place. There are so many ridiculously awesome scenes featuring amazing hi- def footage that is interwoven into a poetic and enchanting storyline. The kind of footage in this film reminds me of other beautiful movies of similar genre, like Baraka, Samsara, the Koyaanisqatsi(or qatsi) trilogy, chronos, Anima Munda, etc. The kind of movie that shows breathtaking scenes of nature, people and movement. The theme present in this movie, is Man's undying thirst to ride the waves of water, in all its forms. To dance, swim, play and dream of water. Whether its skiing, snowboarding or surfing, or dreaming. It's Man vs Water....and it's an amazing flick. 4 Thumbs up, if only I had that many thumbs!

raf-gio what a pile of BEEEEP my gosh I just wasted over an hour watching this North Face propaganda doc, the story was held by a razor sharp line.Nonsense what a waste of good money, they should've quit and given the money to that poor sherpa that was living in that derelict place.I am a sucker for outdoor docos but man oh man if felt like a bad CGI trip, tip to the Filmmakers story is of the essence, cgi and camera tricks are to supplement your story not to overshadow it. I rather have dug deeper in the characters then hear about how awesome risking their lives was. Have you ever stopped and though about the money you are wasting the mountain rescue community.

shaylintrotman I was really excited to watch this movie after seeing the trailer. After about 10 minutes I eagerly waited for when the movie would start. It turned out the entire movie was one long intro/trailer.If I had one major complaint, it would have to be the storyline. This movie looks like a bunch of good footage that was edited into a movie with no prior forethought or planning.The movie peaked when the one skier ended up in an avalanche and trailed off from there with the fake footage of him in the hospital. I couldn't help but lose interest when I see a guy supposedly on a ventilator while he's not actually intubated.Like others said, it had so much potential with such great footage but ended up just being boring waste of time and money. Don't waste your 13 bucks. If you really must, rent it first and I'm sure you'll be annoyed enough to never need to watch it again.