Waiting For Lightning | Blu-ray Review

There have been plenty of quality biographical extreme sports docs released in the last couple years, with Jeff Tremaine’s profile of BMX godfather Matt Hoffman, The Birth of Big Air, Stacy Peralta’s loving skate team autobio, Bones Brigade, and even Tristan Patterson’s beautifully unconventional debut, Dragonslayer, but the more the merrier as far as we’re concerned. Jacob Rosenberg’s directorial debut, Waiting For Lightning, stylishly outlines the life of boundary pushing skateboard legend Danny Way by combining elements of retrospective bits with the capping of a career in Way’s attempt to jump the Great Wall of China. The cross cut story is not a complete success, but Way, like many of the skate icons who vet his story, is an enigmatic character of practiced skill and devout will, making for a compelling film filled with fledgling career footage and plenty of big air delirium.

Like many kids taken with the adrenaline of skateboarding, Danny grew up in a broken home. His mother, a drug addicted widow, thought of the local skate park as a daycare for her two sons. One of the youngest talents to come out of the legendary Del Mar scene, Way grew up as a park shredding shorty with some of the biggest names in the sport as contemporaries, pushing him to become one of the best riders on the touring competition circuit, young or not. Names like Tony Hawk, Rodney Mullen and Matt Hoffman are just a few of the many that grew up alongside Danny, each praising the rider for his abilities and his need to push the sport forward, but in conversation many obviously have worries about his personal safety, especially now that he is a father.

Enter, the megaramp – a towering structure built with the intention of sending skaters higher, further and faster than ever before, all from the mind of Danny Way. The ramp itself, opening up the potential for more, far riskier tricks, became a new X-Games event in which Danny has excelled. It showed the world that top skateboarders can be Evel Knievel equivalents, putting their lives on the line to push the limits of their passion. The success of his dream ramp led him to the insane idea of attempting to jump the Great Wall of China. Not only was the idea physically fairly insane, but getting the Chinese government to cooperate seemed a political and logistic nightmare. Yet, Way’s manager’s somehow worked out a deal, sketchy as it seemed, to promote the event as a government sponsored endorsement of extreme sports.

Matt Hoffman captured the irony of the situation perfectly when he said it was “the greatest expression of freedom in a land that is so controlled.” In this moment, Way not only became a temporary beacon of autonomous self propelled passion, but he subverted Chinese authorities in the process, taking multiple runs against their will. It is this heartwarming feeling of American bred pride that allows Waiting For Lightning to hinge on classic talking heads and a rags-to-riches tale we’ve all heard before, yet it still manages to resonate. Skateboarding itself and the network of stoically driven men that continue to make it popular continue to be fascinating characters that all seem to know one another, making it easy to draw out story after interesting story. Funny, the majority of those who will love Rosenberg’s film the most will probably already know all there is to learn from its grainy skate footage, and herein lies the problem. It’s an affectionate bio-doc of big dreams and battle scars with very little mystery or suspense.

The Disc:

Still testing the Blu-ray waters, First Run Features have released their first Blu/DVD combo with Waiting For Lightning. As with many a doc, the image quality varies greatly depending on the source material, and here there are old VHS takes, still photos, plenty of professionally shot competition footage and DP Michael Svitak’s crisp new interviews that are all blended together as best as possible. On screen, the extra resolution allows the dated footage to look better than expected and the new footage incredible clarity. There are plenty of interviews, each sporting incredible facial detail – wrinkles, stubble and fine hair definition. The 5.1 Dolby Digital track mostly rests in the center channel with lots of conversation, but the often underlying music is warm and alive, with plenty of booming bass, as long as the volume is turned up an extra notch or two. Strangely, First Run opted for a classic DVD case for this Blu-ray package, in which both discs are safely housed.

X Games Featurette
When the X Games first introduced the Mega Ramp as an official event, Way took a horrific spill only to make the trek back to the top for several more runs. This tense short pieces together the story of that scary event, showing Way’s incredible will and need to overcome physical pain in the name of skateboarding. 20 min

Chronicles of Gnarly
Just some of the many tales that didn’t make the final cut, this is a compilation of ‘gnarly’ quotes that evolve into the truthful legend of Danny purposefully jumping into shark filled waters, for fun. 5 min

Streets are Rough
There was a miscommunication that Rob Dyrdek trashed talked Danny Way’s street skating, and a variety of guys planned a trip to Spain in order to film some street footage. Dyrdek found himself quite embarrassed by Way’s complete domination. 4 min

Woodward Megaday
As kids, most of the current pros in the film grew up with skateboarding mentors, so here they are seen passing on the buck, mentoring insanely talented kids as they ride a mega ramp for the first time on a lighthearted sunny summer day. 9 min

Kauai Megaramp with Danny and Laird Hamilton
Taking bits from the tale end of the film in Hawaii that didn’t make the final film, we see Danny skating his new personal mega ramp and in conversation with the surfing legend. 4 min

Kauai Megaramp with Jake Brown
More Hawaii bound footage, this featuring a skater who looked up to Way as a kid and is now in attendance of Danny’s first day on his new ramp. 3 min

Tribute to Mike Ternasky
Quite possibly Danny’s biggest influence and the man behind the Plan B skate company, Mike Ternasky met a sudden, early end back in 1994. For this crew of skaters he was a man that helped them become who they are today, and for that they will never forget. Here they tell his story and give an out pouring of thanks through collected interviews. 15 min

Interview with Director
Though Jacob Rosenberg, who met Danny at skate camp as a kid, fields questions about how he got involved with the project, but he spends most of the interview giving more thanks to Ternasky’s life changing influence. 11 min

Deleted Scenes
There were obviously way too many little tales to squeeze into the film, so here we find Mike Blabac, Tommy Caudill, Danny Way, Rob Dyrdek and Matt Hensley each giving quick little extra stories about trying to land tricks, flipping people off in cars, being scared of the mega ramp and more. 9 min

Theatrical Trailer
Narratively and emotionally satisfying, this brilliantly cut trailer is a wonderful little encapsulation of the full length. 2 min

Final Thoughts:

Danny Way, skateboarding or the sprawling network of skaters, photographers and promoters that make up the extreme sporting profession may not be of interest to everyone, but Way’s classic rags-to-riches tale of prevailing will is a heartwarming story anyone should be able to get behind. Waiting For Lightning isn’t a perfect film by any means, but First Run has given it an outstanding home release that caters to Danny Way fans with copious amounts of bonus interviews, stories and featurettes that didn’t make the film. The only thing missing is extra raw skate footage and a commentary track, but that’s the nittiest of nit-picking. Excellent release.