The Age of Commercialism

One of my all time favorites.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

The Sunshine Superman of the title is Carl Boenish, who was a recreational skydiver who developed a new offshoot extreme sport which would go on to be called BASE jumping (Buildings – Antennas – Spans (bridges) – Earth (cliffs)). This sport involved the participant diving off vertigo inducing heights in order to free-fall for a number of pulse-pounding seconds only to pull a parachute as late as is safely possible. The sport became Boenish's life and he went on to plan a series of jumps including the El Capitan cliff-face in Yosemite and skyscrapers under construction in Los Angeles. Needless to say, he was (quite reasonably) at odds with the authorities who were very nervous about the safety of such a new and seemingly dangerous pastime. Of great benefit to the film-makers here, Boenish made recordings of most of the dives he was involved in; in fact he said that the recording of it was completely integral to it. Aside from a few dramatic re-enactments with actors, this is all original material. As such, there is a lot of great footage to be enjoyed here, including some stunning new aerial photography made specifically for the film, where we sweep over cliffs and latterly follow a man in an extraordinary flying suit. This is a very handsome looking documentary, which is also sound-tracked to a selection of very well chosen contemporary music.While this is primarily a celebration of its main character and the sport he created. It also has an important love story too. Boenish met his wife Jean at one of the early screenings of his films and they would go on to become an important team who would ceaselessly promote BASE jumping. This led to them travelling to Norway to take part in a television event where they broke the world record after jumping off the imposing Trollveggen cliffs. The following day Boenish died while attempting a second jump off a cliff he had previously considered too dangerous. His reasons for doing so remain largely a mystery.BASE jumping is certainly a very cinematic sport, with the incredible visuals it offers. These days it perhaps seems second nature to make these dives with helmet cameras but back then it was a new idea and Boenish had to attach bulky cameras to himself in order to achieve it. And in the film's most uncomfortable event we watch him climb a home-made ladder device which extends way out into space over the sheer drop of a huge cliff. We watch him climb this with no safety harness and then turn awkwardly around at the top to sit on a bike seat so that he can film his friends jump off from the best angle. I'm getting feelings of vertigo just thinking of this, it was so absurdly daring. Boenish, of course, looked like he was having a laugh.

If you enjoy seeing a documentary movie with awe inspiring cinematography that will educate, inspire and amaze you than you will love Sunshine Superman. I learned so much about Carl Boenish's life as an aerial cinematographer and the father of BASE jumping. Many of Boenish's surviving colleagues as well as his wife help to tell the viewer the story of his life. He had childhood polio that he got from a vaccination. Boenish could not walk for a year due to his polio. He overcame his polio and started his career as an engineer. He eventually became a full time jumper. He said it was very important for him to be able to photograph each jump to share it with others to inspire other people. BASE jumping, as coined by Boenish, stand for jumping off four types of starting points including buildings, antennas, spans (i.e. Bridges) and natural precipices such as cliffs. Carl Boenish said he has respect for nature's laws but not necessarily man's laws and he had legal trouble in El Capitan for jumping off the vacant Crocker building in downtown Los Angeles. In a 1984 prime time U.S. sports special hosted by David Frost, Boenish and his wife were able to break a Guinness record by jumping from Trollveggen in Western Norway. Marah Strauch, the director of this movie spent over eight years making it. The movie reflects her passion for Carl Boenish. The footage and cinematography really make the viewer see the beauty and awe inspiring view that the jumpers have while they jumped. My favorite part of the movie is when Carl Boenish and his wife break a Guinness record by jumping from Trollveggen in Western Norway and seeing it recorded in a prime time U.S. sports special hosted by David Frost. It is wonderful to see the excitement of both Carl and his wife when they successfully break the world record. I am impulsive and very passionate about the interests I have so I can relate to Mr. Boenish's passion for jumping and making sure he can always record it on camera.This film teaches us to admire and appreciate the beauty and awe of nature that the jumps provide for the BASE jumpers. Carl Boenish and his fellow jumpers are basically fun-loving adventurers. In the movie, Carl says he hopes his jumping will inspire other people that they can conquer their fears seeing he and his fellow jumpers do these jumps that most of us could never dream of doing.I give this movie 5 out of 5 stars and recommend it for ages 10 to 18. Reviewed by Adam C. KIDS FIRST! Film Critic. For more reviews by youth go to kidsfirst dot org.

It was a really good film that did a good job of capturing a moment in time and sketching out one man's contribution to Earth's history. It's the exciting portrait of Carl Boenish, once an engineer, found the job boring in comparison to his hobby of Skydiving and while turning this, and his love of film, into a career he help to create BASE Jumping.A lot of the footage from the movie was filmed by the subject himself, as he loves to film his jumps as much or more than he love to jump. All this personal footage made for a very personal documentary, especially as his friends and family narrated the entire film and told their own personal accounts of him.One of the things I noticed about documentaries about subjects that are barely thirty to thirty five years old is that they have a lot of footage they can use. Boenish was enough of a celebrity in his own time, that the doc was able to use footage from TV and news coverage of the man as well as his own cinematography. And like other contemporary docs they used a lot of different forms of medium, like reenactments of things that did not happen on camera.Which was not a lot. The filmmakers job was fairly easy as Carl love to document his life, and what a life it was, filled with nothing but joy and happiness, and inspiration to live life to the fullest to the very end. Without doing much expect having the people still around to tell his story, tell it story, it became an up tempo doc that gets your spirits high after watching it.

This film made me cry and I am a man... It was a love story and also very visually exciting. I saw it in Toronto and I am going to see it again and again!! Carl Boenish was inspiring and really an amazing character study. I wish the film were a bit longer but other then that a perfect film. The old film footage was good to see. I loved the old news footage and the great style of the current day stuff. The ending scene was SICK!!!! IMDb is making me write more but really what I want to say is you should see it. My GF even liked it despite the fact she is afraid of heights. I felt like I wanted to try BASE jumping something I never would actually go and do. I think seeing is this film on the big screen is essential it is not a normal documentary.