No Surrender Cinema: Ski School

Break out your neon snow suits, because No Surrender Cinema is taking it to the slopes for November’s subject matter!  It’s an underdog story as old as time as the students of Section 8 rally against the oppressive preppy snobs from 1^st Section.  We already had a summer vacation full of island violence here at NSC, and now it’s time to chill out at school… Ski School that is!

Just a few years before The X Games officially turned snow based sporting into a party scene, Dave Marshak (Dean Cameron) was doing just that.  As the head ski instructor and leader of a misfit crew known as Section 8, Dave is a beloved presence on the mountain.  Beloved by everybody except arch rival Reid Janssen (Mark Thomas Miller) that is.  Reid is the top dog, numero uno, and the leader of the snobbish 1^st Section.  While he and his cohorts enjoy the lavish lifestyle provided by being the best skiers on the mountain, Reid feels that Dave and company are beneath him, and wishes that they would just crawl back into their hole and die.  He even says as much after an encounter where the Section 8 crew, feeling slighted, crash a stuffy party and do what they do best so that everyone just loosens up a little.

While Reid’s rivalry with Dave is established as having started prior to the events of Ski School, he’s also got a few new ones to worry about.  Dave’s best bud Fitz (Stuart Fratkin) has eyes for Paulette (Charlie Spradlin), Reid’s most recent arm candy.  Paulette isn’t really into Reid’s alpha male outlook on things, and her interactions with Fitz show that she might be returning the favor when it comes to his interest in her.  There’s also the new kid on the block… er, mountain, Johnny Roland.  While at first perceived as a fish out of water without an established ski pedigree, Roland becomes the talk of the town pretty quickly.  This makes Reid regret his decision to banish the newbie to Section 8, because he’s got skills that could easily pose a problem for his crew.  Rather than own up to his quick dismissal of Roland, Reid considers Johnny the enemy now, especially since Dave can see that the quiet, reserved Johnny is truly Section 8 material.

 Once our core characters and their traits are established, it’s time for them to (as Dave puts it in one of his epic motivational speeches) “do a little skiing”.  Dave, Fitz, and Ed (Patrick Labyorteaux) hold their own against Reid and his cronies Erich and Derek, but the addition of Roland into the Section 8 lineup has them ascending the ranks faster than you can say slalom.  The rivalry continues away from the competition too, usually in hilarious fashion.  When Section 8 gets kicked out of the party they crashed, they immediately fire back with a scheme that causes both Erich and Derek to believe they have a shot at sleeping with Lori (Darlene Vogel), only for the punchline to be that they wind up in a hotel room bed with each other.  The whole situation is filmed and broadcast during a party being held in Reid’s honor, and the act only serves to throw more gasoline onto the fire when it comes to the feud. 

Now, I know what you’re thinking; this all sounds very interesting, and we’ve got good reason for both sides to want to thrash the other, so is this where the action comes in? The original VHS cover of Ski School promised that this would include “The hottest action to ever hit the slopes”, didn’t it?   There’s definitely action, but not in the normal Bulletproof Action sense.  The respective Sections square off the good and legal way, as part of the annual Ski Competition.  Section 8, they of the last place losers status, find themselves rising through the ranks thanks in part to a newly motivated Dave and the addition of Johnny.  Everyone gets in their flips, twists, and slalom with steeze, trying to one up each other.  Off the slopes, the “action” is relegated to the guys getting action, as they pair off with the women of the cast.  Fitz pursues Paulette, Johnny has a one night stand with Lori that she wants to be something more, and the mysterious Victoria comes to town and inserts herself in between the both of them (not literally, you pervs).  The one time that tensions rise and feel like things are getting out of hand does lead to a big fight between skiers and instructors, but it’s just a good old fashioned snowball fight. 

There’s also plenty of other action going on, but due to the nature of that action, images of it cannot be included in this review.  For reference sake, Johnny enjoys bedding both of the women who have an interest in him before ultimately confessing his love for Lori, Ed is apparently a Sex God (though we don’t actually see any of his encounters), Fitz and Dave wind up in a hot tub and a sauna with numerous women, and Paulette switches sides to Section 8 after Fitz finds her soaking in a hot tub.  This concludes your “who’s banging who” update as it pertains to the inhabitants of Ski School.

The crazy non-conformity of Section 8 grates not just on Reid, but on Anton Bryce, the manager of the mountain.  To add more to the “us vs. them” storyline of Ski School, it’s made glaringly obvious that Bryce and Reid are on equal ground when it comes to voicing their displeasure with the influence Dave has on people.  Bryce can’t just kick him off the mountain because he’s so beloved, but he’s more than willing to look the other way when Reid and 1^st Section sabotage Section 8’s chances to advance further in the competition.  This is a scene where the professional skiers and stunt people get to shine, especially Reid’s stand in, who skis with no poles while whipping a grappling hook around like a lasso, all while chasing down the slopes after Dave.  With all of the ski officials overlooking the glaringly obvious way 1^st Section is causing Section 8 to fail (Dave being dragged down a mountain by a grappling hook as his main rival skis to victory being just one of them).  Bryce decides that he now has enough on Section 8 to expel them (Fitz: “This is ski school.”), and our charming band of underdogs feel that they may have finally gone too far…but in the immortal words of Dave Marshak earlier in the film “It’s not how far you go, it’s how go you far”.

The climax of Ski School sees Dave and Fitz doing their best to rally the troops.  Rationalizing that “skiing is partying, partying is skiing”, and Bryce has never been able to stop them from partying before, it’s an open invitation to crash the competition.  Section 8 shows up in full force with toboggans stocked with cases of beer, scantily clad women, balloons, and all the boys and girls we’ve come to know and love.  The power of positivity compels our heroes to catch up in the competition, not to mention a few tricks of their own (like spraying contact cement on the snow so 1^st Section’s skiers go flying off their skis), but alas it is not enough to attain victory.  The Sections are tied, which opens Dave and Reid up to one last attempt at negotiation.  Dave challenges Reid for a “best against the best” winner take all final ski-off, where they’ll ski “The Dome” (this is the first we’ve heard of The Dome, but Fitz’s reaction tells us that this is a pretty dangerous bet).  Reid chuckles and accepts, but almost reneges when Dave says that it’s not him who will be skiing, it’s Johnny.  During the runtime of Ski School Dave had been using subliminal hypnosis (which amounted to whispering thoughts and commands into the ears of his pals as they sleep), and told Johnny “in order to be the best, you must lose your mind”.  This is where all of that comes into play, as the dash down the mountain is exciting and not played for laughs at all.  It’s a pretty intense scene similar to the ending Rollerblade race in Airborne where the movie focuses on nothing except the action.  The underdog storyline of Ski School continues right to the bitter end, as Reid seems to have cemented his status as Big Man On The Mountain until Johnny Roland decides that it’s time to finally lose his mind.

I have a tremendous bias towards Ski School; it’s a legitimate all time favorite of mine.  Though I had seen it off and on on cable as a youth, it wasn’t until I purchased the VHS from my local video store (a tape that I still hold onto, worn clamshell cover and all) as a teen that I truly fell in love with it.  This is a movie that in some of my absolute saddest moments still got me to laugh or crack a smile.  I guess you could even say that it’s a movie that I’m thankful for (boom!  Thanksgiving tie in!).  I know the movie by heart, but with it recently popping back up on the Cinemax family of channels, it occurred to me that while everyone remembers the comedy aspect, or some of Marshak’s inspirational lines, not much mind has ever been paid to the talent of the stunt crew and skiers used as stand ins for the cast.  It’s pretty clear when we’ve got one of them replacing one of the cast members out there in the snow, but they perform with a lot of flash that, to steal a wrestling term, can pop the crowd.  The ultimate showdown with Johnny and Reid is a fun little five minutes of cinema, and when Section 8 rejoices, you can’t help but celebrate along with them.

Ski School is readily available all formats of movie media, is currently on Cinemax On Demand and their channels, and occasionally shows up on the streaming service Tubi.  With a charismatic cast of rebels led by the incomparable Dean Cameron, one lines you won’t forget, pretty women, and yeah…even a little action, it gets my highest recommendation.  If you’ve got some time to sit in front of the TV this holiday week, let Ski School be in session!