Hot Dog - The guy with the hot ski

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Movie
German title Hot Dog - The guy with the hot ski
Original title Hot Dog ... The Movie
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1984
length 96 minutes
Age rating FSK 16, 12 (abridged version)
Rod
Director Peter Markle
script Mike Marvin
production Edward S. Feldman
Mike Marvin
music Peter Bernstein
camera Paul G. Ryan
cut Steven Rivkin
occupation
synchronization

Hot Dog - The guy with hot skis (Original title: Hot Dog… The Movie ) is an American comedy film from 1984. The feature film by director Peter Markle is based on a script by ski filmmaker Mike Marvin, who choreographed and produced the sports footage . It combines elements of sports and youth films and has become a cult film over the decades, especially in the US freestyle scene . While both contemporary and modern reviews are mostly negative, the film was a commercial success and is still considered the most successful ski film of all time.

action

The young Harkin Banks in Idaho with his pickup truck on the way to Freestyle - World Championships in Squaw Valley . At a gas station, he takes 17-year-old runaway Sunny, who is on her way to San Francisco , with him. The two get along straight away and check into a hotel together in the 1960 Olympic site . At dinner they meet Harkin's idol for the first time, the Austrian Rudolph "Rudi" Garmisch, who turns out to be an arrogant disgust. Back in the hotel room, Harkin impresses his new girlfriend with his guitar playing and the two sleep together.

The next day, the qualification for the main competition is on the program, which rookie Harkin easily survives. Two of his compatriots are passed over despite their good performance, because the organizers want to satisfy their European sponsors. He befriends a group of fun-loving skiers around the freestyle veteran Dan O'Callahan, who also takes part in the world championships and calls themselves "The Rat Pack". In the evening, Harkin and Sunny receive an invitation to a house party with the attractive skier Sylvia, who has her eye on him. After a difference of opinion with Sunny, Harkin lets himself be seduced by the self-confident hostess and the two have sex in the bathtub. His girlfriend watches the whole thing and, in turn, becomes intimate with Rudi Garmisch in the sauna.

The next morning Rudi brags about his conquest on the slopes and provokes Harkin before the world championship with the ballet discipline starts. Thanks to excellent grades, the top favorite wins and, to the displeasure of the audience, Harkin only comes in fifth. After the competition, Sunny and Harkin confront their missteps from the previous evening. Sunny makes about to leave, but eventually stays in town and tries to teach himself to ski. Despite Harkin's outstanding performance on the moguls and in aerials , Garmisch also wins these two competitions and is crowned the superior freestyle world champion. The young challenger has to be content with second place. The spectators suspect a shift and chase away the unworthy winner with snowballs.

O'Callahan challenges Garmisch and his entourage, the "Rudettes", to a so-called Chinese Downhill , a downhill race without rules, in order to clarify once and for all who the best skier is. The members of both groups compete against each other at the same time and race down the mountain. While one after the other crashes, Harkin and Rudi at the front deliver a close race, which the former ultimately wins by a wafer-thin layer. He grabs the World Cup trophy and is rewarded with a kiss by Sunny, while the audience cheers for him.

production

Screenplay and filming

Aerial tramway at Squaw Valley Resort, with Lake Tahoe in the background

Screenwriter Mike Marvin grew up in Tahoe City and made several low-budget ski films in the early 1970s , including about the freestyle scene and 1972 Earth Rider about the first ski base jump on El Capitan . Hollywood producer Edward S. Feldman was convinced of Marvin's stories from his time as a ski filmmaker and promised him a feature film, if he succeeded in wrapping these experiences in a script from the perspective of an athlete .

Originally planned in Aspen , filming finally took place in Squaw Valley, California during the snowy winter of 1982. Since the majority of the actors could not ski, stunt doubles had to be used for all ski scenes , including Frank Beddor , who was very successful in the World Cup . Only Lynn Wieland, cast as Michelle "Banana Pants", and "Slasher" George Theobald actually came from the local freestyle scene. The 19-year-old Wieland was US champion in 1980 and 1981 in the moguls and in jumping. David Naughton and the " Playmate of the Year" 1981, Shannon Tweed , were hired as the most famous actors . In addition, numerous locals from Squaw Valley and the surrounding area worked as extras . The ski shots were made with a second unit under the direction of Mike Marvin. Probably the most famous scene in the film, the final descent, was shot on the 1960 Olympic route and includes costumes that, in combination with the chase , are intended as an allusion to Mad Max II - The Executor . Marvin's script remained relatively vague, which is why much of the dialogue was improvised.

According to the contributors, in addition to generous pay, there was a lot of free time between shoots, which was spent celebrating wild parties. Years later, Mike Marvin even spoke of “ Sodom and Gomorrah behind the scenes”.

synchronization

David Naughton (2011) Shannon Tweed (2007)
David Naughton (2011)
Shannon Tweed (2007)
actor Role name Voice actor
David Naughton Dan O'Callahan Ilya Richter
Patrick Houser Harkin Banks Uwe Paulsen
Tracy Smith Sunny Liane Rudolph
John Patrick Reger Rudolph "Rudi" Garmisch Claus Jurichs
Frank Koppala Squirrel Murphy Ronald Nitschke
James Saito Kendo Yamamoto Klaus Jepsen
Shannon Tweed Sylvia Fonda Karin Buchholz
Sandy Hackett T-shirt contest MC Manfred Lehmann
Peter Vogt Fader Black Hermann Ebeling
Robert Fuhrmann Rick Lauter Andreas Mannkopff
Robin Haynes announcer Manfred Lehmann
Mike Marvin Downhill starter Hans-Jürgen Wolf
Gregory Beck referee Rolf Marnitz
Ronald Hurley Gas station attendant Lothar Koester

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by Peter Bernstein , who was to receive a Golden Raspberry in 1985 for his contribution to ecstasy . The theme song Top of the Hill , like another song, Hold Me , was written by Mark Goldenberg and interpreted by Clif Magness. The soundtrack also includes the two songs Dreamers on the Rise and Bringing Down the Moon by John Stewart , the Prince song When You Were Mine in a version by Mitch Ryder , Do You Love Me by Patti Austin , Hungry Like the Wolf by Duran Duran and I Will Be Here for You by Al Jarreau . John Patrick Reger, who plays the role of the antagonist Rudi Garmisch and has German language skills, contributed his own track with his winning song .

background

The often ridiculed title of the film has a real background. Freestyle skiing was known as hot dogging , especially in the 1960s and 1970s , and those practicing the sport were called hot doggers . According to one explanation, the term comes from surfing and stands for surfers who take on the biggest waves and thus expose them to a higher risk. Legend has it that the name was coined by a skiing hunter who lost a hot dog over a bumpy slope , which then slid in a perfect line towards the valley and could only be "caught" again by driving over the hump.

The film confuses the terms World Championships and World Cup . At the beginning it is said that Harkin Banks is on his way to the “ World Championships freestyle in Squaw Valley” and Rudi Garmisch is also called World Champion after his victory . After the qualification, however, a piece of paper with the words World Cup will be pinned to the wall, which can also be read on the start numbers of the participants. In addition, the circuit (mostly used synonymously for a racing series such as the World Cup) is mentioned several times . In fact, the first official Freestyle Skiing World Championships didn't take place until two years after the film was released in 1986. The Freestyle Skiing World Cup , on the other hand, has existed since the 1980 season, and the ballet discipline has not been held since 2000. The film claims that Rudi Garmisch won a gold medal at the Olympic Games in Lake Placid , but the freestyle disciplines shown have only been Olympic since 1992 (moguls) and 1994 (aerials).

The expression Chinese downhill ( English for Chinese downhill ), which James Saito in the role of the Japanese Kendo with the question “What the fuck is a chinese downhill?”, Was picked up by screenwriter Marvin about ten years before the shooting. Mass start races of this kind had a certain tradition in many ski resorts, even if without the brutal physical contact as in the film. In Squaw Valley they were held until a fatal accident in 1974, in Aspen the name Irish downhill existed .

reception

publication

Hot Dog ... The Movie first hit US cinemas on January 13, 1984, and gave MGM an unexpected box-office hit. The rumored production costs of four million US dollars were brought in again on the opening weekend. Overall, the film was able to fetch between 20.3 and 22 million dollars in the country of origin, depending on the source. This makes it the most commercially successful ski film of all time. Producer Edward S. Feldman then used the profit to produce the three-time Oscar- winning thriller The Sole Witness . Hot Dog - The guy with hot skis started in German cinemas on November 23, 1984. A VHS version distributed by Columbia Pictures in Germany was slightly shortened to pass as FSK 12 .

criticism

The film is mostly rated negatively because of its one-dimensional plot and the use of sexist and racist stereotypes, including unnecessary nudity. Like many other teenage films of the 1980s, such as the comparable Porky’s , it now seems "shockingly out of date". On the other hand, Hot Dog does manage to capture the “wild spirit of ski culture”, which culminates in a wet T-shirt contest in the first half of the film . Both screenwriter Mike Marvin and one of the stunt doubles emphasized the authenticity of the depicted antics of sex, alcohol and drugs. In recognition of the film and its actors, the 20th and 30th anniversaries were celebrated at the Squaw Valley location and location.

The Internet platform Metacritic has a rating of 39/100 points, based on six critical opinions. Janet Maslin of the New York Times located the film in the genre Beach Party , with snow instead of surfing. In one of the few halfway positive reviews she wrote that director Peter Markle had succeeded in creating the mood lightly and “less idiotic” than it could have been. She mentioned negatively the character drawing by screenwriter Mike Marvin and the "countless" surreptitious advertisements , for example for ski or beer brands. The film service rated Hot Dog as "over-the-top slapstick with some bad taste". The Miami Herald , Time Out and the TV Guide , which even described the film as a "hideous sexploitation with a student script", judged similarly . Brett Yates of the Mountain Times said the plot of the film was more reminiscent of gunfire than later ski comedies like Ski School . In addition to the portrayal of the main character, he also criticized the portrayal of mogul skiing, which is shown as "flamboyant hopping from one point to another" instead of a fast-paced race along an ideal line. Overall, the ski scenes are the only aspect of the film that is almost unanimously praised by the critics.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Sam Moulton & Frederick Reimers: The Unofficial Oral History of 'Hot Dog… The Movie'. Outside, March 4, 2016, accessed March 21, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Hot Dog - The guy with the hot ski. In: synchronkartei.de. German dubbing index , accessed on March 15, 2020 .
  3. ^ Karl Gamma & Dorling Kindersley (1981): Skidteknik. No? Var? Huh? Quoted in: Annika Johansson: Acroski - en bedömningssport. Bedömningarnas tillförlitlighet och relevans. PM No. 138 (1998), p. 15 (Swedish).
  4. ↑ a b Brett Yates: ski movies: "Hot Dog ... The Movie" (1984). Mountain Times, April 19, 2017, accessed March 21, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Peter H. Brown: We're Talking Gross, Tacky and Dumb. In: Los Angeles Times , January 20, 1985 issue. Online , accessed March 21, 2020.
  6. ↑ Hot Dog ... The Movie (1984). Box Office Mojo , accessed March 21, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Hot Dog ... The Movie. Metacritic , accessed March 21, 2020 .
  8. ↑ Janet Maslin : Film: 'Hot Dog,' Skiers Competing and Playing. In: The New York Times , January 14, 1984, p. 10. Online , accessed March 21, 2020.
  9. ↑ Hot Dog - The guy with the hot ski. Film service , accessed March 21, 2020 .
  10. ↑ Bill Cosford: Hot Dog ... The Movie! In: The Miami Herald , January 14, 1984 edition, p. 7.
  11. ↑ Hot Dog ... The Movie. Time Out, accessed on March 21, 2020 .
  12. ↑ Hot Dog ... The Movie. TV Guide , accessed on March 21, 2020 (English).