Skiing in movies, like the sport itself, grew more prevalent beginning
in the 1930s, when it was a pastime of the elite, with depictions
reflecting changes in technique, fashion and social climate. World War
II saw skiing featured in a dozen films dealing with that conflict.
Fueled by postwar prosperity, the sport exploded in the
1950s--filmmakers followed suit, using scenes on snow-covered slopes for
panoramic beauty and the thrill of the chase. Through the free-spirited
1960s and 1970s, the downhill lifestyle shussed into everything from spy
thrillers to beach party romps. The extreme sports era of the 1980s and
1990s brought snowboarding to the big screen. This first ever critical
history of skiing in film chronicles a century of alpine cinema, with
production information and stories and quotes from directors, actors and
stuntmen.