Down Hill: The Bill Johnson Story (Zeke Piestrup, 2010): USA

Reviewed by Jim Burns. Viewed at the Santa Barbara Film Festival 2011.

Down Hill: The Bill Johnson Story is first time filmmaker Zeke Piestrup’s stunningly honest documentary about one of the most tragic American sports figures in modern Olympic history. This documentary tells the rise and fall story of  a gold medal down hill skier that took on an entire sport with an arrogance and flair that the sport had never seen before.

Bill Johnson seemingly came out of nowhere in January of 1984 to win the World Cup in Wengen, Switzerland. He followed that up a month later by becoming the first American male to win an Olympic gold medal in the downhill by taking first in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. Unfortunately for him, he is most known for the fast lifestyle that he was leading during the peak of his career and for the tragic accident that happened during his comeback attempt in 2001, when a broke Bill Johnson was trying to qualify for the 2002 Winter Olympics at age 40.

Make no doubt about it, this is not a story with a happy ending. Bill Johnson’s story is a tragic tale of a man who approached his sport with the arrogance of an x-gamer, long before there was such a thing, and this fast approach flooded over to his private life that included bouts with alcoholism and drugs.

After the tragic  drowning death of his 13 month old son and the divorce from his wife, Bill Johnson mounted a comeback in hopes of returning to his Olympic glory days and winning his wife and family back. This attempt came to a tragic end in March of 2001 when he suffered severe brain damage after hitting a fence head on while trying to qualify for the 2002 US Ski team.

Bill Johnson is painfully honest in this documentary that could serve as a public service announcement to today’s extreme athletes that approach there sports with the same disregard for safety and invincibility as he did. Anyone who watches this film can not help but be somewhat disturbed by the ending. Bill Johnson’s post Olympic slide was already tragic enough before his accident in 2002. His delusional approach to a comeback at age 40 almost cost him his life, and it definitely took away any chances he had at living a somewhat healthy life. He has had several strokes the past few years and he is currently under the constant care of his mother.