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Celebrating the Great Outdoors – From the Great Indoors [1]
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Date: 2025-03-20
Editor’s Note: A version of this story first appeared in The Good, the Bad, and the Elegy, a newsletter from the Daily Yonder focused on the best, and worst, in rural media, entertainment, and culture. Every other Thursday, it features reviews, retrospectives, recommendations, and more. You can join the mailing list at the bottom of this article to receive future editions in your inbox.
Some people want to surf monstrous waves, hike or bike thousands of miles, or risk a broken neck sliding down steep, snowy mountains on little planks of wood. Others (like me), are more into car camping, star gazing, or trail riding. Though they vary in their intensity, each of these activities is considered outdoor recreation, a category estimated to contribute $1.2 trillion to the American economy each year and which depends largely on small, rural communities surrounded by public lands.
“Getaway,” a new podcast from Daily Yonder reporter Ilana Newman, dives deep into the world of rural recreation economies, revealing how outdoor recreation can both benefit and challenge rural towns and counties around the country. Whether you’re a thru-hiker or a mall walker, you can listen to “Getaway” on the Rural Remix feed, wherever you get your podcasts.
The world of outdoor recreation also provides rich fodder for indoor entertainment options, including endless movies and documentaries focused on adventure in the great outdoors. In honor of the release of “Getaway,” we’ve compiled some of our favorite outdoorsy movies that can be watched from the comfort of your own couch.
Free Solo
An official trailer for ‘Free Solo’ (via National Geographic on YouTube).
The 2018 sports documentary “Free Solo” follows American rock climber Alex Honnold as he attempts to be the first person to scale the sheer granite cliff face of El Capitan — via a 2,900 foot route — without a rope. Sound scary? It is! Even to Honnold, one of the best rock climbers in the world, who is revealed to have an under-firing amygdala (the part of the brain that processes emotions like fear and anxiety).
My amygdala fires just fine, and it gets put to work anytime I stop to think too hard about “Free Solo.” As a viewer you feel immense empathy not only for Honnold’s parents and girlfriend, but for the film director and camera crew who understand there is every possibility they will watch their friend plummet out of frame and to his death. The shots, taken from above, below, and parallel to Honnold, are literally breathtaking (and panic-inducing?), and even rewatching the trailer raises my heart rate considerably. But the movie — like the incredible feat it documents — is just as mesmerizing and awe-inspiring as it is terrifying.
Free Solo is streaming on Hulu and Disney+ and available to rent or buy through video on demand (VOD) platforms.
– Anya Petrone Slepyan
Cliffhanger
A trailer for ‘Cliffhanger’ (via Rotten Tomatoes Classic Trailers on YouTube).
What better ambassador for the Great Outdoors than the famed Rocky Mountains of Colorado? Well, they never looked better than they do here — as filmed on location in the Italian Dolomites — for the action-packed “Cliffhanger.” The film stars Sylvester “Sly” Stallone and tells the tale of a daring mountain rescue team suddenly facing off with a bunch of international ex-military criminals.
The movie is a delightful fantasy on all possible levels. The plot is ridiculous, and the dialogue sounds like it was lifted from a soap opera. The vistas remind one of paintings commissioned for the Manifest Destiny march westward, where the grandeur of American landscapes gets compressed into a single frame containing giant mountains, sprawling forests, wide rivers and a virtual safari of American wildlife. It’s funny, but it makes you want to keep looking.
The climbing sequences make the daring, unprotected climb from “Free Solo” look tame. “Cliffhanger” earned itself a legendary status among climbers for just how over-the-top it is. And while it does rightfully glorify search and rescue professionals, it makes the outdoors seem extremely remote, yet accessible; deadly, but also oddly survivable. It’s innocent fun best enjoyed with a drink (a double). And as the joke goes: “It was the ’90s, relax!”
Cliffhanger is available to rent or buy through video on demand (VOD) platforms.
– Jan Pytalski
The Barkley Marathons
An official trailer for ‘The Barkley Marathons’ (via barkley movie on YouTube).
Ever dream of running 100 miles off trail through the Tennessee woods, not knowing where you’re going, following a copied map and collecting pages of books along the way? Yeah, me neither. But once a year, about 35 to 40 runners get chosen through a bizarre entry form that has included questions like, “What is the most important vegetable group?” to run a contrived, five loop run through the woods of Morgan County, Tennessee.
Inspired by the 1977 escape of James Earl Ray from a nearby prison (which is now part of the race course), the race has been held pretty much every year since 1985 (except 2020). Only 20 people have ever finished it. This 2014 documentary was one of the first looks behind the scenes of the eccentric race founder “Lazarus Lake” and the unique traditions that accompany this strange ultramarathon. It’s a highly entertaining watch and maybe you’ll even catch the Barkley bug!
The Barkley Marathons: The Race That Eats Its Young is available to watch on YouTube, Peacock, and SlingTV.
– Ilana Newman
A Goofy Movie
A preview for ‘A Goofy Movie’ (via YouTube Movies).
Like many parents before them, mine were committed to instilling within their kids the “travel bug.” They set a standard of taking at least one family trip each year to places all over the United States. In the process of visiting trademark destinations and engaging in typical activities, I’d say they more than accomplished their mission. Today, as I relish visiting national parks and natural wonders, I look back on those memories and the example they set with gratitude.
But that doesn’t mean it was always a seamless or easy process at the time. Look no further than this nostalgic slice of Disney animation for an idea of what I’m talking about. For a while there the teenage angst was potent, as my sister and I endured long bus rides, kitschy motels, and pre-programmed itineraries, sighing at every step. One can forgive the average pre-teen for having lots of ideas about what they’d rather be doing than attending a pitchfork fondue or touring the Mitchell Corn Palace. But as “A Goofy Movie” so deftly captures, through all the ups and downs, nothing can replace those journeys we take together.
A Goofy Movie is streaming on Disney+ and available to rent or buy through video on demand (VOD) platforms.
– Adam B. Giorgi
The Endless Summer
A trailer for ‘The Endless Summer’ (via Cineverse on YouTube).
In the winter of 1969, I was introduced to 16mm documentary filmmaking. It was pure dumb luck to be in high school in Whitesburg, Kentucky when the American Film Institute put some money behind a project to teach media skills to young people from places not generally reflected in television and film.
Over the months that followed, a group of us learned the craft while telling stories about our place and our culture. We watched the emerging body of work produced using small format film and the new, almost portable video decks. We rented 16mm films and borrowed space in churches and schools to screen them for ourselves and anybody that wanted to talk about filmmaking.
One of the films we rented was “The Endless Summer” by Bruce Brown, a 1966 documentary film that follows surfers Mike Hynson and Robert August on a surfing trip around the world. They travel from their native California to the coasts of Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti, Hawaii, Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa looking for the perfect wave.
The film has absolutely no sync sound — the audio is Brown’s narration, surf rock music by The Sandals, and some studio sound effects. It felt like watching a slideshow of your cousin’s vacation, with them telling you about where they went while spinning an LP on the turntable. Which is exactly what it was.
The surfers don’t speak, and the descriptions of the locales and the locals are all Brown’s sense of these communities. That hasn’t held up well over the past 60 years. But it was completely accessible for a 17-year-old whose only exposure to media production was when a CBS News crew had come to his house on a hillside in Letcher County to shoot an establishing shot of downtown Whitesburg.
The Endless Summer is streaming on Tubi and Amazon Prime Video, and is available to watch for free, rent, or buy through video on demand (VOD) platforms.
– Marty Newell
This article first appeared in The Good, the Bad, and the Elegy, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder focused on the best, and worst, in rural media, entertainment, and culture. Every other Thursday, it features reviews, recommendations, retrospectives, and more. Join the mailing list today to have future editions delivered straight to your inbox.
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