"Dust to Glory" needed an editor — or at least a better one; someone who might have helped this documentary focus on one or two stories rather than trying to tell a dozen or more.
Of course, someone also needed to tell filmmaker/narrator Dana Brown — a constant presence as would-be philosophizing voice of authority — to just shut up and let the images do the talking.
"Dust to Glory" is one of the bigger documentary disappointments in recent memory, especially when you consider that Brown's last work was the marvelous 2003 surfing picture "Step Into Liquid."
His follow-up film is confused and confusing, with in-your-face storytelling methods that are headache-inducing. What's more surprising is that he manages to make an interesting subject seem tedious.
That subject is the Baja 1000, a 1,000-mile road race through the Baja California desert, an endurance test for its riders on motorcycles or in trucks, autos and other multi-wheeled vehicles.
The film tries to tell several stories, including that of Mike "The Mouse" McCoy, who is trying to ride the entire race on his souped-up dirtbike, whereas conventional wisdom dictates the race should be driven by teams.
Other stories include a new women's division, started by some of the wives of regular competitors. And intriguingly, there are some drivers in original-model Volkswagen Beetles, one of several interesting story lines given short shrift in favor of the one featuring McCoy. (Not that his story isn't compelling, but considering that he served as one of the film's producers, it does seem a bit self-serving.)
The storytelling is all over the place. It's as if the film was assembled by editing monkeys, with little rhyme or reason. In fact, it's hard to keep track of who's who and who's doing what, which makes it hard to really care about what's going on.
"Dust to Glory" is rated PG for some sports-related violence (mostly vehicle crashes), occasional use of some mild profanity (religiously-based), and some off-color humor and references. Running time: 97 minutes.
E-MAIL: jeff@desnews.com