Times of Acadiana
Oct. 12th, 2005 / Vol. 26, NO. 5
www.timesofacadiana.com

“The Great Outdoors”
Lafayette native Scott Allen Perry brings his feature debut to the Celebrity Theatres.

By Nick Pittman
Entertainment Editor

The wooded mountains of the Pacific Northwest, a group of men gather every year to compete in a series of competitions called The Outdoorsmen. They battle it out in tug-of-war matches and toss logs, tires and hatchets. They run through streams and dash across slick rocks, sometimes with logs on their shoulders. All the while, chugging beer at speeds of 7 and 8 seconds a can, downing 15 or so through the 10-hour event, competing to be the champion.
The event has always been clandestine; new participants must meet veterans’ approval. Its location is a secret as well. Lafayette native Scott Allen Perry has crossed into their world — not to hoist a sudsy can and gulp it down as it foams and agonize through what participants say is the day of the year they hate the most, but to bring it to audiences with his first feature film.

After making festival stops and a screening at the Everett, Wash., hometown of the competitors, Perry’s documentary, The Outdoorsmen: Blood, Sweat & Beers, makes a limited engagement at the Celebrity Theatres in Broussard. The film has been sold to Spike TV for an early 2006 broadcast and might hit Los Angeles and New York screens.

Perry, now living in Los Angeles, learned about the event through a friend originally from Everett. At first Perry was opposed to making a documentary, but after hearing what they do, he changed his mind.

“I knew I had to make this film. It’s hysterical — and actually touching in a lot of ways,” relates Perry.

He shot the film as if it were a narrative work, employing seven cameras, a cable cam and planning every shot. Although put through a rigorous schedule of filming — running on 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. days leading into the event and even less sleep on the days of the contest — the picture is so well shot and the characters so interesting and natural, people often question its legitimacy as a documentary. His capture of their lives and their character have audiences picking and rooting for favorites; his capture of the events leaving them feeling tipsy.

The film starts off dunking the film crew in the participant’s world, getting to know them as they ready for the event that will test their minds, bodies and gag reflexes. The five two-man teams stagger their way through 15 events: between 8 a.m. and lunch tearing through a handful of events like the Four Beer Chug and Dead Mans Carry, where they race against the clock with their partner perched on their back. After a 30-minute lunch break, they finish off the beer-gut check with events like Rock Toss, Log Carry (in a stream), Egg Toss, Shuttlerun (adding chugging beer to suicide runs), before ending with the Iron man (where they speed through six beers in a matter of seconds, the cold beer often coming back up just as fast as it went down). When a tie is reached, they chug to break it. Even a broken ankle can’t keep one burly competitor from chugging for his team.

“If I was going to give the recipe for making the Outdoorsmen, I would suggest 1 cup of nature, 1/2 cup of pride, 14 gallons of beer and 1/2 pound of ground beef,” the film’s narrotor says. “You could probably do without the ground beef, but personally I like it in everything.”

Perry was born and raised in Lafayette, running through what he calls a gauntlet of schools and religions before spending time at Paul Breaux Middle, Comeaux High and finishing at St. Thomas More.

“I’ve always loved movies. My earliest memories are going to the movies with my mom or watching Saturday matinees at home. I love going to the theater,” writes Perry. “I use movies like junkies use drugs, only my high never goes away and never lessens. I watch Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid two or three times a year, and it always makes me feel great.”

After graduation in 1989, knowing at the time Lafayette held no director’s chairs or actor’s trailers for him, he moved to Austin, Texas, to start a band. Quickly, he found himself writing, directing and starring on New York’s stage, doing a few one-act plays at the Village Gate before retuning to Austin. Eventually, he vested fully in films in 1998, appearing in what he admits were bad movies. After making The Outdoorsmen, he brought the documentary to several film festivals, including New York’s Tribeca in April. However, out-of-the-way and off-the-circuit Lafayette was a priority.

“I want to get the movie to audiences everywhere. But I especially want to get it to the people in my hometown. This is where I fell in love with movies. This is where I ultimately want to make movies.”

Perry is not done with the Outdoorsmen concept. He hopes that his pitch to rework it as a narrative, a Caddyshack-meets-Old School movie starring names like Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn, Will Farrell and Bruce Willis finds interested minds in Tinsel Town. But first, he’s got Lafayette in his lens.

Perry’s aspirations are as unwavering and brave as The Outdoorsmen competition. Where they are trying to survive an event that should kill them, Perry is looking to bring the business of Hollywood to South Louisiana. Buddying up with longtime acquaintance Marcus Brown of South Louisiana Community College, he doesn’t just want to shoot movies here. Perry wants to set up a studio system in Lafayette so the quality would improve and the money would stay here, instead of Hollywood just exploiting inexpensive settings and tax incentives.

He is shooting high and has three screenplays, as he puts it, “in a holding pattern.” He says he wants those three made in Lafayette, with a plan for shooting come spring 2006.

“Robert Rodriguez (El Mariachi, Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn, Sin City) did it in Austin, and there’s no reason Texas can do it and Louisiana can’t,” Perry says. “It just takes the right people to make the move, take the chance and, hopefully, make history.”

Nick Pittman is entertainment editor at The Times. To comment on this article, e-mail nick.pittman@timesofacadiana.com.

The following are some of the user reviews from imdb.com. Enjoy. If you would like to post your own imdb.com user comment goto www.imdb.com, register, and search for “The Outdoorsmen: Blood, Sweat & Beers” which I will refer to from now on as the ODBS&B. Select the User Comments option, then click on Add a comment.

ENJOY!
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TITLE: A bunch of guys head to the woods for a weekend of hilarious physical events, lots of beer drinking and bonding that’ll make you jealous!, 23 May 2005

Author: sirenakay

If you haven’t seen this film yet, it’s a sorry day for you! I haven’t laughed so hard in a theater in a VERY long time. The odd events that these guys dream up are ridiculously absurd and wonderful and the director, Scott Perry, knows just how to mine the humor. But beyond the funny things these guys do, there is also this sweet story of friendship. i mean these guys really look out for each other and support each other in an enviable way. You can’t walk away from this film without wishing you were friends with these dudes. And it made me really want to strengthen the bonds of my own friendships – a weekend in the woods with my pals? i can’t wait! This weekend “get away” proves to be about more than beer drinking and physical competition, it is also an opportunity for these manly men to strengthen their bonds with each other. In my mind, this is the reality version of animal house with a twist and it’s sure to be a classic comedy.

TITLE: Rad!, 3 October 2005

Author: jenajohnson from snohomish,wa

I have been hearing about this movie for over a year now, and I was planning on hating it. I thought it sounded absolutely immature and disgusting. I was embarrassed for everyone involved in the project. I went to go see it over the weekend and loved every minute of it!! Scott did an amazing job putting the whole thing together. The music and the gorgeous scenery, the interviews…loved it, loved it and loved it. I had to pee so bad in the middle of the movie, but I didn’t get up cause I didn’t want to miss any of it. Men all over the world are going to want to start their own Outdoorsmen clubs. I wish everyone involved much success with this film and future related projects.

TITLE: One of the funniest films I have ever seen!, 2 September 2005

Author: selslate3 from United States

What fun!! Men, beer and 15 events that will make you laugh throughout the entire film. The directing is simply superb. Mr. Perry was able to pick up even the tiniest move by these guys to build up the suspense of each event and to make you laugh even harder. By the end of the film you feel like you know each man personally and if you see them in real life you could just walk up and slap them on the back and say hi. You can really connect to each individual and you actually start pulling for your own person to win the event. It’s been a long time since I have been in a theater and had the whole audience laughing throughout the entire film together. The Outdoorsman is definitely a winner! If I could give it more stars I would.

Published: Saturday, October 1, 2005

Bonding, brawn and beer in the backwoods
A documentary filmmaker follows a group of men who gather each summer to test their mettle – and drink beer.

By Jennifer Warnick
Herald Writer

Each summer, about 20 burly 30-somethings leave their jobs and families to spend a weekend at a top-secret location in the woods of eastern Snohomish County.

The guys, many of whom attended Cascade High School in Everett together in the late 1980s, call themselves the Outdoorsmen. For the invitation-only trip, they pack hatchets, ropes, blindfolds, orange cones, eggs and at least 32 cases of beer.

A suspicious-sounding load, to be sure, but each item plays a specific role in a grueling, daylong competition that tests each man’s strength, endurance and guzzling skills.

They allow no spectators, and they don’t talk much about the competition when they return. They didn’t allow cameras, either – until last year.

Filmmaker Scott Perry of Los Angeles heard about the Outdoorsmen through a friend who attended Cascade and persuaded the guys to allow him and his crew to film the event.

The result is a 90-minute documentary, “The Outdoorsmen: Blood, Sweat & Beers.” Earlier this year, the movie with its all-local cast premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City. The movie makes its local debut at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Historic Everett Theatre.

What Perry’s cameras witnessed explains why the Outdoorsmen have difficulty describing the competition. During the all-day challenge, 10 two-person teams compete in 15 events, many of which combine physical feats with high-speed beer chugging.

Some of the events are silly, such as finding and drinking a beer while blindfolded. Others are tougher, such as the log toss.

“It’s absolutely hysterical,” Perry said. “I tried to make the movie the experience I had in making the movie – you go out and hang out with them while they do this insane weekend.”

Event co-founder and former Cascade High School jock Dan White narrates the movie, which begins with scenes of Everett and the guys packing to leave for the woods.

When they arrive at the competition site – a campsite on private property near a stretch of river – they set up camp, pop open beers and gather around a roaring campfire to catch up. Many haven’t seen each other since the year before.

“It’s a tradition – a camaraderie that is very strong and has been able to remain strong for 15 years,” said Doug Maxfield of Arlington, a 14-year veteran of the competition. “The older we get, the more we grow apart, but this is the one thing that draws us together.”

It was a scene just like that more than 15 years ago – buddies sitting around a campfire with beer – that the event was dreamed up by the high school friends.

The evening of arrival, the men are randomly assigned a partner, and early the following morning the competition begins.

There are the tossing events to see which Outdoorsmen triumph at chucking things – an egg, a hatchet, a tire, a rock, a log.

There are several running events, including the Death Race 3000, which has the pairs sprinting through woods, fording rivers and, of course, chugging beers to earn the best time.

At the end of the day, the winning team receives a coveted cup and some serious respect.

If not for the draw of a weekend in the woods with the guys, Jon Lovern of Snohomish probably wouldn’t have gone back after the first year.

“When I went up there, it was totally not what I expected. I thought it was going to be just a guys’ weekend out camping and drinking beer,” Lovern said. “I wasn’t expecting the intensity of it. These guys were serious. I didn’t know if I could really compete on that level.”

Lovern, who won the egg toss last year, said it will be exciting to see himself and his buddies on the big screen Saturday night.

Even more cool is that their tradition is now documented. He has watched the DVD at home five or six times.

“So these guys came out in the woods and filmed us doing what we would normally do,” Lovern said. “The film was kind of a bonus. So 20 years from now, I can pop in the DVD and watch myself when I was 20 years younger.”

No one knows how long the competition will go on – no one thought it would last this long. But no matter how busy their lives are, something keeps them coming back to the woods.

Perry thinks the Outdoorsmen weekend he documented revisits exactly what it means to be a guy.

“They have their normal lives – a lot of the guys are construction workers, auto mechanics, meat wholesalers – and they have their wives and their kids,” Perry said.

“This is one weekend a year where you get to go out and you don’t have to worry about the responsibilities of your life, family, job … they just go nuts.”

Reporter Jennifer Warnick: 425-339-3429 or jwarnick@heraldnet.com.