Cinema Tuesdays Review

I like to tell people that I don't really have a fear of heights. I have a fear of falling from a high place.

Put me in a high building, I'm fine. Put me on that same building's roof, with the howling wind ready to whisk me away, and that's another matter entirely. For this reason alone among many, I could never be a climber. But I find their stories fascinating. "Against all odds" survival tales are also inspiring. In combining the two, director Kevin MacDonald created one of the best documentary-features I have ever seen.

"Touching the Void" is based on the book of the same name, and tells the story of Joe Simpson and Simon Yates, two young climbers who set out in the mid 1980s to scale the west face of Peru's Siula Grande, alpine style (tethered to one another). Their story is told in their own words, through separate interviews where the two men stare straight into the camera, and through a re-creation of their climb, using actor-climbers Brendan Mackey and Nicolas Aaron. Though they are given few lines, the actors' sunken eyes and frostbitten and blistered faces effectively convey the physical and mental hardships endured by Simon and Joe on this dangerous climb.

Something like 80% of the accidents that happen on a climb happen on the way down, and it would not be spoiling anything to say that something does go horribly wrong during Joe and Simon's descent. A ferocious storm whips up, and Joe slips, breaking his leg. The two devise a plan; Simon will lower Joe 300 feet at a time, using the rope that holds the two men together. But as the storm worsens, Simon accidentally lowers Joe over the edge of a precipice. Feeling no movement for hours, and fearing he could be dragged down the mountain himself, Simon assumes Joe must be dead, and he cuts the rope. Joe's subsequent story of his solo descent from the mountain is riveting, and so I will not divulge more of the two climbers' story.

The footage shot on location is beautifully done. It's quite harrowing to watch, as Joe and Simon matter-of-factly tell their story. The DVD of the film includes three featurettes that focus on the making of the film, and what happened to the two climbers after their Peruvian ordeal. The film is rated R for language, but it's nothing your average teen hasn't heard before.

"Touching the Void" is a remarkable film, and confirms for me that I would not last five minutes on a mountain. And like a good fiction film, this documentary has enough nail-biting drama to hold up to repeat viewings. I look forward to seeing it again.

6/16/04

Back to the main Cinema Tuesdays Reviews page

More about the Cinema Tuesdays series