Tag Archives: #climbing

The Dawn Wall

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Release: Friday, September 14, 2018 (limited)

👀 Netflix

Directed by: Josh Lowell; Peter Mortimer

Starring: Tommy Caldwell; Kevin Jorgeson; John Branch

Distributor: Sender Films

 

 

*****/*****

Generally speaking, if you want climbing films done right, you turn to the Lowell brothers. In 1997 Josh and Brett Lowell co-founded Big UP Productions, and over the last two decades have documented some of the most stunning climbing achievements across the globe, even earning a Sports Emmy for outstanding camerawork. Their latest is The Dawn Wall, which follows big wall climber Tommy Caldwell on a seven-year quest to conquer a previously unclimbed section of the famous El Capitan.

2018 was a great year for climbing documentaries (and for Yosemite Valley, apparently), with The Dawn Wall being the first of two such films to get a theatrical roll-out. It predated the Oscar-winning Free Solo by a mere three months, and while it did not receive the same amount of fanfare I found The Dawn Wall to be the superior film both in terms of the story it tells and the climbing action featured.

There is no denying Free Solo deserved the mainstream spotlight. The life-and-death aspect of Alex Honnold’s attempt to climb the 3,000 foot monolith without any protective gear made that film immediately attractive to an audience beyond the climbing community. Along with the gut-wrenchingly obvious consequence of failure came the complicated morality of the undertaking, with the filmmakers actually having to brace for the potential reality of capturing a death on camera while going to lengths to ensure they wouldn’t be a distraction to Honnold during the ascent. (For the record, Free Solo hasn’t changed my opinion on free soloing — it still seems to me to transcend the realm of reasonable risk-taking. I did however appreciate that the filmmakers included multiple perspectives on the matter and how clear it was to see the strain this endeavor put on the camera crew and others.)

The Dawn Wall, in stark contrast to the loneliness of Honnold’s quest, is this epic buddy adventure that takes place for the most part on the Wall and gets more into the nitty gritty of climbing, whether that’s the technique involved in a tricky section or the broader tactics of big wall climbing. Before it gets into the gory details of the Dawn Wall project, the film takes a step back into the past and builds a profile of its meek-and-mild-mannered subject, tracing his rise from a painfully shy kid (and the son of a gregarious bodybuilder, to boot) to one of the elite climbers in the world, as well getting into debates surrounding nature-versus-nurture and dedication versus obsession.

It almost seems like an epidemic in movies where a cold open teases a big moment in the present before that gets put on hold so we can get the backstory, but with Tommy Caldwell, you really need that backstory. This film is about so much more than the physical act of climbing; it’s about everything that went into the ambition. The Dawn Wall‘s first half hour or so proves to be every bit as dramatic and compelling as the titular event it covers. A treasure trove of archived footage mixed in with interviews in the present day introduce several personalities that have been instrumental in Caldwell’s life and the experiences that they have shared together — such as the time Tommy, his then-girlfriend Beth Rodden and two other friends were held hostage for six days by armed rebels in Kyrgyzstan during an expedition there. To a lesser extent we also get to know his Dawn Wall partner, Kevin Jorgeson, a lauded and fearless boulderer who isn’t as experienced in the travails of big wall projecting.

Because ropes and harnesses play crucial supporting roles here you likely won’t find yourself sweating like you were in Free Solo, but what The Dawn Wall lacks in peril it makes up for in humanity . . . and pure, unadulterated climbing psych. The drama that unfolds circa Pitch 15 — a desperate traverse across a 300 foot ribbon that hinges around dime edges and features the hardest climbing on the entire 3,000 foot climb — is quite an amazing display of graciousness and selflessness, with Caldwell refusing to leave a comrade behind in battle. 

Let’s get one thing clear: this climb, defined largely by swaths of slick, seemingly feature-less granite, is so intensely difficult it is all-out war. The 32-pitch route is considered by many within the community the most consistently difficult climb in the world, while outsiders like John Branch, a sports writer for The New York Times and the first to break the story (and usher in the media circus), view it as among the greatest athletic feats of a generation. Skin is scarred, torn, chafed, bloodied, bruised. The mind brutally pummeled by doubt. All the while the saga is gaining traction in the media and the world is watching. Waiting.

The Dawn Wall is the more engaging film because the subject(s) aren’t as enigmatic, you can actually get to know them on a deeper level beyond the extremes of their ambition, and the supporting material rummages through some pretty personal stuff, with Caldwell addressing his divorce in the early 2000s and how loneliness, perhaps desperation, motivated him to seek a new way up the face of El Capitan. (As an aside, he’s responsible for several first ascents up the face, and even did two routes in a single day — that’s 6,000 feet of climbing in 24 hours). Between Caldwell’s geekiness and Jorgeson’s indefatigable positivity the film is absolutely the warmer, dare I say the more relatable experience, even if the climbing involved is alienating.*

The Dawn Wall is about teamwork, physical endurance, and unbelievable willpower. It is ultimately a celebration of an historical climbing achievement but delivered in a way that allows the layperson to get a feel for the effort and hardship involved. The emotional crescendo to which the saga builds, coupled with the obligatorily breathtaking cinematography**, makes the film a must-see experience.

* One aspect the film does leave out is that while Tommy and Kevin weren’t alone on the Wall by virtue of the camera crew being there, they also had a team of climbers shuttling supplies up and down the wall frequently — with none other than Alex Honnold making a quick lap up to their “base camp” to provide lip balm 

** In my review of Free Solo I incorrectly assumed drones were used in the shooting. it is illegal to fly helicopters and drones through the park.

Tommy entering the crux sequence of Pitch 15.

Moral of the Story: Comparing the two films is inevitable, especially when they came out basically back-to-back. For climbers, The Dawn Wall has more climbing action to get giddy over, making it perhaps the purer climbing film. But for those who were won over by Free Solo and don’t climb, this is kind of an ideal companion piece. It gets you even better acquainted with El Capitan, the practicalities of living on a rock face for days and weeks at a time, and to me it truly embodies the spirit of climbing. 

Rated: NR

Running Time: 100 mins.

All content originally published and the reproduction elsewhere without the expressed written consent of the blog owner is prohibited.

Photo credits: http://www.imdb.com; http://www.sandyrussellcreative.com

Everest

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Release: Friday, September 18, 2015

[Theater]

Written by: William Nicholson; Simon Beaufoy

Directed by: Baltasar Kormákur

There are a great many A-list names attached to this cinematic treatment of a particularly dark chapter in the history of Mt. Everest, yet the only one that really matters is the one given to the mountain. As a climber forebodingly notes in the earlygoing, “Everest will always have the last word.” She certainly did on May 10, 1996 when eight climbers lost their lives on her unforgiving slopes, but even after that debacle the restless have remained steadfast in their beliefs that their time would soon be coming.

Ah, the hubris of the human race. We have to conquer every summit. Mine every depth, or die trying. And if not that, we find ourselves stringing wire between the world’s tallest buildings and walking across it as an act of rebellion in the face of monotonous existence. Nineteenth century environmental activist and outdoor enthusiast John Muir is famously quoted saying that “when mountains call, wise men listen.” I find it an incomplete thought, for the wisest of men also listen when mountains warn them not to do something. But in the case of the world’s tallest, most notorious peak, the allure has proven time and again to be too great. When out of oxygen just below a summit that is finally in sight, all one has left to burn is ego. Very rarely is that sufficient fuel. Everest, the concept, seems reckless and irresponsible, but then again it’s all part of a world I probably will never understand.

My perspective is irrelevant though, and so too are those of pretty much all climbers involved in Baltasar Kormákur’s new movie. Everest is an inevitability, the culmination of years’ worth of obscure documentary footage about the numerous (occasionally groundbreaking) ascents that have simultaneously claimed and inspired lives within the climbing community and even outside of it (after all, Mt. Everest tends to attract anyone with deep enough pockets and the determination to put their bodies through hell for a few months out of the year). This film is, more specifically, the product of a few written accounts from the 1996 expedition, including that of Jon Krakaeur, whose take (Into Thin Air) I still can’t help but feel ought to have been the point of view supplied.

Unfortunately I can’t review a movie that doesn’t exist so here goes this. Kormákur inexplicably attracts one of the most impressive casts of the year — actually, it does make sense: he needed a talented group to elevate a dire script, people who could lend gravitas to dialogue kindergarten kids might have written — to flesh out this bird’s eye view on a disastrous weekend on the mountain. Everest is a story about many individual stories and experiences, of loss and failure resulting from decisions that were made in the name of achieving once-in-a-lifetime success. It plays out like a ‘Best of’ Everest, but really it’s a ‘worst of’ because what happened to the expeditions led by the Kiwi Rob Hall (Jason Clarke, standing out from the pack) and American go-getter Scott Fischer (Jake Gyllenhaal) was nothing short of tragic.

If the movie focuses on anyone or anything in particular it’s Clarke’s indomitable spirit, and I suppose in some morbid way that’s the most effective use of our time when witnessing a disaster that claimed multiple lives. Hall’s the most developed character, he was an expedition leader, he’s portrayed by the incredibly affable Clarke and his fate marks Everest‘s gut-wrenching emotional crux. Everyone remembers that heartbreaking radio call he made to his wife Jan Arnold (an emotional Keira Knightley) after being left alone high up on the mountain in the wake of the storm that turned the expedition’s descent into an all-out dog fight against the extreme elements. Quite likely it’s the bit that will end up defining Kormákur’s otherwise bland adventure epic. It’s what I’m remembering the most now a couple days after the fact and it’s a painful memory to say the least.

Everest may not work particularly well as a human drama — there are simply too many individuals, prominent ones, for the story to devote equal time to — but as a visual spectacle and a testament to the power of nature, crown the film a victor. The mountain has never looked better, and of course by ‘better’ I mean terrifying, menacing, a specter of suffering and voluntary torture. The Lhotse Face, the Khumbu icefall, the Hilary Step — all of the infamous challenges are present and accounted for. Memories of Krakaeur’s personal and physical struggle as he slowly ticked off these landmarks on his way to the top come flooding back. Along with them, the more nagging thoughts: why is a great actor like Michael Kelly sidelined with such a peripheral role here? Why is his role ever-so-subtly antagonistic? But then Salvatore Torino’s sweeping camerawork distracts once again, lifting us high into the Himalayas in a way only the literal interpretation of the visual medium can.

With the exception of a few obvious props and set pieces, Everest succeeds in putting us there on the mountain with these groups. While it’s not difficult to empathize with these climbers — Josh Brolin’s Beck Weathers being the most challenging initially — the hodgepodge of sources create a film that’s unfocused and underdeveloped. It all becomes a bit numbing, and unfortunately not the kind brought on by bone-chilling temperatures and hurricane-force winds.

Recommendation: Unfocused and too broad in scope, Everest means well in its attempts to bring one of the most notorious days on the mountain to the big screen but it unfortunately doesn’t gain much elevation beyond summarizing all of the accounts we’ve either read about or heard about on Discovery Channel and History Channel specials. The visuals are a real treat, though I have no idea why this whole 3D thing is being so forcefully recommended as of late. I watched it in regular format and had no issues of feeling immersed in the physical experience. I just wish I could have gotten more out of it psychologically.

Rated: PG-13

Running Time: 121 mins.

Quoted: “Human beings simply aren’t built to function at the cruising altitude of a 747.”

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Photo credits: http://www.impawards.com; http://www.imdb.com 

TBT: The Descent (2006)

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There is no shortage of horrors I could have/might have gone with here. But I decided to ultimately pick something a bit more. . .random out of the hat, as I think more obvious choices like Halloween, or Psycho, or even Friday the 13th would be a little more difficult to say something original about. I turned instead to a film that really, really gave me the heebie-jeebies on the first viewing. As someone who loves rock climbing, it’s pretty ironic that caving (or ‘spelunking,’ if you want to get technical) is terrifying to me. Much like people who are averse to scaling heights outdoors, dropping one’s self into dark, cramped spaces beneath the surface of the earth seems like such a bad idea. I wonder if that in any way might be related to my experience with 

Today’s food for thought: The Descent.

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Descending into chaos since: August 4, 2006

[DVD]

Few horrors have managed to consistently thrill me the way writer/director Neil Marshall’s impossibly claustrophobic tale of a cave-diving trip gone awry has. Time and again, the heady vibrations of the blood-soaked, tenebrous The Descent leave me exhausted come the end, and in a genre where first impressions are critical I find it unusual to exit a film on the tenth go-around in such a manner. It’s like watching it for the very first time again. . .and again.

I feed off of adrenaline, and certain installments offer a mainline shot of it. This chaotic and brutal journey into what might reasonably be described as hell has been like taking one to the carotid. For the uninitiated: a group of young outdoor enthusiasts reunite a year after a tragic car accident involving some of their friends and decide to get a secluded cabin in the backwoods of North Carolina. On their itinerary is an exploration of a massive cave system close by. Of course, things don’t go according to plan and they are left fighting for survival when they find living creatures inside the tunnels. What begins as a routine exploration ends in an epic battle for the surface when they realize the inhabitants don’t take kindly to visitors.

In a refreshing twist, the group’s presented as an all-female cast determined to not be pinned down by the horror tropes of yesterday. (Hooray for climbing/rappeling gear!) Juno (Natalie Mendoza), Sarah (Shauna Macdonald), Beth (Alex Reid), Sam (MyAnna Buring), Rebecca (Saskia Mulder) and the most recent addition to the group, Holly (Nora-Jane Noone), are all given sufficient, if not wholly original introductions. It’s not likely you’ll remember these names after watching but what’s more memorable is the tension between them even before the film dives into the deep end.

The Descent has been most successful in drawing upon the decay of its hopelessly confusing confines. The labyrinthine setting forever remains frighteningly unique — a character unto itself — and Marshall even took the time to stuff it full with plenty of gruesome surprises. (I’m left wondering how many films have been based upon the amazing Carlsbad Caverns?) The Descent has earned a reputation from the speed with which an innocent day trip transitions into a situation darker than the stuff of nightmares. Marshall is less concerned with the minutiae of spelunking in all its spectacular danger in the same way he’s not as bothered with bringing out award-worthy performances from his relatively unknown cast. What comes front-and-center in this wonderfully under-lit production is emotion, energy, a need to survive.

If this all sounds rather familiar, it should. Less familiar is the effectiveness of the atmosphere. You’d never guess this was filmed in the comforts of the Pinewood Studios near London. Or, you know. Maybe you might. You might’ve naturally assumed that filming within an actual cave is simply too dangerous and/or impractical to achieve the desired effect. (Or you could have been perusing Wikipedia, like I just was. . .) Either way, the bloodcurdling screams echoing off these walls have this tendency to trick the mind into thinking we are where we really aren’t. The lack of light, the pools of blood. The pickax and the neck. The crevasses. Interpersonal tensions resulting from last year’s car accident boiling over at the worst times. All of this adds up to a stressful experience that’s difficult to put into the back of one’s mind.

The Descent doesn’t exactly escape unscathed, as its gender-uniform cast at times struggles to reach the gravitas necessary to sell the moment. There are the usual jump-scares lurking around many a dripping stalactite that pass by rather forgettably. There are cringe-worthy lines sprinkled in here and there. Fortunately these issues constitute a small enough percentage of the run time to not overwhelm.

descent-1

3-5

Recommendation: There are many aspects to this spelunking expedition that are likely to turn many outdoors-oriented types away. Personally, I find the exhibition of passion for the outdoors often goofily exaggerated in films — not even Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours is immune — as if the industry feels it ought to confront those who don’t quite ‘get’ what it’s like to be an adventurous, outdoors type. But to get caught up in frivolous details like that is to overlook the pure adrenaline rush and psychological torment that the film provides. The Descent is taut, exciting, bloody and brutal and if those are the requirements you would list for a good horror, you should avoid this film no more.

Rated: R 

Running Time: 99 mins. 

TBTrivia: This film had a working title of ‘Chicks with Picks’ during production. That conjures up an entirely different image now, doesn’t it?

All content originally published and the reproduction elsewhere without the expressed written consent of the blog owner is prohibited.

Photo credits: http://www.imdb.com 

TBT: King Lines (2007)

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This Thursday afternoon I’m getting away from Hollywoodland. I’ve been finding myself in the climbing gym a little bit more these days, so let’s throw it back to one of the best climbing porn videos I’ve ever seen — King Lines. If you haven’t seen many climbing videos or videos of other similar outdoor activities, you’ll likely be unfamiliar with the term ‘climbing porn.’ It may be helpful to break this term down, since I’ll probably be going to it a lot in the following review: it’s any video that simply captures the sport at its best, be it due to incredible feats of athleticism, sheer artistic creativity, and/or the quality and exoticness of the locations featured throughout. Most of these acclaimed videos feature a good amount of all three, which truly makes otherwise unremarkable footage of people climbing (and sometimes falling, too) really worthwhile watching — hence the term of endearment. Climbers are known to throw such a term around with no hesitation as are kayakers, skiers, wake boarders. . . probably even motorized scooter-ers. In this case, we’ve got some incredible climbing on our hands as we take a look into the life of one of the sport’s premier performers, Chris Sharma.

Today’s food for thought: King Lines. 

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Released: March 1, 2007

[DVD]

Get ready to dive into a spectacular world of pastel colors and perfectly sculpted rock as we follow across the globe one of the most dominant athletes of his generation — Chris Sharma, the rock climbing prodigy from Santa Cruz, California — in his quest to discover the biggest and most obscure routes on the planet. The BigUps-produced documentary, filmed by accomplished directing partners Josh Lowell and Peter Mortimer, is a 70-minute adrenaline rush that combines exciting action with a compelling documentary-style story that nitpicks through some of Sharma’s most inspired and inspir-ING moments in his young professional career, and finds him continuing to make history in multiple aspects of the sport of climbing.

Some of the adventure’s highlights include the successful completion of an 80-plus-foot natural route up an isolated arch formation in the sea; his first attempts at sussing out a 200-foot sport climb (routes which don’t require placing gear in the rock, just clipping bolts every twenty or so feet) on a gigantic chunk of limestone in the desert; discovering new boulders to climb on a remote South American rock plateau; as well as a fascinating discovery of his personal life as he went from rock climber to rock star. Never before has a climber’s life been so analyzed in one film — and fortunately Lowell and Mortimer mix just the right amount of that material with some of the most visually arresting climbing moments you’re ever going to see. The journey takes us to paradises ranging from the gleaming cliffs of Mallorca, Spain; to the white crown of rock overlooking Céüse, France; to the unforgiving desert at the California-Nevada border; and even in for a quick stop at Chris’ old house in Cali.

It’s the moments of peace and quiet, the more intimate footage of the climber that sets King Lines apart from a majority of other fascinating climbing films. The focus on personal aspects of his life is effectively meshed with footage of Chris at his most iconic (you need to seriously hear this guy when he’s climbing something really difficult), giving us a well-rounded perspective that not a lot of other films really care for. Not that they need to, either. Most films exist to show a variety of different climbs, in the format of a compilation of several edited sections of climbs in different places, involving different people. But the intent behind Lowell’s new project was to offer something far closer to a biography and make the film have a much more theatrical appeal, an effort which really ends up paying dividends. Not only are the climbs that Sharma attempts magical and supremely difficult, they mean something because they are in relation to something more than just “the next climb” in the story.

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Sharma on the lower third of his still un-repeated climb, ‘Es Pontas’ on The Arch off the coast of Mallorca, 2007.

Sharma became fascinated with the sport of rock climbing at an (unsurprisingly) early age — around 12 or so, and was released from the hellish grips of high school before he completed it so he could tour globally with other athletes to compete and win big cash prizes. And he did just that from pretty much age 14 onwards. As the movie makes it clear (and although anyone who is really into climbing probably already knows this about him prior to King Lines) he’s been an unstoppable force ever since. While there are other climbers out there currently who may exhibit even stronger physical traits, perhaps no one has been so good for quite as long as Chris has. Time will tell on that. But few will be able to physically embody the sport quite like Sharma has either — even with all the positive and negative connotations that come with being a role model for rock climbing.

There’s no doubt that where Lowell and Mortimer catch Sharma is, being realistic, in an advanced stage in his career. With the film being shot in 2007, Sharma was entering his late 20s (26 at the time) and in the arena of anything athletic, approaching 30 is a significant milestone regarding one’s performance. However, it seems that he’s always going to be the type of dude who enjoys defying certain realities. He’s 32 now and still performing at a remarkably high level; in fact, he’s close to completing the hardest routes he’s ever done — which is synonymous with the highest degree of difficulty currently possible.

This half-documentary-half-adventure film provides plenty of examples of his physical dominance at ages both young and more matured. A teenaged-looking Chris removes an outer layer of clothing during the middle of a climb, a climb that turns out to be in the top tier of rock climbing difficulty at the time. Later in the film he sticks a gigantic move in a public competition in Barcelona using only one arm, and moves beyond it — a move that few (if any) previous climbers had been able to perform using both. King Lines showcases why he’s been the Michael Jordan of rock climbing for so long. A certain segment will show you just how “mainstream” the name ‘Chris Sharma’ had become at one point in American culture. It’s really quite fascinating.

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Sharma and company explore some surreal rock formations on an obscure South American elevated plateau

For a great many viewers of rock climbing porn, the greatest reward usually lies in the visual splendor and the Lowell-Mortimer team sure as hell does not disappoint here. For every location that is explored, the camerawork is nothing short of perfection. Crystal-clear high-def cameras zero in on the smallest of native insects and animals; they also capture some of the most stunning atmospheric phenomena and categorically define the locations that they’re in at any given time. The visual appeal is undoubtedly where the term “climbing porn” most easily applies, but for a film like this, it truly is how all three elements — the visuals, the editing creativity, and the story — combine and work together in the same direction.

As is typical for most films of this variety, there are multiple interviews with other key players in the game. The cast here includes the likes of famous climbers Boone Speed, Miquel Riera, Randy Leavitt, Dave Graham, Melissa LaCasse, Sam Whittaker, Ethan Pringle and the gym instructor Andy Puhvel who was among the first to discover Chris’ talents. Each interview is actually substantial and doesn’t feel awkward and obligated as a good number of these do in lower-budget versions of climbing porn. They also fit well into the overarching narrative, another trend that doesn’t usually work out that well in other climbing videos. It would seem that King Lines is the cream of the crop when it comes to watching climbing. Since its release, a host of other similar quality films have been pushed out to the young and unruly market, and while it may be a stretch to definitively say this one film inspired the style of more recent films and shorts, it wouldn’t be a stretch to at least think this would be possible. King Lines is as influential as any climbing video is likely to ever be.

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the 200-plus-foot route atop Clark Mtn at the California-Nevada border. Sharma completed the route in 2011, hesitant to give the route a grade since it’s unusually large. let’s just call it impossible, for all intents and purposes

4-5Recommendation: As obscure as a film like this is, King Lines could have made a strong bid for having an actual theater release. I would absolutely pay $20 to see this on an IMAX screen, by the way. It’s a climber fetish film, but it has more layers than just the simple joy of getting to see some quality rock being climbed and some cultures explored. At the heart of it is an intriguing story about one of the world’s top climbers and his personal journey to establish some of the world’s hardest climbs as well as some of the most beautiful. It’s a story that could satisfy on any level of engagement in the sport, even those who don’t do it (or even like it). This is a climbing film that cannot be called ‘boring.’ It might be even more basic than that: it’s a film that cannot even be really called a ‘climbing film.’ It’s a film about climbing, and the difference will be noted almost immediately by those who are frequent climbing film viewers.

Rated: NR

Running Time: 70 mins.

All content originally published and the reproduction elsewhere without the expressed written consent of the blog owner is prohibited. 

Photo credits: http://www.watchbest-sportsmovie.blogspot.com; http://www.extreme-vidz.com; http://www.grippingflicks.com; http://www.vimeo.com