I went to see the movie last night, and I was wondering if anyone else had seen it. I’d been looking forward to seeing it, because I’d seen the trailers before some other movies, and the trailer looked exciting, and the movie has several actors I like, including Jason Clarke, Jake Gyllenhaal, Emily Watson, and John Hawkes.
I was hesitant to see it at first because it’s only in 3D IMAX, and I usually don’t want to pay extra for 3D, but seeing it on the big IMAX screen was worth it. It looked gorgeous.
It was pretty well done in setting things up, and showing some of the preparations that go into making the climb, and keeping things tense to the end. But there were some things I wish had been gotten more into. Like there’s a scene where Jon Krakauer asks some of the other climbers why they do it, when it costs so much time and money and relationships, but they mostly blow him off, and say the famous “because it’s there” line. Doug Hansen answers that it’s to inspire his kids, and the other kids at their school, and show that an ordinary person with a dream can do anything.
Then OPEN SPOILERS FOR REAL LIFE EVENTS FROM 20 YEARS AGO Hansen does make it to the summit, but by only going up after it was safe to do so, and after his guide Rob Hall said he shouldn’t. And then he died coming back down. Of course he could have still died if he had turned around earlier and not tried for the summit, but he would have had a much better chance. And Hall and another guide Andy Harris would have had a better chance, since they were where they were because of Hansen.
I’m not trying to speak ill of the dead, and of course hindsight is 20/20. But I couldn’t help but think what did Hansen’s kids think about his attempt. And what did the other kids at the school think. Especially because he said that the kids helped raise money for his expedition.
And I read one review saying that too much time of the movie was spent with the people not on the mountain, seeing Keira Knightley crying hoping her husband would come back. But I couldn’t help but be curious what Jan Arnold, Rob Hall’s wife thought. He says earlier that she’s a climber too, so she understands, but that seems easier to think before something terrible has happened.
And Beck Weathers, the brash Texan makes it down alive, but ends up losing his nose and hands. Did he think it was worth it, or did he regret trying? He says earlier that the only time he doesn’t feel a cloud of depression is on the mountain, so how does he feel now?
The movie can only be so long, so it focused on only certain things, and I realize the limitations. But I wish it could have been something more. I’ve watched movies and read books where people face terrible disasters, and have to fight to survive and not everyone makes it out alive, and it’s tense and exciting to watch the action stuff and I understand that. But for a lot of disaster stories, it’s unpredictable disasters, where people were going about their normal day and something terrible happened, like in the movie The Impossible, or the book Lost in Shangri-La. While the storms were unpredictable on Everest, something like one in four people who reach the summit do die. This wasn’t unpredictable disaster, it was disaster that they danced along side of. Not because they needed to, but because they wanted to reach the top of Everest. I think it would have been interesting to go into that a little more.
I know it’s based on a real life event and that there are several books written about it, I might read one of them now. Into Thin Air is of course the biggest one, but I know there are several others.