Touching the Void (2003)

It starts out as a typical climbing movie, where a couple of ambitious occidental climbers take on one of mother's nature jewels. It quickly turns into a story of strength, endurance and human condition.The way Joe and Simon tell the story will immediately make you feel humbled, they are honest, compassionate and will let into their most character building experience. Both their souls can be seen through their eyes when they talk, trying to tell us what was like to be 25, strong, ambitious and how much different they are now.You will feel claustrophobic, empathetic and will understand why mountaineering gives you brothers for life.

As someone who is into high altitude hiking i can definitely relate to the dangers and loneliness of the mountains.Stories like this prove once again that real life is the greatest drama. This is exactly why movies do not always need to be entirely scripted for it to have an interesting story.This movie is not just about mountaineering, it gives us a better look at the human mind. Most of us have been there, a crossroad where we must decide to either keep going forward, or wait it out until everything goes completely dark.This is not just about climbing mountains, it is about life and the importance of going forward, however dire the situation becomes.In a way, climbing is the struggle of life. For me, that is why i enjoy the mountains. It makes me understand life better. I highly recommend this movie, even if you just want to see human drama. One of the best i have seen so far.

This highly-praised documentary from Scottish director Kevin Macdonald (THE LAST KING OF Scotland 2006, 8/10, STATE OF PLAY 2009, 6/10), spunkily tackles the most inconceivable survival story in the mountaineering history, narrated by Joe Simpson and Simon Yates in propria persona of their perilous conquest to the west face of Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes in 1985, while faithfully re-enacts what had happened during the lengthy 168 hours. It is such an incredible and telling story which could eclipses Danny Boyle's 127 HOURS (2010, 8/10), Joe's destiny is as much indebted to his heaven-sent luck as his professional surviving skills and the tenacious willpower of staying alive. The talking-ahead forthrightness from Joe and Simon delineates their adventure in detailed nuance, carefully selected words without any bells and whistles, instantly brings audiences to the locale, we are fairly certain it is a mission impossible to do the copy-cat climbing and abseiling since it is unimaginable to transport a team of crew to accomplish such a chimera, still team Macdonald exerts formidable effort to show us what kind of beast Siula Grande is, a reverential task has been adroitly done and salute to the cameramen, two actors (Mackey and Aaron) and stunts. The natural immenseness, the icy whiteness and the fearsome precipices are soul-engulfing, and the forlornness is overpowering even we all know they all outlive the unthinkable misadventure (I keep imagining in the end of the film, Macdonald would show us a frontal shot of Joe with one leg only or a prosthetic leg). Myself is never an extreme-sports advocate, putting one's own life in jeopardy to pursue some kind of spiritual catharsis or mental orgasm (maybe physically as well) has never been on my agenda, notwithstanding which, the film fortuitously excels its reassuring ode of human strength and reaches a soul-searching incisiveness for every viewer to reflect on our regards of nature and life. When curiosity being satisfied, the film still imprints its indelible mark on the ectoplasm level, great work indeed! The film's 106 minutes running time seems rather short to me, when Joe finally reunites with Simon, the film also soon ends with succinct captions indicating their later life, which inevitably makes me wonder what is their rumination of that accident after the heaven-or-hell experience, I wish the film would be a bit longer to tap into that aspect, it would render us some revelation on a more humanized surface, then it would be an impeccable documentary feature for me. But anyway the film is the new entry of my top 10 BEST PICTURE in 2003, bravo!

Touching the Void (2003)There are exactly three characters in this movie, and one amazing, almost unbelievable event. The three young men appear both as themselves, in interview form, and as characters, played by three actors who do all the actual action in the film.It's non-fiction, or "based on fact," even though it's all re-enactment. The truth is in the story, the scenes of climbing and falling and freezing and barely surviving are all made to illustrate that story. And the experience is uncanny, disturbing, exhilarating, and mind-blowing. The experience, that is, of vicariously reliving their experience. This, in essence is the film.You wouldn't think it would hold up, two hours of this. The two main climbers even tell you right at the start, by their presence in front of the camera, that they survived. So there is no wondering who died. But that's all good. What we see is not only what did actually happen so that they did not die, but also how it affected them, and how they have come to tell the story, which is not at all ordinary. Their candor, their almost chipper recounting of very horrible facts, is exciting to watch.This won't be everyone's cup of tea. I watched it the same night as "North Face," a more recent and well done story of climbers in 1936, based on facts. That movie was fictionalized, and dramatized, in a normal sense. It had no documentary edge, really. It was more beautiful and more engrossing, perhaps, but it wasn't nearly as chilling. This, "Touching the Void," finds a way to get into your bones and make you questions some very important stuff about morality, death, endurance. Both movies make clear how horrible it is to have things to wrong on a high alpine peak. The cold, the physical stress, and eventually the realization that you aren't likely to make it are in both movies. Very intense all around. And "Touching the Void" does find a special place in how the story is told, with the voiceovers of the survivors as they are apparently falling or freezing to death.