North Face (2010)

"Nordwand" is a German 2-hour film from 7 years ago. It takes place during the early years of the Nazi reign and basically shows us how a group of mountain climbers try to master a truly touch challenge. The (co-)writer and director here is Philipp Stölzl and I have seen some of his works. I liked "Goethe!" and I loved "The Physician", so I had some hopes for "Nordwand" as well. Unfortunately, they were not fulfilled. I am generally not the biggest fan of Benno Fürmann, but he was okay here. the acting is good in general and there are more famous names in here, such as Florian Lukas, Ulrich Tukur, Georg Friedrich, Martin Brambach (personal favorite) and, of course, Johanna Wokalek, who sort of plays the only significant female character in the film and also gives the best performance I guess. Quite a pity that, in recent years, she hardly acted in films.Anyway, the reason why I did not really enjoy this film was that adventure movies are not exactly my cup of tea. I liked the film for the historic references in the first half and it would have been great if this could have been a political movie and not entirely focused on the expedition. The more history, the better for me. The less climbing scenes, the better as well. Unfortunately, pretty much the entire second half/hour takes place in the Alps. The film is sometimes fairly graphic in terms of injuries and drama, especially towards the ending. People who like this kind of films more than I do and also enjoyed the recent Hollywood film "Everest" can check this out, but everybody else is not really missing much. Not recommended.

"North Face" is a really good movie which has to do with a competition of climbing the most dangerous rock face in the Alps. In this competition many countries took place with their best climbers and so Nazi did their best to succeed that as they urged the best Alpinists to climb the unclimbed north face of this mountain.If you are a climber or you like mountaineering then you have to see this movie because its the definition of the try of a climber to conquer the peak of a mountain. This feeling is one of the best feelings which a climber feels in such a moments, and this movie is full of that.Finally "North Face" is a really good movie which I strongly recommend it to you because it will make you feel a really different feelings and you will understand how hard is to succeed in such a competition.

This is one of the best mountaineering films -- up there with Touching the Void. It is artfully constructed, beginning with a lighthearted romp in the Alps by the two protagonist climbers and ending with the full menacing power of the Eiger pounding them as they fight for their lives. It evokes the terror of people off for an adventure and getting in way over their heads. The terrorizing scenes on the mountain contrast with the spectators below, who warm themselves by a cozy fire and drink wine and eat fine food, dimly aware of what the mountaineers are going through, yet caught up in the romance of a first ascent of the North Face, as seen through a telescope on the deck of the restaurant. The movie is a meditation on the role of the press and the chasm between the news account of an event and the reality of the event itself. News reports are as detached from the reality of what is occurring on the mountain as the spectators with their telescopes down below.The climbing seems authentic -- there is no Sylvester Stallone swinging by one hand with a grimace on his face, no Tom Cruise doing a fancy back-to-the-wall climbing move never before seen on a rock wall. These are either very competent mountaineers or very good facsimiles.The female love interest evolves through the movie. At first she is a mousy secretary, easily bullied by her supervisors. Eventually she finds her own strength, and in doing so she begins acting on the basis of what she thinks is important and becomes an appealing person in her own right. The photography is stunning.

There are spoilers in this review.Extreme sports can often lead to tragedies, so surely one of the rules is to take every possible precaution against disaster. These four climbers in one of the most famous and dreadful tragedies of Alpine climbing made a number of basic errors, but their desperation to be the first to make this dangerous climb drove them to continue regardless.I read Heinrich Harrer's famous book "The White Spider" many years ago. The moment I saw this movie in the library, I thought, I wonder.. and then I saw the name Toni Kurz and I knew it was that nightmare climb.I've stayed in Grindelwald to ski, and passed Klein Scheidegg on the train and seen the infamous North Face. It's a lovely, peaceful place, seemingly, when the sun's out and the snow glistening as when we saw it. But as every skier knows, the weather can change very quickly and become a hell. Such is the situation these climbers, already in difficulties due to their mistakes as well, found themselves in.This story isn't just about the climbers, but about people who would go to the village just to see people attempt this infamous climb in which a number had already died and the ghoulishness of some of the media is depicted strongly - the media doesn't want an easy win in any endeavour, easy winners are boring to the media, it wants drama and change.Setting out one early morning, the first couple found when some way up that their crampons were missing. Later, after two groups of two were more or less climbing together, the last climber up removed the traverse rope that might later have saved their lives - he said, we won't be going down, the idea is to go up. One of the second couple had been badly injured on the head by a rock fall but couldn't be persuaded to descend, so greatly did he want to do this climb, so he put all the others at risk. But for him, it's possibly they might have succeeded and they should have forced him to descend, but I suppose they all felt they'd want to continue if in his place.It was a race to be the first to do this climb and others were camped below ready to try so every time there was a serious problem they still continued upward. Further up, when they were in some trouble and the weather had turned to a storm and the injured man was becoming a serious liability, Kurz lost a glove and it seems had no spares, or none left perhaps. If Kurz's hands hadn't been near-useless with frostbite by the time the rescue team was near and all he, the sole survivor by now, needed to do was come down on a rope, he might have reached safety. Instead, his hands couldn't help him and the rescuers couldn't reach him. Such are the mistakes that are made due to that spirit of wanting to win overcoming being careful. But at the same time, isn't it human nature that we don't want to go back? All the time I was watching this movie, I was remembering the book, so thank goodness I knew just how harrowing it was going to be. You are up there on that face, you are experiencing what it really was like. A nightmare.Uplifting and tragic and such a waste of four young lives.The Swiss rescue team who eventually set out to help had to wait for the weather to clear somewhat. As they said, some of them dying wouldn't help anyone, but I can imagine someone not local wanting to say, how selfish of them. Not so. They live there, they know their mountains, and they can despair of visitors who don't really appreciate all the dangers and put local lives at risk trying to save them.This is as much a warning as a wonderful movie.