Nanga Parbat (2010)

"Nanga Parbat" is a German movie from 5 years ago that runs for 100 minutes and was directed by Joseph Vilsmaier, a filmmaker for many decades already. It deals with the Messner Brothers climbing the mountain in the title and is based on real events. I am fairly certain that most Germans over the age of 20 still know today who Reinhold Messner is, even if he is already in his 70s now. And most are probably also vaguely aware of his most heartbreaking expedition, the one during which he lost his brother. And that is the one this film is about. I am probably a bit biased here. First of all, I never found Messner likable and second of all, I never understood the concept of faster, further, higher and you probably have to in order to understand Messner's efforts or a appreciate a movie that centers around him. Death certainly was an option and I cannot see why anybody would risk his life for this one, especially as it does nothing good to other people. Yes it may have to do with personal goals, but still, in this context I do not understand why this would be a personal goal for anybody.Florian Stetter does a decent job as the lead actor, but I found Markovics almost as memorable. He is good as usual and always fun to watch. Like I said before, the climbing scenes did nothing for me. The snow-covered mountains may have been a good watch, but in terms of the story or the drama I did not really care. Also the brother relationship was not elaborated on convincingly in my opinion and this may have been the only aspect that could have saved the movie for me. So yeah, I thought this would become a disappointment, but still gave it a chance. It came as I expected, mostly because the topic is fairly unappealing to me. If you like these kind of movies, check out the (in my opinion) equally underwhelming "Nordwand" after watching "Nanga Parbat". Seems to be a trend to use the mountains names for these films. Anyway, I do not recommend the watch. Maybe the best aspect is still the music as it comes from 2-time Academy Award winner Gustavo Santaolalla ("Brokeback Mountain", "Babel").

This is the real story of the ascension of one of the 8000m Himalayan peaks by Reinhold Messner (perhaps the greatest climbers of all times, and most certainly one of the very, very few that make it alive to an older age) and his brother.For those not familiar, the Nanga Parbat peak is considered perhaps the most dangerous 8000m peak of all, because the risk of avalanches is particularly high here.The mountain scenes are almost good, there is real footage of the Nanga Parbat peak, local mountain scenes are not particularly realistic, but not too bad.What is good in this movie, and something I couldn't figure by the Reinhold's book on the subject, is the pain they went through. They had little food, no climbing gear, and especially no warm clothes with them. Equipped this way, they had to bivouac (basically to sit down on the snow and try to sleep without any protection from the cold or blowing snow) two nights, above 6500m. That is terrible, terrible hard to endure. The scenes when they bivouac are hard to look at, because we image what it must have been. I had a few nights of sleep in cold but not freezing temperatures and it's awful, I cannot image what those guys went through. Looking at the film now, I think it shows what kind of a person Reinhold is, this must be the reason he survived through all his altitude climbs, he must be a very rare type of person with an extremely tough and enduring type of organism.This movie also remembers me about the first climber to summit the Nanga Parbat peak, Hermann Buhl, who also had to bivouac near the summit in a standing position for a whole night before the descent.Finally, this is not just a mountaineering film, as the climbing scenes began only at half of the projection.

Much has been speculated about the authenticity of "Nanga Parbat": critics complained that the film is solely based on the memories of Reinhold Messner, which often conflict with the memories of other participants of that fateful 1970 expedition.But, apart from the authenticity question, the film optically leaves little to be desired: snow and ice covered mountains, filmed breathtaking and flawless (some viewers even say, there was too little of the landscape photography). Indeed, Joseph Vilsmeier ("Bergkristall") knows how to impressively film nature and rigid landscapes. Never known as brilliant film-maker, Vilsmeier knows how to routinely produce quick, cheap and efficient films-for-TV director and knows how to handle his landscape-photography.The weakest link among the actors is actor Karl Markovics, or rather his portrayal of expedition leader Karl Maria Herligkoffer: whether the portrayal is accurate (Messner had been fighting many bitter legal battles until Herligkoffers death in 1991) or fictional (which many expedition members claim), I cannot tell. But Markovics, known to German/Austrian TV-viewers as "Inspector Stockinger" plays the role like it was a caricature of 'The Fuehrer': a man stuck firmly in the 1930's ethos, throwing "blood and honour" speeches; you'd almost expect him to wear a brown uniform and give a Sieg Heil-salute any minute. Only later, once Messner and his brother have started their fateful journey, do we see some humanity but by that time we've already identified the character Herligkoffer as some leftover fascist.In contrast stands the figure of Florian Stetters Reinhold Messner who, at the beginning of the movie, faces his "nemesis" Herligkoffer like a Christ-like figure; marked by his Nanga Parbat experience and walking on crutches, yet dignified, righteous, victorious even. Yes, Reinhold Messner is primarily known for his expeditions and only secondarily for his larger than life ego. Alas (for both Messner and the audience), Stetter isn't the actor to carry a movie – especially not a movie about a larger than life figure like Messner. His performance reeks of television routine, rattling down his lines, leaving the audience to wonder why they should cheer for such protagonist. Same goes for Andreas Tobias (playing Messners doomed brother Guenther), who had appeared in a number of TV-series and production prior to "Nanga Parbat" and nothing much since. Well, perhaps acting isn't meant for everybody.What's left are some beautiful filmed mountain climbs – especially during the first part of the film; beware: if you're not comfortable with great heights, this movie might not be for you – and an often riveting mountaineer-drama. Drama because if you're looking for an authentic documentations of the actual events, you might be disappointed. If authenticity is what you're looking for, watch 2007's "To The Limit".I'd give the film generous 6 points from 10.

I have a limited understanding of this film so am writing this review only because there were no other reviews yet. My understanding is limited because I do not speak German and apparently there has been no release of this film with English subtitles, or at least I could not find one (I did find some English subtitles on the internet but they were both badly out of synch and a mashed Google translation from Russian!). Hence, some of the dialog was rather lost on me and very likely some of the drama as well.I primarily viewed this film not for the story but in the hopes of spectacular mountain scenery and spectacular mountain climbing sequences. There was some of this, but not nearly enough for my tastes, or I would have given the film a higher rating. A better film (also German but available with English subtitles) is North Face (Nordwand, IMDb #tt0844457) which is both very dramatic and has very spectacular mountain climbing sequences (although I still wanted more there as well).To my mind, the best parts of the film took place in Pakistan and in the Pakistani Himalayan foothills. Very nice and interesting photography, and I gleaned from the credits that it was actually filmed there. I love seeing exotic locales like that, which I am unlikely to see otherwise, and I found the film worth my time just for that. I would watch it again if I could find a version with good English subtitles.