Review of Everest 2015 Full Movie: Beautiful but heartbreaking the true story that happened two decades ago. I read about this horrific news of 8 people dying in a single expedition in Time magazine. So it was especially moving to watch this film fleshing out the characters involved. Rob Hall, characterized as that kind and hand-holding trekking leader made it impossible not to shed tears while watching the heart wrenching horrific conclusion. Commercialising trekking expedition such as scaling Mount Everest multiplies the risk of casualties many times more given many bottlenecks in the narrow treacherous path to the top and that there are narrow time windows of safe periods.
Human follies or selfishness such as fighting over scarce resources and noncooperation amongst folks jeopardize lives even more with more and more commercial companies set up to cash on 65k/person. Case in point is leaving oxygen tanks at certain depots or the scheduling appropriately and unselfishly to accommodate safe group sizes for time windows for the ascent. Watching this film brought memories of trekking Mount Shasta (4322m). Of course, this is only half as high as Mt Everest (8848m) but it was nevertheless no walk in the park.
The film and my Mt Shasta experience underlines the importance of preparation of both fitness and having the right equipment. For city slickers like me, my ill preparation for trekking in Mt Shasta only meant greater suffering and gratitude to good samaritans and fate for saving my skin. John Krakauer struck a chord with me when he questioned the group on their individual motives to embark on this insane mission or activity. Apart from Rob Hall and the Sherpas for mercenary reasons, most if not all did it to satisfy their egotism and narcissism. This movie just made me kinda sad. It's people chasing dreams, mostly making it, celebrating their accomplishments, and then dying in some of the most horrific ways possible.
I'm quite convinced that at a certain level of both money and accomplishment you basically hit a wall and need to create or buy your own drama in order to keep your life worthwhile. So there's definitely a degree of "why the fuck would you do this if you're a surgeon and your entire life depends on your hands oh look now you have frostbite on both hands wow that was idiotic." But at the same time on a human level I can understand the appeal of the challenge of it, and then I found the movie to be quite moving as far as the scene of everybody celebrating at the top. It's a shame life isn't like a video game and once you 'beat the game' you don't get to just slide down a fireman's poll back into reality or something.
This was shot strangely - it's half beautiful on-location (CGIed together) scenes, and a half really obviously fake studio shots. It's also hard to focus on any of the individuals as far as rooting or really deeply caring about them. For one there isn't the space or time in this film and second, it's hard to tell everybody apart in the hiking gear. I kept thinking "where are their face masks?" but a friend I was watching with pointed out that when you pay that much money to get specific actors you're gonna show their faces, hahaha.
The death scenes are really nauseatingly terrifying though. The concept of just being so out of it you trip and fall to your death is literally a nightmare. Dying from somebody else's mistake and/or being frozen to death are also about equally disturbing. So three stars because while this wasn't the greatest movie, it definitely hit me emotionally.
I Thought The Documentaries On This Gave A Better Insight Than This True-To-Life Tale Does. It Doesn't Do The Whole Entire Escapade Justice As It Focuses On The Emotive Story Rather Than Giving Insight Into The Facts & Figures. Obviously, It Cannot, Then It Would Be A Different Type Of Story Being Told, So That Said It Is What It Is, A Hollywood Glitzy Take On The In's-&-Out's Of Everest. The Filming On Location Certainly Helped & It Does Do What It Can In The Limited Time-frame To Follow The Individual Stories Of Several Climbers. The Excitement Of A Storm & Terror Of Death Eventually Has To Kick In..That's What It's All About Right? Clearly, The Message Here Is You Cannot 'Commercialize' Certain Places Of The Planet Without The Risks Being Managed Or Unmitigated. I Personally Think It Is Quite Foolish To Climb In Such Conditions, But Then, Why Else Would It Be So Exciting?? These Guys, In The End, Died Doing What They Love, But They Lost Out By Cutting Their Lives Short. Is It Worth It? ..You Decide.
Pretty good at all levels. The guys don't look like they freeze all that much most of the times but it was filmed near the location and on location. It looked filmed in the studio a few scenes though. A true story remains solid with this very good reenactment. Now think, there is more air, more moisture (obviously) and more heat on top of Mount Everest than on Mars. The Martian should have looked like these guys.
This was shot strangely - it's half beautiful on-location (CGIed together) scenes, and a half really obviously fake studio shots. It's also hard to focus on any of the individuals as far as rooting or really deeply caring about them. For one there isn't the space or time in this film and second, it's hard to tell everybody apart in the hiking gear. I kept thinking "where are their face masks?" but a friend I was watching with pointed out that when you pay that much money to get specific actors you're gonna show their faces, hahaha.
I Thought The Documentaries On This Gave A Better Insight Than This True-To-Life Tale Does. It Doesn't Do The Whole Entire Escapade Justice As It Focuses On The Emotive Story Rather Than Giving Insight Into The Facts & Figures. Obviously, It Cannot, Then It Would Be A Different Type Of Story Being Told, So That Said It Is What It Is, A Hollywood Glitzy Take On The In's-&-Out's Of Everest. The Filming On Location Certainly Helped & It Does Do What It Can In The Limited Time-frame To Follow The Individual Stories Of Several Climbers. The Excitement Of A Storm & Terror Of Death Eventually Has To Kick In..That's What It's All About Right? Clearly, The Message Here Is You Cannot 'Commercialize' Certain Places Of The Planet Without The Risks Being Managed Or Unmitigated. I Personally Think It Is Quite Foolish To Climb In Such Conditions, But Then, Why Else Would It Be So Exciting?? These Guys, In The End, Died Doing What They Love, But They Lost Out By Cutting Their Lives Short. Is It Worth It? ..You Decide.
Pretty good at all levels. The guys don't look like they freeze all that much most of the times but it was filmed near the location and on location. It looked filmed in the studio a few scenes though. A true story remains solid with this very good reenactment. Now think, there is more air, more moisture (obviously) and more heat on top of Mount Everest than on Mars. The Martian should have looked like these guys.
No comments:
Post a Comment