We all, in one way or another, are looking for boundaries. Of course as a kid we often go past boundaries set by our parents, but in life we also try new things to test ourselves. We want to see what we are willing to do, to face a challenge. How far someone goes with that is different for everyone. I never felt the need to tie a huge elastic band to my feet and jump of a bridge, but a lot of people need that shot of adrenaline and some go even further. Some don’t seem to realize that they are gambling with their life, because I don’t understand what motivates them. This was also the case for me with Everest.
Whenever a movie is made about mountainclimbers you can expect it not to be just a simple climb to the top and a nice walk back down. Not a lot of people would be willing to watch that. This movie is based on an expedition in 1995, which didn’t go as planned and where several climbers didn’t survive. With a star studded cast, including Jake Gyllenhaal, Jason Clarke, Josh Brolin, John Hawkes, Robin Wright, Emily Watson, Keira Knightley and Sam Worthington it is a visually beautiful movie, which simply didn’t manage to hit me emotionally.
The cause of that is, like I wrote at the start, that I simply can’t care much about a bunch of peopl who know in advance that a lot of people have already died in the past climbing Mount Everest. With that knowledge in the back of your mind you still decide to start climbing, purely so you’ll be able to say that you did it. They aren’t astronauts who do research in space in order to make life for others better. With an astronaut you can understand why he would risk his life stepping inside rocket. Not so much for these characters. When they finally end up in trouble I simply had a feeling of “you could have known this”.
If you are able to get past that, Everest does offer beautiful imagery. Part of the movie was actually shot near Everst (the rest in the south of Europe on a mountain) which gives it a very realistic feel. The actors are good, even though it is sometimes difficult to see through their heavy clothing to see who’s who. I’d rather had seen more of what happened after the expedition and how they deal with the feelings of having left others behind. A documentarry like Touching the Void did that in a fantastic way and had an emotional side to it that I missed here.
Realistic imagery and beautiful scenery. That’s about it. Otherwise, emotionally threadbare and lacking one decent character we can care about. A nice effort but ultimately, underwhelming. Nice review, my friend.
Thanks a lot Rodney, we seem to be on the same page here.