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Actually what's so hyperbolic about K2? I can think of the following things, but they are pretty mild:

1) The appearance of a rock climb in Squamish being below a big snow couloir (false).
2) The appearance of vertical water ice climbing on the flanks of K2 (I don't know, but I doubt this makes much sense).

There were no explosions or jumps across cliffs with ice tools. The accident scene was pretty realistic and believable.

K2 is actually a darn good movie, and I don't like seeing it lumped in with "Vertical Limit," a truly horrible film. Yes, it has a 1980s "cheese" factor, but the Eiger Sanction has a similar dollop of 1970s cheese.

Oh yeah, THE MOUNTAIN with Spencer Tracy, truly great. Nordwand was awesome too.

vancouver islander wrote:For an authentic movie about mountainering that doesn't involve superman-like antics a la "K2" that just gives the public the wrong idea of our sport, try "Five Days One Summer"
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083947/.

I believe you're thinking of "vertical limit," which was atrocious. K2, although the acting or script wasn't always the best, was actually a pretty good mountaineering movie without too many obvious problems, and I can't think of any "superman-like antics."

Cliffhanger and Vertical Limit are the real cream of the crop for me. K2 wasn't terrible, but on my mountaineering movie scale of 1 to 10, where Touching the void and Nordwand are both score 10, Vertical Limit is off the bottom of the scale and Cliffhanger is a 2, K2 would be a 5, maybe a 4.

Nordwand and Touching the Void are by far the best to me. I've got a half dozen of the usual 'Everest' dvds out of which my favorite by far is 'The conquest of Everest'.....the original.

Last week on tv there was a docu called 'Passion Des Cimes' following Catherine Destivelle, it was really something. Here's a taster
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwqNroSCOdA

barrys wrote:Cliffhanger and Vertical Limit are the real cream of the crop for me. K2 wasn't terrible, but on my mountaineering movie scale of 1 to 10, where Touching the void and Nordwand are both score 10, Vertical Limit is off the bottom of the scale and Cliffhanger is a 2, K2 would be a 5, maybe a 4.
...

As long as by "cream of the crop" you mean "bottom of the scale", I agree with your rating. That's all I'm sayin'...K2 does deserve a 5 anyway.

On second thought I would put Cliffhanger at 3...it does have some amazing Italian Dolomite scenery (which they try to pass off as "the Rockies" )

Moving Over Stone is one of my favorites that hasn't been mentioned:

http://www.movingoverstone.com/films-detail.php?id=4

vancouver islander wrote:

Pablohoney wrote:Just watched a movie called Everest (2007) about the '82 Canadian expedition to everest with cameos from Jason Priestley and William Shatner...top notch......for a climbing movie with Jason Prisetley and William Shatner...not to miss.

This is perhaps the most embarrasingly awful movie about climbing ever made. I particularly enjoyed the sequence of the single yak carrying everyone's equipment up to base camp. It was loaded, if I remember, with 2 boxes. Now that's what I call light and fast. The rest was similar low-budget stuff since most of the money was spent in bringing Shatner in for his cameo in the pub in Kathmandu and anything left over went on paying his bar bill there.

HAHAHA, that's why you gotta watch the movie, you can't hate a climbing movie with William Shatner in it ... speaking of which... that is his second climbing movie...anyone remember the opening scene of one of the startrek movies where he's free soloing El Cap...top notch!!!

A while back found "Cerro Torre: Schrei aus Steinwith" with Donald Sutherland in it in a movie shop in Europe, premise is a competition between an Alpinist and a Sport climber trying to be the first person to climb Cerro Torre, as with them all it was rediculous, but worth a watch.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102855/[/i]

Damn I need to find K2 on DVD.

Chewbacca wrote:"E'Lollipop" - a kids movie from South Africa. It's filmed in Lesotho (Drakensberg range). Not a climbing movie, more an outdoors movie taking place in the mountains of my childhood. I guess it contributed to my interest in travelling to "mystical" mountain ranges far off the tourist track and also interacting on equal terms with the locals. Haven't seen it since I was 8-9 years old.

Weird...

I think I was probably even younger than you the last time I saw that movie. Even though I barely remember any details, I vividly remember the impact it made on me. Probably more so than just about any other movie I've seen in my life.

Edit: Just saw you can buy it on DVD now... might have to buy a copy just for the scenery.

Cy Kaicener wrote:The one I enjoyed the most was THE MOUNTAIN with Spencer Tracy and Robert Wagner

+1

Vertical Limit, Cliffhanger, and The Eiger Sanction are entertaining but The Mountain is a real classic. No producer has been able to match quality of the story line or technical accuracy of The Mountain.

I really enjoyed a movie titled "The Climb" . It's a Canadian film (1986) which features Bruce Greenwood as Herman Buhl in his climb of Nanga Parbat in 1953.

http://brucegreenwoodfans.com/mov-tv/climb/index.html

SpiderSavage wrote:My fav: The Eiger Sanction, Clint Eastwood, 1975
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072926/

When I was a kid I was impressed by the climbing scene in James Bond: For Your Eyes Only. For years I thought prussicking should be done with shoe-lace sized cords.

I've climbed with a guide that used cords about that size (4mm) for prussiks. Grips really well on iced-up skinny ropes.

Had to go find this with all the talk here lately, again William Shatner+Climbing=Great


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlxzpWjM5Q8

White Hell of Pitz Palu. Silent movie from the 20's. Classic! One of the first mountain movies.

HandjamMasterC wrote:

The Mountain is a real classic. No producer has been able to match quality of the story line or technical accuracy of The Mountain.

You are kidding, right? I love the scene where Spencer Tracy pulls Robert Wagner right up to him while Wagner is hanging on a rope. The only thing more " technically accurate " is Andre The Giant pulling himself and 3 other people straight up on a rope ( in Princess Bride )!!

Ha!

Another good one was Eastwood giving George Kennedy a body belay from the top of the Totem Pole.