Saw this in SF 2 nights ago & enjoyed it. It had all the ingredients for a classic mountaineering documentary/adventure flick:
* Mt. Everest
* the conquest of a big Asian mountain by a colonial superpower
* archival footage of what was so close to being a 1st ascent
* handsome Western heroes ready to make the (modern) conquest
* friendly & obedient native porters
* a modern-day, psuedo parallel story line that didn't quite do what was originally proposed (oh well)
* Mandatory summit hug
* obligatory 2-minute tribute to ex-partner Alex Lowe (necessary to draw parallels between Anker & Mallory)
Some observations I made whilst watching:
Early on, Brit rockstar Leo Houlding is shown casually soloing some sick roof route in the Peak District (looked like at least 5.11 to me, whatever that is over there- E9 VHDS, or whatever
). This leads one to naturally presume that he's going to be the one dispatching the 2nd step. Not so fast, though. When they get there, Houlding gets cock-blocked American style as big mountain veteran Anker makes him his belay bitch & sends it ('I know you're a badass, kid, but I'm the MAN around here...'). It seemed to me that during this time Houlding's brake hand was a bit sleepy ('I'd be delighted to belay, along with an extra side of penalty slack.'). This in turn was returned as Anker belayed Houlding up.
A theme was emphasized early on about how the modern protagonists would be attempting the climb with Mallory-era equipment. There was a good shot of them crossing a glacier with their funny glasses, pants, leather boots, cotton rope, etc. When they were up ready to send the 2nd step, though, these items had mysteriously been replaced by puffy orange North Face & red Berghaus gear, wraparound sunglasses, etc. Afterwards, in the post-climb interviews, Houlding suggests with a straight face that it would have definitely been possible for Mallory/Irvine to free the 2nd step (as they had just done). This after professional climbers (mind you Mallory was a complete badass, but a
school teacher nevertheless!!) pull it off with modern boots, harnesses, ropes, & (here's the clincher) cams. That's a good one!
Early on, Anker walks into the dining room in his vintage climbing clothing & asks "Well, what do you think? Am I going to summit Everest in these, or is it a Halloween costume?" Apparently it was the latter. It was never explained what happened to the ill-fated idea... As a result, this portion of the film felt a bit contrived, trying to do the parallel story line, then having it vanish without an explanation. Props to the boys, though, for doing it without sucking Os.
I think that I enjoyed most the insight into Mallory & Irving's lives before & outside of the mountain. It really made them seem like real people, & more than just 2 names attached to the Big E. Mallory's connection to his wife, & struggle with choosing either her or the mountain, was well presented.
Overall grade: B