Touching the Void

Monday, January 7, 2008

So, over break I had Netflixed Last Tango in Paris as something to watch with my girlfriend, who is a big Marlon Brando fan. Well, Sunday comes and goes and now she's back at school and we never got around to it. So I pop it on last night, a little disappointed that I'm watching it without Shenan. But you know, I figure fuck it, let's call this the movie that kicks off Dan's Official 2008 Kommitment to Klassiks.

But then about 45 minutes into it, the disc froze and then kept skipping over 10 minutes of the film, and I couldn't get it to work. So, that's a disappointment on top of another disappointment. However, me again being a glass is half full type, I figure this delaying of the early start of the 2008 K2K was for the best, as it still gives me a chance for my original plan: the 2008 Binge Before Purging Krapfest. I plan to watch Jade and Ecks Vs. Sever and maybe something else as a sort of Fat Tuesday of shitty movies before committing myself to watching a greater percentage of high class stuff.



OK, well, that was a lot of digression before I even started the real post. Touching the Void was a thoughtful gift given to me by my cousin Evan for Christmas of 2006, which I graciously and considerately did not even open the plastic wrap on the DVD case until last night. Oops. I kept meaning to watch it, but I just kept getting new shit, or being too busy, etc etc until I completely forgot I owned it. Then a week or so ago, I remembered.

This is a good documentary by default, because the story is just so damned interesting. It's about a dude who breaks his leg during a very dangerous, snow-stormy mountain climb, tries to fight his way back with his buddy but the buddy ends up having to cut the line when he starts pulling them both off a cliff, he falls off the cliff, lives, lands in some weird ice cave, can't crawl up out of it, risks climbing further into it, finds his way out, then continues to climb down the mountain while bleeding to death and slowly loosing his mind. And he lived to co-narrate the movie. Damn.
The movie itself was a mixed bag. I'm not sure how I felt about the way it combined interview footage of the actual folks involved with re-enacted footage. I mean, I appreciate this visual aspect to a degree, how it shows you what the mountain looks like, their tools, yada yada yada. But then some of the acting, particularly when things get intense, doesn't really hold up. Plus, it's weird to see the actual dudes tell some horrifying part of the story, then cut to some actor fellow who doesn't really look like them pretend to be going through their agony. And also I think the director goes a little overboard with the style on some of these scenes, especially his use of the Darren Aronofsky/Snorricam shots. The story is intense enough on it's own, I don't think we really need these camera tricks to up the empathy level.

Still, it's a interesting story, and grueling. Not just physically what this guy goes through, but mentally as well. There's a part where he recounts that at one point he was convinced that his friends had found him, and were walking with him down the mountain, and they were just hiding. He had peed himself, and he was convinced that they just didn't want to embarrass him. Then, he finally faces up to reality and accepts that they aren't there, and it of course completely crushes him. That is some sad, sad shit right there.

Anyway, thanks Evan.