The Beckoning Silence

The Beckoning Silence is based on Joe Simpson’s book of the same name. It is shot as a documentary including interviews with Joe, as he talks about his influences and what made him start climbing. His main influence is the tragic and compelling story of Toni Kurz and Andreas Hinterstoisser as they tried to be the first people to successfully scale the North Face of the Eiger (their story is brilliantly told in the film Nordwand). The Beckoning Silence features four climbers acting out the drama of Toni, Andreas and the two Austrian climbers also involved; this is interspersed with Joe climbing on the Eiger at some of the crucial points of the fateful climb in 1936.

The film is very well made; there are some stunning shots of the Swiss Alps, and it is quite authentic as director Louise Osmond shot as much as possible on the Eiger. Joe is as engaging in front of the camera as he is when he writes. Understandably the focus of the film is the story of Toni Kurz et al, whereas the book is far more about Joe’s thoughts on climbing: he talks about how he has lost some of the drive to carry on climbing now that many of his friends have died pursuing the same goals that he once did. This still does come across in the film, just to a lesser extent.

It would be interesting to know what Joe thought of the film Nordwand, because The Beckoning Silence actually came out the year before. This is a great, short film (only 75 min) telling a truly tragic tale. Made even more tragic as Toni died on his fifth day on the mountain; and this guy climbed it in just under 2 hours 50 min!



And this record has just been broken by 20 min!!!

Touching the Void

In 1985 two young British friends, Joe Simpson and Simon Yates, travelled to a remote corner of Peru. Ambitious mountaineers, their aim was to conquer the unclimbed West Face of a notorious 21,000 ft peak - "Siula Grande". Their story has become part of mountaineering legend.

Based on Joe Simpson's book Touching the void, and featuring interviews with Joe, Simon, and acquaintance Richard Hawking, this film is somewhere in between a documentary and film. For those who don't the story (and I really can't stress enough how much you should read the book); Joe and Simon set out to climb Siula Grande, a remote mountain in the Peruvian Andes; it would be a challenging climb, but nothing the two couldn't handle. They had met a fellow traveller in Lima a few days earlier (Richard Hawking), and as they needed someone to look after the tents while they were climbing, Joe and Simon asked if he would like to come along.

The climb was difficult but Joe and Simon managed to summit on the second day out from the camp. On the decent, Joe was climbing down when one of his ice-axes came out and he fell badly (not that far), and broke his leg, driving his lower leg up through his knee and splitting the cap! Still at about 6000 metres, Joe assumed that he was dead, there was no way he could get down the mountain. However, Simon began to lower Joe in 300 metre stretches (that's the amount of rope they could use), Joe could then secure himself to the mountain so that Simon could climb down to him and then repeat the process.

However, when Joe was lowered over an overhang he wasn't able to reach the mountain side to secure himself; Simon therefore was left higher up not knowing what was happening. Eventually Simon cuts the rope, and Joe plunges into a crevasse. What follows is an extraordinary feat of human survival. Joe not only survives the fall, but manages to crawl/hop/hallucinate his way back to camp. Simon and Richard both assumed that Joe is dead and cannot believe he has made it back. By cutting the rope Simon saved both of their lives; if he hadn't, Joe would have died of exposure hanging in mid air and eventually his body would have dragged Simon of the mountain.

That brief synopsis really doesn't do the story justice. It really is an incredible story that defies belief. It is really brought to life by director Kevin Macdonald and the way in which  he blends the interviews with Joe, Simon and Richard with the footage of actors on Siula Grande and some amazing photography of the Peruvian Andes. Joe and Simon are both very engaging (though Simon does remind me of Wallace a lot!) and really help the viewer empathise with the situation, resulting in a very powerful film. I recommend seeing this film, now! Read the book too, it's truly amazing; true stories are always more incredible than any novel.

127 Hours

Aron Ralston's story of having to hack his own arm off after he became trapped in the Utah Canyonlands was presumably very well known, even before the great Danny Boyle got hold of the story to make into a film. The plot doesn't really need that much explaining, but I must stress that my view is based on the film, as I haven't read Aron's book "Between a Rock and a Hard Place" yet.

Essentially, Aron went away for a weekend to go mountain biking, hiking and climbing in Canyonlands in Utah. After having spent an afternoon with two girls he met while hiking they head off their way and Aron continues on his way to a big "Drop-off", where a smaller canyon opens out into a much larger canyon.  However, as he quickly descends into a narrow gorge he slips, dislodges a large rock which, when he lands on the canyon floor, traps his right hand against the canyon wall. Aron is stuck, completely isolated, low on food and water and unable to free his hand. So after 5 soul-searching days (127 hours in fact) of trying one way or another to shift the rock, he finally amputates his own arm so that he can get home.

The majority of the film is just Aron (James Franco), in a canyon, experiencing various emotions from disbelief, through anger, frustration, despair, desperation, and finally determination. Wow! James Franco is fantastic. There isn't a minute when you don't believe that he is there experiencing all of this. I thought the film-making was also phenomenal to make this story so gripping (a man stuck in a hole for 5 days!), and I don't think there was a single camera angle that Danny Boyle didn't use!

The story was well spaced out with flashbacks of family, past girlfriend, and how he feels he has let people down; perhaps that's too strong but certainly the impression is that he feels he has not given those close to him the love that he can give. Finally it is the thought of his family, and the desire to start his own family that cements in his head that he must amputate himself to get out of there. I think I have heard of some people feeling very sick and grossed-out by the amputation scene. Maybe I've seen too much horror, but I thought is was subtly done, far worse for me was before he fell into the canyon knowing that something awful was going to happen. Much like Touching the Void.

The other very similar part to Touching the Void was Aron getting the music to Scooby Doo in his head! This is because the girls he had met on the first day had mentioned that they were throwing a party that night and there would be a huge inflatable Scooby Doo there. So part of the delirium Aron experience was having the Scooby Doo music going round and round his head. Very much like Joe Simpson thinking he was going to die to "Brown Girl in the Ring" by Boney M!

Anyway, I thought the film was great, brilliantly made, a great example of how filming one man in isolation can still be gripping. I've heard great things about Buried as well, and if it's half as good as this is, it must be a good film.