How Many Everest 1996 Tragedy Movies Do We Really Need?

Rating: 2/10 (21 September 2015)

Is anything in this movie a spoiler? haha. I will try not to put spoilers, just as in any review I write, but I wanted to be safe, for those born after '96 and who missed it on the news, etc.
I can't even count how many ways this was a horrid movie. Even the photography seemed very claustrophobic much of the time (most probably those were the studio scenes depicting the mountain). That style may have been intended to give some intimacy to the huge IMAX format but it just made it worse. To be fair, the real mtn shots were wonderful, but not near as good as David Breashears' IMAX footage during this same tragedy (but Breashears is a multi-decade mountaineering filmmaker), and shown in *his* movie about 1996 (and his others). I have seen 5-6 movies/docs about this, read 3 books, and have seen tons of media about this, so was this movie really necessary, considering ALL the stuff that is out there for people to source? At least one reviewer was right, that it was just another attempt to make money from this tragedy. What about the 2015 tragedy due to the earthquake? 19 people died this year on Everest, which is *more* than in 1996. I would have rather watched a movie about that.
At first, I thought this was Rob Hall's version of the story, or at least cobbled together from his teammates and clients. And I was very interested in that, at first, but it was vapid and at a the cost of barely any information or character development of the other major players. SO much was left out as to make this more fiction or "based on", rather than a real docudrama. It is a such recent history that "based on" isn't appropriate yet. Things like Sandy Hill Pitman's need to be carried up and down the mountain by Sherpas who had other vital jobs was omitted. Many priorities got mixed up on that tragic day, and this film omits many. I guess this is the jolly IMAX version rather than an honest accounting and tribute to the deceased. Beck Weathers never has sounded like an "Ugly Texan", so his lines and bravado about Texas were silly and offensive, esp as I was born in Texas. His character here, besides being largely a generalization, is an outdated one and any truth that is in it has largely passed into history by now. Weathers has always come across as a quiet, considered guy. The mtn may have sobered up his "Himalayan Mtn High", but he was hardly a brash young man, even then. His incredible story is almost completely fiction here, yet it became solid history within a couple months after the event. David Breashears was hardly anywhere to be found, the director of the IMAX film that was shooting during this expedition, which he stopped in the middle of, on peak filming days, to help with the rescue. This resulted in a financial loss and a truncated movie for him (but far better than this one), but he did the right thing. There are many interesting and suspenseful side stories, all of which came together to cause the tragedy, like the oxygen canister mix-up, but where were they.
All in all, even the TV movie, based on Jon Krakauer's wonderful book, "Into Thin Air", was much better than this, and they didn't climb up Everest to film it, you can be sure! Krakauer's and Breashears' (who has summited 5 times now)great mtn films and books just made this look silly. I have not read Anatoli Boukreev's book, who was also pivotal in the rescue, and no doubt has a different outlook than the Americans, but he also was basically ignored here, except for a couple nebulous mentions. Even the love story of Rob Hall and his wife was mostly left on the cutting room floor. What about Scott Fischer? All of these guys, besides Rob Hall, were barely mentioned. And the Sherpas got no credit, which is a crime, as without them, no white man (or any other color) would have likely summited Everest to this day (one co-summited the first summit), and they held the records for most summits until Breashears matched it with his 5th summit, last time I checked. Yes, I am irritated, as the build-up was so big, although I wasn't sure what more could be told. I should have taken my suspicions more to heart! My advice, if not completely obvious by now, is to watch and read the other material about this story and skip this awful movie. And if you liked it, all the more reason to delve into those.