Gripping and moving account

Rating: Null/10 (26 September 2015)

On a holiday in Nepal, I made two early morning attempts to fly over Mount Everest but, on each occasion, I reached no further than Kathmandu airport before the flight was cancelled due to averse weather over the mountains. So I need no convincing that climbing Everest is immensely hazardous, not just because of the terrain and height but because of the temperamental climate. In any event, I had already seen the 1998 IMAX film of the same name which depicts the same true events of 10-11 May 1996 when a record eight climbers were killed after a ferocious storm caught them near the summit.
This version of the disaster - which I saw in 3D - was shot by Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur with the scenes on the lower slopes of Everest being shot on location and the replication of Camps 1-4 being filmed in the Dolomites in Italy. So the film looks authentic with great cinematography and some effective makeup and prosthetics, so the viewer is absolutely part of the action. The problem is that, with so many characters, so much body and facial clothing, and such appalling conditions, it is not always clear who we are looking at and what is happening.
If there is a central character, it is New Zealander Rob Hall (played by Australian Jason Clarke) who led an adventure group who faced crisis on the South Face, but this is a movie with some big-name actors - notably Jake Gyllenhaal and Josh Brolin - effectively in support roles. Perhaps necessarily, since the action is on the mountain, the wives at home have very small roles in spite of being portrayed by fine actresses (Keira Knightley sporting a Kiwi accent and Robin Wright). In the case of both the 1998 IMAX film and this new feature, for me the satellite call between Rob Hall and his pregnant wife Jan was simply heart-breaking.
Note: For 14 years, the events depicted in this film represented a record death toll on Everest. Yet, during the actual shooting of the work in Nepal in April 2014, a worst disaster occurred when an avalanche killed 16 people. Most of them were Nepalese Sherpas though, rather than Western climbers, so it is unlikely that we will ever see a feature film about their loss.