I think I hated climber documentary Free Solo, though a lot of that probably comes from my aversion to the current documentary trend of being in awe of climbers and their 'philosophies of life' in general (see
my post on Mountain for more ranting). I think if people love climbing documentaries they would probably respond a lot more positively, since there are a lot of spectacularly vertiginous shots here (though honestly I just kept thinking of the
opening of Star Trek V throughout the final sequence more than being particularly tense about what I was seeing!). But throughout I just felt a sense of pointlessness of actually climbing up a sheer rock face, especially in the wider shots of El Capitan which show easier looking routes to get to the top! Or why not hitch a ride with the camera crew in their helicopter if you just want to get to the summit, since that is quicker, less taxing and dangerous?
I know it is spectacularly missing the point about the challenge being more than the actual action of getting to the top itself but throughout the film everything is about just how impossible and dangerous such an action of free climbing is, to the extent of showing the toll on girlfriend and colleagues as they either send Alex off on his single minded quest and worry that this might have been the last time they would talk or watch him nervously from the ground as he climbs (though of course there is absolutely no tension to the film as a viewer, as we would not have the documentary if there had been an accident. The worst that could possibly have happened would have been Alex failing to reach the summit, that would lend the film a Cool Runnings 'better luck next time' vibe). Alex's single minded pursuit set against the strains put on those who love him makes him feel rather unsympathetic, especially in that moment of reading about the death of another climber which causes little introspection. Sure, Alex has always been open about his passion for climbing and everyone around him have known what they were getting into by knowing him, but at a certain point the drive to climb becomes less about pushing yourself as an individual against the elements (where compulsion to climb overrides safety concerns, and it is only you who is affected by any 'mistake' you make) and more about who you are in society as well and responsibilities to try not to traumatise other people by your behaviour as far as possible. Or at least recognise what you are doing to them by letting them enable you and then potentially feel guilt for having done so if you have an accident.
I mean I have issues with people travelling into warzones for journalistic stories too (especially if they are leaving families behind), but at least they are providing a more or less essential function that it could be argued is necessary to push onward into extreme environments to achieve! (With similar issues of 'mission creep' of going to ever more dangerous places because you are known for that, and it is what is now expected of you. And the dangerous sense that with experience you 'know what you are doing' more, when survival may be as much down to pure luck as growing competency!) I even think that climbing in fictional films are better than documentaries about the same, because at least Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible is doing so for some sort of goal of having to save the world!
I guess climbing is just not something that I will ever identify with as being worthwhile for its own sake. (though I actually found that
'climbing towers' free climbing video far more impactful, especially as it was being done for work purposes. The climb down actually seems that it would be even worse though!). I guess that I just wish people would put their energies to better use, or at least channel them somewhere less self destructive and think of their loved ones.
But for Alex the need to climb is a compulsive one, as suggested by the end of the film where he is back in training for another challenge, having overcome El Capitan earlier that morning. That seems to suggest that there is no stopping until he reaches the same fate as befell those given in memoriam credits at the end of the film. No end until the final one, when everyone can take a small comfort in saying that he died doing what he loved. Will this change if the couple have children? Perhaps that is the final test and perhaps the darker alternate meaning behind the film's title.
Filmically I had the usual modern documentary issues of over emphatic soundtrack underscoring the 'tension' of climbing and aggressively intimate camera shots abounding that felt rather as if they were trying to make a mountain out of a molehill.
But when I was more on the edge of my seat about which particular fridge the couple were going to buy for their kitchen in their new home and whether it would fit (with Alex poo-pooing larger fridges until loving the cheapest, most compact one as totally adequate for their needs. Perhaps it is telling that after that we never see him in the house but instead in the van, with its own en suite kitchen-bedroom, on location at El Capitan) than whether Alex would reach the next handhold or ledge on a piece of sheer rock, I think I may have been focused on different things than the filmmakers were intending!
(I should say I like Touching the Void, but that is more because it is about surviving and getting back to basecamp after having been reckless than celebrating recklessness itself!)
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(The existence of which seems entirely just for the Gogglebox crew to react to on their show!)