Movies We've Just Watched discussion
Documentaries
>
Touching the Void
date
newest »
newest »
i always wanted to see this one. not sure why i didn't get around to it, apart from the usual who has enough time to see all the films they want...?thanks for reminding me of this one. i'll put it in the queue.
Tressa, great film! I just purchased the high-definition DVD from UK and want to watch again and write a review. Phillip, you're in for a real treat. This same director Kevin Macdonald made THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND which was very good too.
Phillip, I think you'll enjoy it. I've seen it about seven times. You can catch the entire doc on YouTube, but obviously it's not like watching it on a larger screen.I've been impatiently awaiting Joe's second documentary about Tony Kurtz and his crew's fatal Eiger attempt. It's on DVD in Europe but isn't available over here.
MacDonald said that Joe is such a great storyteller that they just set up the camera and let him do his thing. You'll be hooked from the moment Joe says, "We climbed 'cause it's fun. And mainly it was fun. That's all we ever did. And we were fairly anarchic and fairly irresponsible, and we didn't give a damn about anyone else or anything else, and we just wanted to climb the world. And it was fun. It was just brilliant fun. And every now and then it went wildly wrong. And then it wasn't."
I thought all three--Joe, Simon, and Richard--were excellent in the interviews.
Alex, did you watch the making of the movie? Some guy behind the camera asked Simon why he agreed to return to Siula Grande, and Simon was sort of flip but honest by answering that he signed a contract and was given some money and that was the reason he was there.
This wasn't good enough for MacDonald, so MacDonald took Simon in front of the camera again and tried to force some emotional revelation from Simon. Simon could barely contain his anger and said that Siula Grande was just one mountain he climbed in his career, and it's a small part of his life. This is why Simon refused to do much promoting of the film.
The trailer is one of my favorites: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t65VrY...
This is one of my favorite documentaries of all time. You know Simon Yates and Joe Simpson are going to come out of the ordeal alive, but it's still an engrossing fight for survival.
I've read all of Joe's books except his one fiction book. They're really engrossing and he's a good writer that is able to pull his reader into his adventures.