Review of Everest (2015) by Dawdlingpoet — 22 Nov 2021

This is an action/adventure film, with themes covered including mountain climbing, blizzards, expedition and survival. I quite liked the start of the film, which gives a good background to the impending situation, introducing us to the various characters, their travels in preparation of the Everest climb. The pace was neither especially fast nor achingly slow to start with, although I suppose if you tend to be impatient for the more extreme situations to be portrayed early on then you may find it a bit slow due to the depiction of the general backstory to the expedition but regardless, I didn't find it entirely boring or dull. I liked that we were given glimpses in to one of the climbers family, making us feel more attached to them, hence there's a good amount of characterisation.

There were some really good landscape shots featured at times, with some impressive ariel photography capturing the rough and bleak terrain the expedition group faced, so I liked the cinematography. I'd say that this film very much focusses on the human aspect of adventure explorers, the vulnerabilities and consequences of chasing after such a lofty goal as to climb such an inhospitable place. I suppose its inevitable that any such survival/disaster oriented film would focus on this but I felt that this film was particularly highlighting the humanity aspects, the day to day issues and challenges any person, or people, endeavoring such a task would face.

Cast wise, the main character Rob Hall is played by Jason Clarke. He seems quite sprightly and optimistic, if a little apprehensive about their ultimate goal, though trying not to show it. Meanwhile, John Hawkes plays Doug Hansen, Martin Henderson plays Andy 'Harold' Harris and Simon Harrison, who plays Tim Madsen. Perhaps more well known members include Emily Watson, who plays Helen Wilton, Keira Knightley as Jan Hall, Robs other half back at home, Hosh Brolen as Beck Weathers and Jake Gyllenhaal as Scott Fischer. I found myself very much rooting for the various members of the expedition. The only performance that I felt really stood out to me was Emily Watson as Helen, who is quite a motherly type figure, helping to run the base camp and keeping in touch with those who have ventured further, higher up the mountain. You could really see the worry and concern she had for members of the expedition and her determination to keep them in touch with their loved ones etc. Content wise, the film features quite a strong sense of threat and peril, mostly from just before half way through the film (close to 50 minutes or so after the film starts (as I say, it does have a fairly long start up/build up but it isn't uninteresting never the less) and could be particularly frightening towards the end, due to the depictions of people suffering from various bodily/health conditions, the toll such a journey has had on all involved. There are scenes which include an element of violence, although its mostly violence in terms of mother nature inflicting on those fighting through their conditions, rather than, say, violence perpetuated from one person to another. Inevitably, the film deals with the concept of death and survival, which some viewers may find a bit dark and grim but otherwise, there's little obvious to mention or warn of - there's barely any strong language present. There are ocassional scenes featuring characters taking or injecting drugs but these are for legitimate (medical) reasons. The film has been given a 12 rating to reflect this.

I found myself quite gripped towards the end of the film, when anything could happen and I found myself quite emotionally attached to various people, for various reasons. I felt my heart go out to Robs wife, Jan, worrying due to lack of contact and the people running the very important base camp, who are all, in one way or another, at the mercy of mother nature, as much as the carious expedition members are. I won't provide any potential spoilers - if you really want to know what happened, then I imagine you can find out the information online elsewhere but I found the film really quite tense and engrossing towards the end and I think it wouldn't necessarily have had that impact, or certainly not to the same extent, had it not been for the moderately slow build up at the start of the film.

Yes. I thought this was a good film, with some impressive cinematography and a good amount of characterisation, it kept me watching and knowing that its based on a true story made it all the more interesting to me. Its, inevitably a bit grim at times but for the most part its a worthy watch.