Touching the Void

Directed by Kevin Macdonald

Ascending in limited venues 1/23/2004

3.5 *

It is only January and rising up from amidst the cinematic muck and mire of the various Torques, Pets, and Pollys is a movie so harrowing and awe-inspiring that one doubts that its rival will be seen over the year’s remaining eleven months. More amazingly, the story told in Touching the Void is true.

If you had seen this story depicted in a fiction film, it would be dismissed as unbelievable. In 1985, friends Joe Simpson and Simon Yates were in Peru and decided to ascend the west face of Siula Grande. Though only 21,000 feet, the sheer ice wall of the western face had never been successfully climbed to that time (or since), so the pair set off with the thought of making history. After successfully gaining the summit and preparing for a descent down the supposedly safer northern side, Simpson fell and severely broke his leg (the force of his fall actually drove the lower leg up through the knee joint into the femur). Normally in a situation like this, the climber would be left behind and would eventually starve or succumb to the elements. But despite suffering from frostbite and exhaustion himself, Simon began lowering the all-but-incapacitated Joe down the mountain 300 feet at a time (their two longest ropes tied together) in a system of lowering Joe, securing him, climbing down, securing himself, and repeating the process.

Descending nearly 3,000 feet in this manner, Joe slipped over a cliff edge and began to pull Simon over the same cliff with both about to fall to presumed deaths. Unable to pull him back or secure the rope, Simon had to finally make the dreadful choice of cutting their rope, dropping Joe into a crevasse, and making his way back to the base camp. But amazingly, Joe arises from his frozen grave and stalks his murderer only to encounter him at movie’s end and suck his brains out.

Okay, that last part is from another movie, but it would have been more believable than Joe Simpson (on a broken and destroyed leg) extricating himself from the crevasse, sliding and crawling his way down the mountain, over a glacier, and finally over rock-strewn foothills to finally be rescued by those who thought him dead and were about to abandon camp. After six operations, Joe survives to write the book Touching the Void and even to climb again.

Although much of the story is retold by the principles and augmented by still photographs that survived the expedition, much of the movie (and all of the most impressive footage) is recreated with actors/stunt personnel recreating Joe and Simon’s climb–albeit with modern equipment rather than the ‘80s vintage stuff used originally. The movie tells not only Joe’s amazing story of survival under harsh circumstances and daunting problems, but also that of Simon’s heroism in getting him off the peak.

Now, although an Academy Award (or any award) will not do much for the bottom line of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, an Oscar for a documentary might mean the difference between whether or not a movie ever sees the light of your local theatre’s projector (director Kevin Macdonald would know since his One Day in September won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature for 1999). Back in 1988, the most acclaimed “documentary” of the year was Errol Morris’ The Thin Blue Line, but despite overwhelming praise, the Motion Picture Academy’s documentary branch said that due to its recreated footage, it would be ineligible. Errol Morris made the point at the time (as does Touching the Void now) that the academy should get rid of the Best Documentary Oscar and give out an award for “best non-fiction film.”

This story is not just stranger than fiction, it is more inspiring.

–Bill Henry

Related Reading:

60 Great Horror Movie Posters (Illustrated History of Movies Through Posters, Volume 19)

Film History: An Introduction

Looking at Movies: An Introduction to Film, Second Edition ( Set with DVD)

Japanese Movie Posters: Yakuza, Monster, Pink, and Horror

Film Posters of the 50s: The Essential Movies of the Decade