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Download, Watch online Touching the Void Movie.
| Genres: | AdventureDramaSp |
| Starring: | Nicholas Aaron, Brendan Mackey, Richard Hawking, Joe Simpson, Simon Yates, Ollie Ryall |
| Director(s): | Kevin Macdonald |
| Available Quality: | DivX, DVD, iPod, Hi Def, Hi Def |
| Country: | UK |
| Year: | 2003 |
| IMDB Rating: | 8 |
In the mid-80s two young climbers attempted to reach the summit of Siula Grande in Peru a feat that had previously been attempted but never achieved. With an extra man looking after base camp, Simon and Joe set off to scale the mount in one long push over several days. The peak is reached, however on the descent Joe falls and breaks his leg. Despite what it means, the two continue with Simon letting Joe out on a rope for 300 meters, then descending to join him and so on. However when Joe goes out over an overhang with no way of climbing back up, Simon makes the decision to cut the rope. Joe falls into a crevice and Simon, assuming him dead, continues back down. Joe however survives the fall and was lucky to hit a ledge in the crevice. This is the story of how he got back down.
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Touching the Void (iPod) | Resolution: 480x272 px | Total Size: 255 Mb |
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Touching the Void (Hi Def) | Resolution: 852x480 px | Total Size: 602 Mb |
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Touching the Void (Hi Def) | Resolution: 1920x1080 px | Total Size: 8129 Mb |
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Touching the Void (DVD) | Resolution: 1024x576 px | Total Size: 2098 Mb |
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Touching the Void (DivX) | Resolution: 720x416 px | Total Size: 1000 Mb |
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Movie Photos: We have taken some photos of "Touching the Void". They represent actual movie quality.
Visitor Reviews: (20)
davidhaile 13 May 2012
Zero action and weird editing make this a difficult movie to sit through
I read and loved the book. It is a gripping story of perseverance.I could not watch this whole movie. Seconds turn to minutes then beforelong a couple of hours are gone and you'll start thinking that youshould have spent the time fixing the dishwasher or washing the dog.Each climbing scene takes a couple of minutes then it is off to another"personal account" interview with the actual people who the story isabout. It switches back and forth very regularly and it eventuallydrove me crazy and I had to leave the room. My wife wouldn't let mefast forward through the boring parts. She liked the movie. I washoping for some dancing girls or car chase scenes to liven things up.My score is raised a little more than the above description might leadyou to think because the mountain scenes with the actors are filmedreally well. I could easily imagine myself there with the climbers. Itwas very realistic. I guess it is hard to squeeze 15 minutes of contentinto a 2 hour movie so I shouldn't be so hard on them.If you know the story then the prolonged agony portrayed by the actorsdoesn't create any suspense like it might if you didn't know theoutcome. The key word is "prolonged" which pretty much describes it.Read the book. Forget about the movie.Daddy Dave Fort Collins, CO
12 May 2012
Great Show
This review is from: Touching the Void (DVD) I would recommed this show to anyone. The only part I didnt like is where he says the F word about 20 times in a row.
06 May 2012
incredible film, incredible story, incredible dvd extras
Directed by Kevin MacDonald, this film relates the harrowing experiences of two young British climbers who, in 1985, attempted to climb Peru's Siula Grande, a mountain that had already defeated other climbing teams. After a difficult ascent, the two found real trouble as they attempted to return to their base when Joe Simpson broke his leg. When Simon Yates was later criticized for his actions during the climb, Simpson wrote a book to defend his friend and set the record straight, even dedicating the book to his colleague. Narrated by Yates and Simpson and intercut with reenactments on Siula Grande by actors, this documentary/drama is exciting and gripping. DVD extras are also exceptional: a 23-minute making-of featurette; a 25-minute, Return to Siula Grande; the 10-minute What Happened Next?; and a trailer. The film can be heard in English and subtitled in English or Spanish. Higly recommended.
Roland E. Zwick 05 May 2012
amazing docudrama
You'll be lucky if you have any cuticles left by the time you've finishedwatching `Touching the Void,' a nail-biting documentary that chronicles atrue-life tale of miraculous survival. In 1985, two experienced mountainclimbers, Simon Yates and Joe Simpson, set out to scale a peak in thePeruvian Andes. Although they successfully reached the summit, disasterstruck as they were making their way back down. In the midst of a blindingblizzard, Joe slipped and broke his leg. The film, based on the book by JoeSimpson himself, recounts the grueling ordeal both men underwent in theirefforts to make it back to their base camp alive.To fully dramatize the experience, director Kevin MacDonald filmedone-on-one interviews with the two survivors (as well as a third companionwho didn't go up the mountain with them) commenting and reflecting on theevent, then employed actors to reenact the event as it originally happened. MacDonald has done an astonishing job capturing the edge-of-the-seatsuspense inherent in the material, this despite the fact that we alreadyknow how it will all turn out. By plunging us directly into the heart of theaction, we feel we are enduring every death-defying, heartbreaking momentright along with Joe and Simon. `Touching the Void' is, if nothing else, atour-de-force of breathtaking cinematography and stunt work, one that makesus identify with the characters every step of the way.Yet, for all its technical expertise, `Touching the Void' is, first andforemost, a human document, a testament to the endurance and survivabilityof both the human body and the human spirit. The amazing determination andperseverance demonstrated by the two men - especially by the then25-year-old Joe as he struggles manfully, despite unendurable pain, to reacha place of safety - is inspiring even to those of us who do most of ouradventuring from the comfort and safety of our living room armchair, a coldbeer in hand. The film also reveals, through their actions and their wordstwenty some years later, the character of the two men. Simon has to livewith the fact that, at a crucial moment in the crisis, he cut Joe loose fromhis line, consigning his partner to probable death so that he himself couldsurvive  an action for which many fellow mountaineers later criticizedSimon. Yet, never once  either then or now  does Joe join in thatcriticism. On the psychological level, we learn of the cavalcade ofemotions and feelings Joe underwent in those moments of greatest desperationwhen he looked impending death square in the face. This film is as much anadventure of the mind as it is of the body. Paradoxically, at the same timeas the film is showing us the indomitableness of the human spirit, it isreminding us how much we humans  even the most daring among us  are,ultimately, at the mercy of a far greater, impersonal and indifferent forceknown as Nature.Thanks to the compelling, stranger-than-fiction quality of the tale and thetechnical brilliance used to re-create it, `Touching the Void' will have youchewing your fingernails down to a nub.
trvpup 27 April 2012
eye-opening
Even for those who cannot understand why anyone would attempt to risktheir life to climb a peak that most will never even know about, thisfilm is a true eye-opener. It will show you the part of climbing thatmany amateurs such as I will only read about..and now, through dramaticreenactments as described by the survivors, see in this film. Thebeauty of the mountain is juxtaposed in tense dramatic fashion by thetwo climbers struggle to survive. In pitting human against nature, itwill force the viewer to confront themselves with the fundamentalprinciple of American culture--the morality of self-interested,rational behavior. As the law prof reviewer suggested, you may comeaway from this film with a different outlook on "acceptable" behaviorin an ethical sense.
26 April 2012
HARROWING, HORRIFYING AND HEROIC
I was not prepared for the heart-stopping, intensity of TOUCHING THE VOID (MGM). This documentary-like reconstruction of a harrowing 1985 true-climbing incident on the previously unconquered Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes by British climbers Joe Simpson and Simon Yates (who also narrate) is ideal for the armchair adventurer dad. The photography is stupendous, but the astounding story of courage and the staggering will to survive is unforgettable.
sol- 25 April 2012
My brief review of the film
A rather unique documentary, the film is a prime example of blurbetween fiction and documentary that is starting to come about thesedays. The film is done as a series of interviewers with the climbers,however the interviews are woven in with re-enactment footage of theirexperience. This gives an intense and very involving quality to theproduction, because one is able to visualise just what exactly they aretalking about. The cinematography of the re-enactment is superb,gritting at times, and other times picturesque, showing the vast sizeas well as the isolation from life of the mountain. All-round it is afine film technically though, with some rather good sound mixing andediting too. The music for the film is effectively chosen, and it isonly a few minor things that prevent the film from being a masterpiece.Firstly, the actors in the re-enactment look nothing like the realpeople, which makes it quite confusing at times. Secondly, the reasonsfor wanting to climb are never presented in full, which makes it feelat times that the whole thing was the fault of their own silliness.Thirdly, the past and present relationships of the characters are neverlooked into, and this would have made it a tad more interesting. Still,it manages to cover a lot of ground as it is, and it is a sensationalexperience like hardly any documentary that I've seen. Certainly, it isat least one of the best films of 2003. On a point of interest, it madethe Academy short-list for Best Documentary Feature, but lost out on anomination due to the controversy over just how much of it was really adocumentary.
25 April 2012
Where's the void?
This review is from: Touching the Void (DVD) I know, when you reach the top of the mountain, well, there isn't much other than void above, but what about within? This movie is great! It deals with human emotion and will and fortitude and effort and... Most other films and even documentaries about mountain-climbing deal merely with the facts, whereas this one deals more with how it feels to climb. The visuals are wonderful, the commentary throughout the film/documentary is interesting and thoughtful, and the action seems real because it is. I can't recommend this movie higher.
22 April 2012
Gripping Documentary: Survival in the Frozen Peruvian Andes
Up in the high mountains, you don't get hurt; you just die. If you break your leg while climbing the frozen mountain in the Peruvian Andes, that means you are dead. And if that happens to your partner, all you can do is to leave him there and pray for him. That is precisely what happened to Joe Simpson and Simon Yates. 'Touching the Void' is a documentary film about this harrowing incident that happened in 1985, and the two principal mountain climbers recount their seven days in Peru. The film is based on the book written by Joe Simpson, whose experiences are most astonishing. Though the film is called a documentary, director Kevin MacDonald decided to use a quite unique method of shooting. The film is made with the interview footages with Yates and Simpson, and the re-enactment scenes shot in the real location in Peru and the Alps. No soundstage shots are used, and you can easily discern that fact.Though the story itself is very exciting, it is the descriptions of the psychology of the two climbers that is really haunting. With burnt skin and dehydrated body, you cannot think normally. When you hear music (I mean, in you mind), it's not a hymn, or classic music, not even a rap. It's Boney M. How terrible, and realistic.But only one thing I didn't like. The two climbers are in the re-enactment part are played by professsional actors Brendan Mackey and Nicholas Aaron, both of whom did very good job. I think that their effective acting is convincing enough to justify the less inclusion of the frequent interviews with the real Simpson and Yates.In 'Vertical Limit' (which I didn't hate watching) characters die instantly; here, if you ever die, you die slowly, alone, imaginging many things. And even if you survive, you still have to survive your memory. 'Touching the void' is most authentic when it tells you the truths about the mountains.
21 April 2012
SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST...
This film, based upon the international best seller of the same name, recounts an amazing tale of courage, fortitude, and the will to live, despite dire circumstances. About twenty or so years ago, British mountaineers Joe Simpson and his then climbing partner, Simon Yates, attempted to ascend a perilous section of the Peruvian Andes, Suila Grande, a majestic 21,000 foot peak that was nearly inaccessible. These two intrepid climbers tackled the mountain alpine style and, surprisingly, reached the summit, the first mountaineers to do so. After reaching the summit, however, tragedy struck on their descent, when Joe, up over 19,000 feet, fell and hit a slope at the base of a cliff, breaking his right leg and rupturing his right knee. Beneath him was a seemingly endless fall to the bottom. When Simon reached him, they both knew that the chances for getting Joe off the mountain were virtually non-existent. Yet, Simon Yates fashioned a daring plan to do just that. For the next few hours, they worked in tandem through a snowstorm, and managed a risky, yet effective, way of trying to lower Joe down the mountain. Several thousand feet down, Joe, who was roped to Simon, dropped off an edge and found himself now free hanging in space, about six feet away from an ice wall, unable to reach it with his axe. The edge was over hung above him and the dark outline of a yawning crevasse lay directly below him. Joe could not get up, and Simon could not get down. In fact, Joe's weight began to pull Simon off the mountain. So, Simon was finally forced to do the only thing he could do under the circumstances. He cut the rope, believing that he was consigning his friend to certain death. Therein lies the tale. It is at this point in the film that the real story begins. What happens next is sure to make one believe in miracles. This is an absorbing, beautifully shot film. The story is told in a sort of unique docu-drama style, with actors re-enacting moments in this fantastic, true life tale of survival, while Joe Simpson and Simon Yates narrate what happened on that mountain. It is an absorbing piece of cinema, as it presents a somewhat novel and fresh way of telling this amazing survival story. The cinematography is magnificent, as the film is shot in the Peruvian Andes, where the incident occurred. Moreover, Joe Simpson and Simon Yates do the actual climbing scenes in the film. All armchair climbers will thrill to the sound of their crampons and axes digging into the ice. My only suggestion is that one read the book before viewing the film.
16 April 2012
Beyond the Beyond
Picture HellPicture hell with your minds eye. Then picture yourself placed squarely within the depths of the devil's lair. Imagine the worst fear you have ever felt and couple this with the most painful experience you've ever been privy to.Multiply that by 1000 and you still don't have an estimation of what the men in this story went through!The ExtremesJoey Simpson and Simon Yates are the only men to ever successfully climb Mt. Siula Grande. Their feat has never been repeated. While watching this movie I realized why this is so. The terrain they chose to traverse is so hostile towards anything human that one wonders how they could even conceive to undertake the challenge.2 men, minimal supplies, no backup, no support, no GPS tracking, no modern technology. This is how they chose to tackle the mountain. They did this in what seems to me, a bold and stoic stance in front of God while shouting: Here I am, I am ready to vindicate my existence!This, in my mind, is the greatest vindication of one's existence: To go against nature with no hope of survival, to stare certain death in the face, to encounter madness and still survive to tell the story.PuristsThe first 15 minutes of the movie is all about how they make it up the mountain. They chose to use the single push Alpine style of mountain climbing. In this style one does not scout the mountain and set up various camps and supply points throughout the proposed route. In this style, you carry all your supplies in your backpack and, in one powerful push, you climb up and down the mountain. It is, to quote Joe, the purest form of mountain climbing.Saving My BrotherThe descent, during which 80% of mountain climbing accidents occur, proved more perilous than the ascent. It is during the descent that Joe slipped and got injured, a fate which, under such conditions, is indicative of certain death for both climbers. The impact of his fall was so great as to almost split his leg in half!It is here that Sam proved to be an exceptional human being. Instead of abandoning his colleague, as he was expected to, he attempts to get his partner to safety by lowering him down in 300 foot drops using a lengthy rope.The situation quickly deteriorates and one accident follows another. Not only do they run out of gas and therefore water, but they also run out of any other supplies. At that point, the worst possible accident happens and Joe falls over a cliff edge and into a chasm.The transformationGreat adversity often causes a change in a man. This psycho-emotional change is often marked by dramatic physical changes (as I've described before).Sam assumes that his colleague is dead and cuts the rope that joins them. When he does make it to the basecamp, their travel mate notes the following: You wouldn't recognize him.... He didn't look human....In the meantime, Joe undergoes a trip to the very nadir of depression and back to the zenith of superhumanity. He gives up trying to climb out of the crevasse. He gives up waiting for benevolent help. He decides to do the impossible: He descends into the bottomless crevasse. This is the self same crevasse that he described thus: ....I tried to use my torch to look into the crevasse. It went down forever.... The darkness just completely swallowed the light...When he eventually does make it out of the crevasse he finds that he has an entire glacier to traverse. The situation is exacerbate by the powder snow which completely covers the tracks left by his companion. He suffers from severe dehydration. The glacier is marked by snow patches that cover crevasses. One false step and you are guaranteed a certain and swift death.The Guardian Angel Within4 days later, crawling along on one leg, he makes it to the moraine which is covered with boulders. Every hop he makes there after results in him falling and injuring himself on the boulders. Yet, somehow, he makes it across and to the basecamp. Here's how he describes it: ...I set goals.. I decided to make it to the next boulder in 20 minutes.... It became obsessive...If I made it in less than 20 minutes I was overjoyed....If I took longer I would get mad at myself...Later, he starts going mad. He hears voices and the pain becomes excruciating. He finds comfort in the warmth of wetting himself. He loses all human dignity. Even then, he talks of the calm, unfeeling, hard voice of infinity that urges him on; ...The voice would tell me to get up.."No time to rest, no time to nurse the pain".... The voice wasn't mine...My mind would just observe and take everything in... The voice would force me to move...I Rescued MyselfEventually, he makes it to the basecamp. He shouts Sam's name continuously. When their travel mate hears it he thinks the following: ...I could hear Joe's voice call out to Sam.... But that couldn't be because Joe was dead...And if he wasn't then whatever was out there could not be human...Having gone through what he had gone through, the creature that was out there could not be Joe, It couldn't be humanSummaryChallenging death in such a manner is the ultimate vindication of one's existence. To face God and come out a victor and an equal is the ultimate proof that we are made in his image. There's no luck involved in this ordeal. There is only heart.Touching the Void is an excellent, priceless and timeless story. I urge everyone to read the book and watch the movie. It is guaranteed to leave tears in your eyes.I'm going to buy both the book and the DVD. You should too. Trust me, it's worth it.
16 April 2012
Simpson's Void
"Touching the Void" is indeed a remarkable story of survival. Joe Simpson's ordeal is vividly recaptured by director Kevin McDonald. McDonald's rather straightforward style, with the real Joe Simpson and Simon Yates recounting their harrowing experience climbing, and then descending, the beautiful but brutal, Suila Grande, in the Peruvian Andes, works well here. If there is hole in this story, and I think there is, it's in Simpson himself. He's one cold fish, so it's hard to work up a real measure of empathy. You half expect him to quote Nietzsche at some point. No doubt he would tell you this bleak attitude toward life and death is what kept him going. Maybe, but you get the sense that this heroic effort is being told by a mechanical man - and he was that way before Simpson cut the rope. The only time I really felt for Simpson, was when he fell into delirium, and was plagued with memories of a bad song. It's only then that his control slips, and seems human at last.
12 April 2012
Some considerations to keep in mind!
This review is from: Touching the Void (DVD) First of all, this is one of those rare productions where some 'Hollywood' version of true events [** you know, the old Hollywood classic of "for the sake of the script, viewer interest and so-termed 'creative license' ...] doesn't tinker with the facts or where countless Hollywood hawked "taken from true events" winds up taking a beating and pure 'fiction' enters the script forthwith! See my K2 review and the additional problem of some folks seeing a 'movie' and suddenly transpose the movie and sometimes even its 'fictional' characters and conjured plot to literal 'fact' [!] simply because they never researched the actual events any further than the Silver Screen representation of same! In this film production , while professional actors duly play Joe Simpson and Simon Yates, the 'real' Simpson and Yates comment on the film as the film progresses. I don't mean some viewer option 'commentary' DVD machine turn on/turn off kind of thing, I mean the actual 'visuals' of the real Joe Simpson and Simon Yates commenting throughout the film itself. One could say it's a documentary versus 'movie' per se but the direct input of Simpson and Yates, at least in this case and IMO of course, only adds to the film. And its accuracy. Now for the biggie: It's hardly any secret that Simon Yates took some heavy flak from certain folks in the mountaineering fraternity citing what they believe to be the unwritten code or "golden rule", viz., "you don't cut the rope!" That's of course very easy to say when it's someone 'else' who is involved in such horror filled time spans but my own feeling is who is to say what one will do or not do in such dire circumstances! And keep this one in mind: I keep hearing as the alleged 'primary' reason for Yates cutting the rope [from various and sundry who are highly critical of Yates] that, "Yates says he thought Simpson was dead" and followed by "how could Yates ever know this!" but I suggest that Yates believing Simpson was dead was a 'secondary' consideration and the 'primary' consideration was the FACT that Yates was 'himself' being slowly but surely edged off the mountain. In effect, 'both' climbers could have fallen had the rope not been cut and who is to say the result then! Further, and of cogence, Simpson 'defended' the action of Yates cutting the rope. Simpson also dedicated his book to Simon Yates. Recall too that in the real drama, Simpson landed on a small ledge "within a few feet of a deep drop-off" within the crevasse. Who is to say what the impact of that ledge landing would have been had 'both' men tumbled off the mountain? Yates could not pull Simpson up nor was Simpson capable of assisting in any upward climb on the rope, Yates was himself being edged off the vertical and into oblivion by the weight of the rope -- what does one do! Finally, and think about this one, Simpson was freezing to death on the end of that rope during the storm and, ironically, landing in the crevasse after the rope was cut actually sheltered him [such as it was but nevertheless shelter] from the brunt of the storm and significantly reduced the effect of the storm winds [while dangling on the rope] with regard to acute hypothermia and wind-chill issues. On the other hand, we have a situation here where both men did survive and were able to fill in the gaps as to what happened versus some 'conjectured' scenario of having no input from the original climbers involved. And, hey, OK, I'll play, what would 'I' have done? I don't know! I've mercifully not been in a situation like that but what I'm grousing about are those Yates detractors who were not there yet castigate Yates by simply parroting "You don't cut the rope!" ad infinitum suggesting that no matter the circumstances, ahhh, 'they' would 'never' conceive of doing such a thing. No-no, not they! 'They' would allegedly die first, kind of thing, and allegedly never even give a passing thought to touching that rope but I'm not so sure that kind of statement can be made when the speaker of same is not the one involved in the decision! Or the intense physical and psychological stress of the moment as one is being edged off the mountain and into oblivion themselves! It's a gripping film and has various extras including the making of the film featurette and "Return to Siula Grande" with further interviews with Joe Simpson and Simon Yates. BTW, it also shows the truism that the 'majority' of accidents in mountaineering endeavors occur on the 'descent' versus the 'ascent' -- as the most recent K2 tragedy [August 1, 2008] well demonstrates where 11 experienced climbers were killed. Doc Tony
secondtake 12 April 2012
Too long by a hair, but harrowing by a large margin
Touching the Void (2003)There are exactly three characters in this movie, and one amazing,almost unbelievable event. The three young men appear both asthemselves, in interview form, and as characters, played by threeactors who do all the actual action in the film.It's non-fiction, or "based on fact," even though it's allre-enactment. The truth is in the story, the scenes of climbing andfalling and freezing and barely surviving are all made to illustratethat story. And the experience is uncanny, disturbing, exhilarating,and mind-blowing. The experience, that is, of vicariously relivingtheir experience. This, in essence is the film.You wouldn't think it would hold up, two hours of this. The two mainclimbers even tell you right at the start, by their presence in frontof the camera, that they survived. So there is no wondering who died.But that's all good. What we see is not only what did actually happenso that they did not die, but also how it affected them, and how theyhave come to tell the story, which is not at all ordinary. Theircandor, their almost chipper recounting of very horrible facts, isexciting to watch.This won't be everyone's cup of tea. I watched it the same night as"North Face," a more recent and well done story of climbers in 1936,based on facts. That movie was fictionalized, and dramatized, in anormal sense. It had no documentary edge, really. It was more beautifuland more engrossing, perhaps, but it wasn't nearly as chilling. This,"Touching the Void," finds a way to get into your bones and make youquestions some very important stuff about morality, death, endurance.Both movies make clear how horrible it is to have things to wrong on ahigh alpine peak. The cold, the physical stress, and eventually therealization that you aren't likely to make it are in both movies. Veryintense all around. And "Touching the Void" does find a special placein how the story is told, with the voiceovers of the survivors as theyare apparently falling or freezing to death.
07 April 2012
Great Movie; Bad DVD Disk
The movie is great and the price is good.However, the hole in the centre of the DVD is different than in other DVDs. In the two copies of this DVD I have purchased, small cracks have radiated from the centre of the DVD. In other DVDs the centre part of the DVD is made from different material. In this DVD the hole in the centre seems to be punched right through the DVD material. This hasn't affected viewing, but is annoying and I'm worried a crack my lengthen and affect the viewing some day.
07 April 2012
Touching the void touches deeply
This review is from: Touching the Void (Slip) [VHS] (VHS Tape) Im a woman and not a climber. Im a psychologist and white water canoeist and the movie haunted me for days. I could not get it out of my mind. McDonald allowed me to witness something Im not sure I realized humans could do. These men were young and quite fit as well as extremely well disciplined but there seemed to be something in addition at work here. Ive never seen anything that illustrates the will to live as profoundly as the self rescue efforts of that climber. I wanted to show this film to everyone I knew so we could say, "Hey, that's us humans! Aren't we magnificent!
Ben_hanson111 02 April 2012
A harrowing and gripping experience
Touching the Void sets new standards in Docu-drama. It tells the storyof Joe Simpson and Simon Yates' miraculous (near-fatal) accent of SiulaGrande. This is a fantastic story to work with and has been made intofilm brilliantly. Once the drama unfolds it is utterly involving andyou feel like you are with them every step of the way. The contributions from Simpson and Yates form a crucial part of thefilm, along with the dramatisation. It was an overwhelming experiencefor both of them and the viewer gets a great impression of it. Thereare amazing insights into how the mind works in these stressful,seemingly hopeless situations. The dramatisation excellently depictsthe fantastic scenery, being shot on location in the the Andes and inthe Alps. Simpson's incredible fight for survival is sometimes painfulto watch but his eventual triumph is very uplifting. Despite knowingthe outcome from the start, the progression of the plot still amazes.Touching the Void doesn't have the same impact when viewed over andover although it remains very watchable. Rarely do films provide anexperience as emotional and involving as this.
01 April 2012
An amazing story
Two young men in their early 20s decide to go hike the mountains in Peru. One breaks his leg. Actually, it sounds worse than just "breaking a leg" when you listen to the narrative. Simon left thinking, for good reasons, that Joe was dead. So Joe had to climb down a mountain with this bad leg. Joe thought he wouldn't make it back home and understandably so. This is mountain climbers lore now and Simon who left thinking Joe was dead is ridiculed for it but Joe defends him. What friendship! Fascinating film. If you choose to watch, you will not be disappointed. Plus some beautiful mountain scenery.
31 March 2012
WOW!!!!!!!
Touching The Void is a tense, gripping and one nerve shredding movie.The film tells the ture story of two rock climbers, in a battle against the weather to make it to the top and for one of them a desperate bid to survive the climb down.The film contains interviews with the two who climbed this mountain,and shows reinactments of there ordeal, some of the scenes in this film is well and truly jaw-dropping and it's sometimes hard to watch, especially the one who got left behind and to see what he went trough just go to show you how the human body can withstand so much pain.So if you want to a film about human endurance and the will to survive in extreme events then this film is for you.
31 March 2012
Harrowing Survival Story
Two twenty-something friends go to a formidable mountain in the Andes for mountain climbing in 1985. Facing a mountain face to climb like never before, they have the fortune of meeting a stranger who agrees to stay at their base camp. Once they start the climb, they bring the basics: a woefully short gas supply for a mini stove and a little food. They plan to "pack sack," or take the mountain "in a single push". Sort of the bare-bones rendition of backpacking and mountain climbing, they run in peril unforeseen in their young, virile lives. Testing their strength, courage, and spirit, each have crucial decisions to make collectively and individually.As a documentary and a reinactment, the project is particularly vivid. Being able to recall and honestly share their innermost thoughts is a real draw. Partly based on Joe Simpson's book and containing the interviews of both participants; the actors for Simpson, [Brendan Mackey] and Simon Yatey (Nicholas Aaron) reconstruct their ordeal well. 'Touching the Void' is a thoroughly absorbing journey recalling a harrowing struggle to survive.