Seeing it tonite in RPX 3D. Anyone? Based on John Krakauer's book Into Thin Air. Got some good reviews, great special effects. _
Never read the book, but I read some book by a Russian climber who was on the mountain that day and was apparently painted very poorly by Krakauer and the expeditionists he was writing about. Basically accused them of being criminally negligent mercenaries who needlessly and recklessly put all these people at risk. Be curious if he was edited out of the screenplay.
Great movie, really well done and spectacular in the big format. Very little character development-- which works perfectly--you get little snippets of the main climbers background and it totally works because the most important story is the climb and the disaster. But you definitely understand why each character is there. Beautifully shot and extremely harrowing. Have read the book and a few others and seeing some specials about Everest, you never truly get a sense of what it all looks like. This one is perfect because you see everything exactly as it is- from Base Camp all the way up. I never fully knew what the summit actually looked like, even from pics. Now I do. I'd recommend it but see it in IMAX or in RPX. It is deserving of that format and the massive sound. Not only was Anotoli Boukreev in the movie, he is portrayed as mostly heroic and the one voice of reason. I read his book about the disaster and while he does not go into great detail in the movie, he has a couple of choice words for the expeditioneers and is the one guy you walk out of the movie saying "good thing he was there". Yeah, they treated him well. Unfortunately he died in an avalanche a few years after this disaster. I don't think the movie hit hard enough on the climbers being dragged up the mountain by Sherpas (like Sandy Hill Pittman) but the movie took a little shot at Krakauer but he came off ok. You like the Rob Hall and Scott Fischer and Josh Brolin is great as Beck Weathers. I highly recommend the book, it's just not about the disaster but about the mountain itself, it's mystique and the various early expeditions to attempt the summit and the first to reach it. _
