Wednesday, February 22, 2006

And then there's another type of movie ...


This movie is incredible ... it's a documentary-type recreation of an actual incident ... narrated by the climbers themselves some years later.

I read Joe Simpson's 'Touching the Void' years ago and was absolutely gripped by his story. I went on and read every other book he wrote over time and shared them when anyone asked if I had a good book they could borrow. It was story that no one could put down, it didn't require an interest in mountaineering ... it was the human story that held you.

In it, Joe quite matter-of-factly wrote of his extraordinary lone descent down the Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes back in 1985; extraordinary because he did it with a shattered knee joint. The thing I loved best about this story was the frank honesty ... it's incredible, and even more so in the movie where Simon Yates shows why he finally cut the rope.

It's a bit of a 'must-see' if you have the time and inclination.

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