Into Thin Air: Death on Everest (1997) Reviews

• Nathaniel Parker as Rob Hall is the reason to watch this film

  countryway_488642003-06-02

  After reading many comments about this film I see that most of those who saw the film thought it a tacky and not very well-done attempt at cashing in on a real tragedy. I agree in part. First of all, I watched Into Thin Air with Jon's book on my lap. The resemblances were, for the most part, stunning. Nat Parker looks so much like Rob Hall they could have been brothers. Horton isn't as tall or as handsome as Fischer, but fairly close. I wished they'd had Horton wear Scott's trade-mark pony-tail. And so it goes. Many people objected to the non-Everest setting. For that you must consult the Miramax documentary filmed at the time of the tragedy. I have that film as well. Too me the Into Thin Air group did a good job of simulating the conditions on Everest and the quiet heroism of both Hall and Scott at the end. The real reason to watch Into Thin Air is to watch Nat Parker as Hall. He has superb control and is beautifully understated. He always makes you believe that he could guide you up anything and take you back down again, safely. He conversation with his wife is one of the most remarkable scenes I've ever watched. Intimate, warm and sadly filled with hope that is all bravura on Hall-Parker's part and all faith in her husband's ability to survive on Mrs. Hall's end. This scene had me in tears, just as the real voice of the real Rob Hall recorded in the Miramax documentary made me cry. Not a great film by any means, but still worth watching. This is a cautionary tale. Don't take silk sheets, coffee makers and computers to Mt. Everest, unless you are willing and able to carry them yourself. The exploitation of the Sherpa's by professional climbing teams is well known. Tenzing Norgay cautioned his son, Jam-Ling NOT to become a beast of burden when he climbed Everest for himself.

• Excellent Although Not The Whole Story

  webmouse2008-03-02

  "Into Thin Air: Death On Everest" is a wonderful film and a good start into understanding -- if that is possible -- the need some people have to climb mountains. The film covers the main events of Krakauer's experience and condenses characters to fit the needs of a 90 minute TV film. While the basics are here, the story has been greatly slimmed down and the amount of time involved, truncated. For instance, I would have liked to have seen the daring helicopter rescue by a very brave Nepalese army pilot. To mark a landing spot, those on the mountain made a large X in the snow with a red sports drink. Since the film was produced directly from Krakauer's book, it does not reference other accounts. Krakauer later admitted that some of the details he wrote were incorrect because he was as addled as everyone else, mistaking one climber for another. Krakauer's book is only one of several accounts of the tragic climb that took a fifteen lives in all. This movie could have used an extra half hours to cover more details, but it is fair to say that this is not meant to be a documentary. It comes down to a study of human hubris when faced with the drive to challenge the highest peak on Earth. For those who want to understand the complexity of the real drama, it is necessary to study the other points of view, some of which contradict Krakauer. A good second film to watch is the IMAX film "Everest" which was filmed during the same climb. Anatoli Boukreev wrote a reply to Krakauer in his book "The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest." Scott Fisher's lead Sherpa, Lopsang, also responded to Krakauer's criticisms in writing. Tragically, both Boukreev and Lopsang died in separate climbing accidents not long after the fatal Everest events (Lopsang in September 1996 and Boukreev in December 1997). For those who wonder about what it would be like to climb Everest, it is much safer to watch the film. It is about all the experience most of us will ever need.

• Disappointing

  mccurdy4442005-08-12

  This is an excellent book that was translated into a poorly written, poorly acted movie. I was really looking forward to watching this when I saw it on the cable guide. Imagine my disappointment as I watched the undeveloped characters morph into Hollywood cariactures and the story line turn into a study of glibness. The director seemed to be rushing from one scene to the next, pausing just long enough to allow someone to spout some clichéd line. I just didn't care about the people and wasn't too interested in their quest. It's almost as if this movie was a homework assignment that someone had to get out of the way before he could move on to what he really wanted to do.The book was educational and compelling. Jon Krakauer deserved better.

• Top of the World

  sol12182005-05-30

  Tragic but true story about the disastrous mountain climbing expedition of Mount. Everest in the spring of 1996. Two teams assemble at the foot of Everest headed by world renowned mountain climbers Rob Hall and Scott Fischer with a group of armatures climbers who paid as much as $65,000.00 apiece for the opportunity to scale the highest point on earth; the 29,028 foot five and a half mile high Mount. Everest. Slowly moving up Everest's snowy slopes the teams reach Camp #3 which is just under what is called the "Death Zone" 26,000 feet up where you can't can't survive without an oxygen mask for any long period of time. What these dizzying heights do is cause your lungs to work four times as hard pumping the same amount of air that they normally get at sea level.The brain then swells up causing unbelievably painful headaches with the lungs filling up with liquid, that if not immediately attended to, can drown you. Then your body becomes so starved for nutrients that it starts to literally feed on itself. This is what happens to a mountain climber reaching these heights, +20,000 feet, who's not fully aware and prepared for the reception that he'll get up there from Mother Nature. Going towards the Everest summit in sub-freezing weather the men, and women, of the expedition scale the dangerous "Hillery Step" which is the last step to climb before reaching the very top. Told by Scott that if it's 2:00PM to immediately start back down, even if the climbers are within 50 yards of the summit, his words are ignored. The climbers instead of turning back after the dreaded 2:00PM deadline keep climbing and one by one they all reach the top of Everest between the 2;00PM cut-off point until as late as 4;45PM which turned out to be a fatal mistake on their part. Earlier on the climb at camp #1 Sherpa guide Ang Dorge spotted two of the climbers, a man and woman, embracing outside their tent and got very upset feeling that they, not being married, were very disrespectful to the mountain and that it would lead to an angry response from Everest. Being told by climber and writer Jon Krakaur that it's not unusual for an unmarried couple to have relations back home in America. Jon is reminded by Ang Dorge that their in Napal not in America and what he's saying has nothing to do with native superstitions but that it's based experience and reality. Later when the climbers make their chilling decent from the mountain they find out just how real Ang Dorge's words really were. Leaving late in the afternoon to climb down the mountain, after planting flags and taking photos on Everest's summit, an unexpected storm kicked up and engulfed the entire summit area in darkness with 70 MPH winds and wind-chill temperatures of under -100 degrees. A number of the climbers started getting lost in the snowstorm and then ended up freezing to death. Among those who perished in the snows of Everest were the two team leaders of the exportation Scott Fischer and Rob Hall. The story of the climb is told to us in flashback by the author of the book "Into Thin Air: Death on Everest" writer Jon Krakaur who also was on the expedition but unlike some of his fellow mountain climbers lived to tell, as well as write, about it.

• Does injustice to the actual events

  taser-21998-11-05

  What happened on Everest in 1996 is a tragic and compelling story, a true human drama. Unfortunately this made-for-tv movie takes only the most cursory approach to addressing the magnitude of the occurrences, relying on the most loose and superficial portrayal of specific events (events which are the subject of intense controversy still). To claim the character portrayals are shallow is to be generous - there is no character established at all, particularly disappointing given that these were real people, not fictional creations. It's an old line, but highly applicable here: read the book instead.