Free Solo (spoilers)

Saw Free Solo last night and thought it was a beautiful film...but why did it treat Alex's girlfriend (Sanni McCandless) so poorly? The film totally mocks her, makes her the butt of all jokes, she's portrayed as an idiot who gets Alex injured multiple times*, she whines to him to try to get him to stop soloing, she's super into furnishing their house in Vegas (i.e boring "lady" stuff a real man like Alex would never care about), etc. Why is the ONLY human female** in this film treated like shit? Filmmakers could have made a fine film with her as a background figure...instead they took every opportunity to laugh at her. It's gross!! Why?!

* Yes, she dropped Alex off the end of the rope. Bad behavior in a belayer, but she is clearly inexperienced...Alex is the expert...HE should have tied a knot, HE should have known how long his rope is, HE should have known how long the route is, HE should have told her to yell when she passed the middle...when you take a new climber out, you tell them these things. Likewise a shot where the rope is all tangled around her leg...who hasn't fucked up rope management on multipitch? Did he even show her how to stack it? And telling her as they start up a multi, "go ahead and start climbing whenever you want, just leave the grigri on"...whaaaat?! Simuling with the weak climber following? Maybe Alex wants to get injured!

** The only woman other than Alex's mom who is in there for 3 seconds and he says she never told him she loved him except in French which I guess doesn't count, hello therapy

(Edited to change post title and make reference to filmmakers gender-neutral)

Free Solo is a film by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin.

This post violated Guideline #1 and has been removed.

Pretty sure the editor was Jimmy's wife Chai...so...yeah...

Ok, so there's a female editor. You can respond to the content of my post now.

snobbit wrote: Ok, so there's a female editor. You can respond to the content of my post now.

Not just a female editor (film editor was male, actually). She's listed on IMDB as Director and Producer. Not saying she can't be misogynistic or have treated Alex's girlfriend poorly (haven't seen the movie yet), also, but if you're going to blame one director blame them both. 

Interesting how different people can see the same film and come away with completely different impressions. I thought that Sanni was treated very sympathetically. Here's what some other critics had to say:

• The Atlantic: "...the secret star of the film is Sanni McCandless, Honnold’s girlfriend, who somehow manages to tunnel through the deep bedrock of Honnold’s disposition and connect with him"
• LA Times: " McCandless... whose warm, incandescent personality seems an ideal match for the climber’s introverted demeanor"
• Vanity Fair: "The film is also gracious in its handling of Honnold’s girlfriend, Sanni McCandless... The way she balances support for her partner while asserting her own needs is carefully illustrated"
• NY Times: "the sunny Sanni McCandless..."

According to IMDB neither were the editor.  Editor was Bob Eisenhardt.  Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi directed it.

I have not yet seen the film, so have no opinion on the content, but I will add that plenty of women are also misogynists or enablers.  See the continued female support for Roy Moore or Betsy DeVos' campus policies that make it harder for victims of sexual assault to get justice.

Jimmy Chin and Daniel Woods photo spread in GQ. Guys in super-expensive shirts, girls in bikinis.  #NeverForget

fossana wrote:

And you're stalking the Women's Forum.

You do know this pops up in the "latest posts" right?

Chad Hiatt wrote:

You do know this pops up in the "latest posts" right?

yep, but the Women's Forum rules also state: 
A place for women to share experiences and discuss issues. Zero-tolerance moderation.

snobbit wrote: * Yes, she dropped Alex off the end of the rope. Bad behavior in a belayer, but she is clearly inexperienced...Alex is the expert...HE should have tied a knot, HE should have known how long his rope is, HE should have known how long the route is, HE should have told her to yell when she passed the middle...when you take a new climber out, you tell them these things. Likewise a shot where the rope is all tangled around her leg...who hasn't fucked up rope management on multipitch? Did he even show her how to stack it?

I haven't seen the film so I can't attest to their treatment of Sanni, although I really think most of the sarcastic humor that permeates Alex's persona was lost on you. So far as the climber taking 100% responsibility for being dropped is a pretty silly stance to take. I would make an assumptions here- this was not Sanni's first time belaying. Both could have done some things differently, to make things safer. Putting 100% responsibility on the more experienced climber seems like a weak defense at best, ignorant at worst. 

Martin le Roux wrote: Interesting how different people can see the same film and come away with completely different impressions. I thought that Sanni was treated very sympathetically. Here's what some other critics had to say:

• The Atlantic: "...the secret star of the film is Sanni McCandless, Honnold’s girlfriend, who somehow manages to tunnel through the deep bedrock of Honnold’s disposition and connect with him"
• LA Times: " McCandless... whose warm, incandescent personality seems an ideal match for the climber’s introverted demeanor"
• Vanity Fair: "The film is also gracious in its handling of Honnold’s girlfriend, Sanni McCandless... The way she balances support for her partner while asserting her own needs is carefully illustrated"
• NY Times: "the sunny Sanni McCandless..."

Interesting! Because about 8 of the 10 people I saw the film with came out saying, "wow, she sucks" and then we talked about it and decided maybe the film didn't treat her well. I wonder how much of it was that climbers know that dropping someone is VERY BAD but nonclimbers might think, oh, accidents happen, it's a dangerous sport...?

(haven't seen the movie).

Generally speaking, it's always going to be hard to create a narrative for a climbing film.

Generally speaking, it's hard to create film characters that convey all the subtleties of a human.  

Snobbit-- what is your suggestion for how to make the film better? 

fossana wrote:

yep, but the Women's Forum rules also state:
A place for women to share experiences and discuss issues. Zero-tolerance moderation.

I don't pay attention to which forum a post is from when I click on it from the "latest posts" list, perhaps I should.  I imagine others are in the same boat.  That being said, I've also never clicked directly on the Women's Forum and therefore never saw any list of rules or description.  Sounds like another MP wormhole. 

(I haven't seen the movie)

From watching the trailer I didn't get a sense that there was anything other than background characters filling in the "it is so dangerous, but we love and support him" part.

Given that this is a movie about Alex Honnold free-soloing, I personally wouldn't have much expectations in the way of having female characters in this movie. Honestly, I'd be fine with just a straight uncut footage of him climbing the whole thing, and nothing more. But NatGeo is trying to make it a film for general audience, so you need someone filling in background, and you need some fluff and "hero's journey story" and "love interest" angle, and such.

In terms of female characters, if Brette Harrington were one of the people talking about how impressive/awesome/difficult, etc. this achievement was, if she were one of the people giving background on the story, along with Tommy Caldwell, for example (maybe she is, I dunno, not in the trailer, so I wouldn't know) that would be awesome to see.

But how Alex's girlfriend is portrayed... I guess I'll reserve judgement until I see the movie (if I do, at all... because this stupid flatland state of mine thinks that the Friday night in October is a good time to show a movie about rock climbing, disregarding the fact that October is the time when weekend warriors in OH go to climb rocks in KY and WV. And no, I'm not skipping a weekend of good conditions to watch a movie about someone else climbing rocks, no matter how monumental an achievement it was)

Chad Hiatt wrote: I don't pay attention to which forum a post is from when I click on it from the "latest posts" list, perhaps I should.  I imagine others are in the same boat.  That being said, I've also never clicked directly on the Women's Forum and therefore never saw any list of rules or description.  Sounds like another MP wormhole. 

So let's say you see "where should i climb this weekend?" in the latest posts, you're saying you don't bother to see in what area that was posted before responding?

fossana wrote:

So let's say you see "where should i climb this weekend?" in the latest posts, you're saying you don't bother to see in what area that was posted?

I'm not trying to argue with you. I'm just bringing up some of the posts on here are from people who didn't realize they were on a Women's Forum thread.  

As for "Where should I climb this weekend", I don't look.  I just think to myself, "WTF.  There's an entire Route Guide on this site.  Use it!"  

Who knows...maybe I'm the only one who doesn't pay attention.

The film captures an imperfect relationship and contrasts it with a moment of profound perfection (Honnold's free solo), and suggests that the perfectionism that drives him might be deeply rooted in his childhood. To me, this portrayal (both of Alex and of his relationship with Sanni) seemed very honest and human. The fact is that Sanni is (or was at the time of filming) an inexperienced noob partnered to one of the most experienced climbers on the planet - it's no surprise that there are going to be problems. Personally, I found the moment of her getting tangled in the rope to be hilarious. I don't see how this has anything to do with gender; if their genders were reversed, it would have been equally amusing. Keep in mind the movie is about Alex after all - all the other players are just there to help fill in the story.

Also interesting: The portrayal of Sanni as fawning and infatuated, unable to see the important difference between accepting Alex's lifestyle and choices (ie loving him), and wanting to change him or mold him into who she'd rather him be (ie more domestic and more conservative in his climbing). Meanwhile Alex is single-minded in his goal - insinuating that Sanni might be the cause of his injuries, blaming her for being a distraction, and booting her out of his van and out of the Valley as the pressure rises. This is not exactly a flattering picture of Alex - even if, as climbers and members of a goal-oriented society, we can admire him for his focus.

I found it surprising that Alex and Sanni would be so willing to be so candid and vulnerable about allowing the world this glimpse into their relationship, but on the other hand it is true to form to Alex's compulsion to be brutally honest at all times. Again though, I don't see how this has anything to do with gender; their roles could easily have been reversed. Regardless, I found this relationship dynamic to be almost as interesting and tense to watch as Alex's free soloing - albeit for very different reasons but both in sort of a "I can't watch... but I can't NOT watch" way.

Josh Janes wrote: 
I found it surprising that Alex and Sanni would be so willing to be so candid and vulnerable about allowing the world this glimpse into their relationship, but on the other hand it is true to form to Alex's compulsion to be brutally honest at all times. Again though, I don't see how this has anything to do with gender; their roles could easily have been reversed. Regardless, I found this relationship dynamic to be almost as interesting and tense to watch as Alex's free soloing - albeit for very different reasons but both in sort of a "I can't watch... but I can't NOT watch" way.

I think having the movie directors who are also your friends allows certain things like these to come through. (but having not seen it, that's all I got)