TFCM Award - Climbing Movie Reviews
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Hey folks, Some of you may have seen my March Madness for Climbing Films competition that I have going on. Well to be frank with you all, I most certainly haven't seen all of them. In fact, I'm not even sure I've seen half of them. So I'm inspired - I want to create a bracket of the best climbing movies, review all of them, and present it with a very prestigious new film award - the TFCM Award (Tal's Favorite Climbing Movie Award). So what am I looking to do here? Well, I'll watch every single match up, giving direct reviews about each movie, and then comparing the two against each other, and choosing a winner. I'll repeat watches at each round to see which movies hold up, re-reviewing movies, etc. Ultimately I'd like to finally decide on my own favorite movie. However, it's been drawn to my attention (repeatedly) that I may not have chosen the best movies for the bracket. So I'm looking for some help before I jump into this to pick the best movies I can for this bracket. There's a few rules to this (the same as for the March Madness comp):
I will be expanding this to include specific "play-in movies" similar to real March Madness, for movies on the fringe of the list, or complete unknowns to me. So with that being said, here's the current list of 64 from the march madness comp.
Some other films I've been told to consider:
What should I add? What should I remove? Other than the "play-in movies" everything will be seeded randomly and I'll post all reviews and such on this thread. |
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Movie: Psyche II (The Prophet) Welp, I'm a few beers deep so I decided to start this thing tonight. I had my fiancee pick a movie at random and we gave it a spin. Psyche II is a combination of a couple shorts films and shorts, so I'll review each of them individually. The Prophet: Leo Houlding on his 5.13d FA. I'm not going to lie - I spent a significant portion of time on this movie a bit confused; why this professional climber who was having a movie made about him was concerned about a 7a pitch (13d in UK grades for those uninitiated like myself), how Leo's straw bowler hat stayed on for such a significant period of time, and literally anything Jason Pickles was saying at any time. I definitely enjoyed it though, some hard climbing, some nutty runouts, and some good old fashion british cracking on. Worth a watch for sure - not life altering by any means, but certainly inspiring to see new lines go up on El Cap this late in the game. Father Of The Pride: A 2 minute short about a 5 year old climbing slab routes. Jaded towards it because this kid probably already climbs harder slab than me but truthfully it's not fair - with hands his size these crimps are probably closer to jugs High Tor With An Actor: Giles Cornah breaking his heel and then sending a 12+ in smiles? Thinking some movie magic must have happened here. It's described as being tongue in cheek but I'm assuming that's more for the british climbing community who knows who Giles is - unfortunately I'm ignorant and was another beer or two deep at this point from when I started so it was lost on me Bleed In Hell: I'll be honest, I kind of missed this one due to folding laundry. The climbing I did see looked impressive, but at only 5 minutes long, this wasn't exactly a "stand on it's own" type short and the described "insightful commentary from the route's first ascensionist and Mary's husband - Dave Birkett" was...not Bat Shadow: 8c+ linkup which was cool to watch but less exciting in modern day when you see Ondra post multiple of these per month. Made me realize how over linkups I am Oceans Of Fear: South African big wall link up. Looked like hard climbing, minimal commentary, overall felt a bit like a fever dream to watch. Route looks sweet though. Hollow Caves: Some Neil Gresham DWS. Beautiful scenes, sweet looking climbing, some B tier cliff jumping. Definitely an entertaining watch in it's own respect for the 10 minutes Dusk Til Dawn: Pembrokeshire climbing - if Posing Productions wanted to appeal more to the non-uk audience they would have focused more on the fact that the UK has these sweet ass ravines because that came as an absolute surprise to my household. Dave Pickford continues to be a heart throb and then makes my heart palpitate by topping out a huge runout by gingerly grabbing huge chunks of grass and moss. Another sweet short. Summary: Enjoyed the film despite doing it no favors by going into it a bit sauced up. Definitely some sleeper moments to the overall collaboration, and not a ton of absolute standout moments, but an enjoyable watch for sure. Not sure parts of this one have held up incredibly well. Likely wouldn't buy it myself but worth borrowing/renting it. |
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Suprised that Wampler's Ascent didn't make the cut. |
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Brent Monfort wrote: I'll add it to the list - I'm just gonna watch all of them and then make a bracket and rewatch it. |
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Just an FYI, it is a real tear jerker. |
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Movie: Spray (2008) This movie started off on an interesting foot with me, with the opening graphic and general artistic theme to the movie reminding me strongly of a mid-2000s tramp stamp. And boy oh boy - this is about the most 2000s climbing movie I've ever seen. I will give a disclaimer here: this movie is pretty much entirely set in NorCal and after my stint on the PCT, somehow NorCal holds a fairly special place in my heart and I'm itching to go back to climb and suffer instead of hiking and suffering. Between the frosted tips, short spiked hair, and hearing "Safe And Sound" by Rebelution for the first time in a decade, this movie certainly took me back. It's definitely on the more lowkey side of things for a climbing movie, which is also very NorCal of it. It doesn't make a big deal about Chris Lindner doing big dynos on high balls with one horrendous placed pad to protect him, or Joe Kinder climbing some of the harder routes in America at the time, but instead just gives beautiful vistas and ~g o o d v i b e s~. I actually liked this one a lot more than I originally expected - it was a good reprieve from the usual "watch someone suffer endlessly and flail often in pursuit of the next hardest route", but instead was more like a recounting of a really enjoyable summer (where they also climbed some very pretty and hard routes). In general I think BS Productions' movies really suffer from ADHD but this one felt a lot more well thought out. I think this one will stick around for rewatches later and overall has held up better than I expected for the years. Summary: If you prefer watching people struggle hard and push boundaries, this is probably one to skip, but if you like watching dudes with endless stoke do what they do best - enjoying climbing - then this may be one to add to your arsenal of climbing films. 7/10. |
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Movie: Cerro Torre: A Snowball's Chance In Hell (2013) Finally time to watch this movie - as a long time lover of pretty much everything Red Bull puts out, I was excited. Additionally, I've been watching a lot of older movies lately and I was stoked to see some of those crispy HD shots again. This movie did not disappoint. The cinematography was stunning, and how could it not be when the whole thing takes place in Patagonia? This movie is excellent, and really speaks to David's humility in his first few failed attempts. Getting turned around so often, and then finally just sucking it up and saying "hey, maybe the goal to free climb Cerro Torre just isn't in the cards today. Let's just get to the top and appreciate it". I thought this was going to be another movie of climbers celebrating minor victories and passing on their goals to the next generation (to be clear: I was just starting to get into climbing at the time of Lama's death, so I wasn't aware of the actual end result nor the real zeitgeist around him at the time). Then the movie hit me with the "Expedition Three: January 2012" and oh man I got excited. And finally was able to go to the bathroom, as I'd been holding in pee for about 20 minutes thinking I was right at the end of the movie. Nope - full feature film length folks! The rest of the movie echos that of the first half, beautiful shots, David's drive and humility, the unending support of his partner Peter, and shots of Cerro Torre that make me lament the fact that I just have two tiny brassies in comparison to everyone on this trip's pair of big bros. One unfortunate side effect from this movie is it truly did make me a bit emotional about the loss of Lama and thinking about all that he could still have accomplished if he were around today and for many more years to come - this movie felt like just a peak into what he was capable of. Another unfortunate thing about this movie is that for some reason the director thought that I - the viewer - give even one shit about the difficulties of the camera crew to film this, or how they drew some anger from plugging in many bolts into one of the most historic faces on the planet in order to film something for Red Bull. The director was incorrect on that front and I would have enjoyed a slightly shorter film that didn't include the film crew inserting themselves into the drama. I loved when they wake up David from sleep and say "David, we have to tell you something. Someone chopped the bolts we were going to have to use to ascend the line to film you" to which they got the resounding response of "Who Cares?". Hell yeah David, I know I don't. Oh also the weird manufactured Bridwell beef was weird. Clearly Jim relished the opportunity to play the heel or whatever but I wasn't feeling it. Summary: Overall, loved the film, it's certainly one of those that inspires you to push further on the goals you set, and actually try to accomplish them. The cinematography was unreal, and I think it's one of those climbing/mountaineering movies that would appeal to non-climbers due to the shots and the narrative. It's free online, so I can't recommend you buy or rent it, but I can give this thing a solid two thumbs up. |
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Tal M wrote: I thought that detail was odd as well, but then I looked it up - the voiceover at the beginning of Messner griefing him about the bolts seems to be part of some pretty real ethical concerns people had. I, like you, was not yet climbing while it was happening, so it was news to me. I think if redbull hadn't mentioned it, it would have been seen as an attempt to hide or downplay the ethical violations. I watched Assault on El Cap for the first time after watching this, and it has some similar questions about ethics that are worth some independent internet research. |
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Amie, definitely agree with you - I also would give some backlash. That's more the point I was making - I don't feel bad from the film crew because that was kind of a dick move in the first place. Slow day here on the front range with cold and melted snow, so it was a double feature today. Movie: Huntsmen (2014) First movie of the reviews that's a rewatch, and unexpectedly, this is one of those rare films that got better for me on the 2nd go. I'll throw out a disclaimer here that I'm absolutely infatuated with the South Platte, which gives this major bonus points - but also I'm absolutely not a boulderer, so I think it about evens out. This movie is broken up into 7 sections, 6 unique sections and an overlap segment with JWebb and DWoods working Defying Gravity. Each segment was awesome. The latest Climbing Gold podcast was with John Gill where he talked about how bouldering for him was the gymnastic pursuit. It wasn't about the difficulty, but rather the style and grace of the ascent that made it for him. I feel like he would love this movie - because it seemed like these guys barely broke a sweat on all but a few of the boulders shown. Some extremely proud lines, very cool features, and great scenery - and some absolutely excellent climbing to top it off. There's not a ton I can go on to talk about with regards for this film - there's not really much to critique and it features my "holy grail" boulder of Te Cuelgas Guey, the otherworldly Defying Gravity, and so much more that just spark an intense interest in me to go run out and explore as well despite the fact that nobody wants to do these heinous hikes for the mediocre V4 I'll be putting up. Summary: 100% worth the watch, and would even be worth the purchase except that Max recently made his film free on Vimeo. Phenomenal shots, sweet lines, no nonsense. Will just sum it up with "Excellent". The only thing I'd change about this film is that I'd have it include more of my favorite areas, which is a decidedly selfish and likely poorly thought out change to have made. I'll be coming back to this one often. |
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Movie: Dosage Volume 2 (2003) Wow, this movie was a lot to take in. Similar to Psyche II and many other climbing movies, this was a collection of short films, so I'll review by section So-Ill Summar-ized: I'd seen Obe in a few different movies prior to myself watching this one and unfortunately never really saw him in a prominent role. Wow - he was hilarious here. Also the highest I've seen someone legitimately be on camera. I actually thought it was really cool for Big Up Productions to highlight an area that would pretty much never get this much notoriety, and I thought it was hilarious that all of the featured climbers were shitting on them for the idea. Really enjoyed this short, felt like a strong one that could stand on it's own as an independent short youtube video or something today Psicobloc Part 1: Psicobloc is always at least some baseline level of interesting since you're essentially seeing people climb hard and take monster whips each time they blow it. This first segment felt a bit repetitive though and I don't think it inspired much in me, having seen a bit of psicobloc prior. Cool climbing and I think (read: a completely baseless assumption is about to be communicated) that this is one of the first times it was shown in a climbing movie as it's own thing, so it was probably a pretty big deal at the time. Four From Font: Believe it or not I think this is actually the first time I've ever seen the Font in a movie. Looked...pretty much like the whole southeast of america. Super cool, really disturbingly hard climbing going on. Some of these crimps they used genuinely humbled me and I don't think I can complain about crimp sizes again. Your standard hard bouldering fare. Rumney: This was super sweet - never had seen Waimea in pictures or anything previous and the wall looked nuts, the climbing looked great, and the absolute dogshit two finger stack hold on Livin' Astro was absolutely comical to see. Your standard hard sport climbing fare Ivan NYC: This whole short felt like a fever dream. I'm pretty sure Ivan was extremely strung out on coke the entire time and every girl featured dressed exactly like Lizzie McGuire. Very early 2000s. Can't even comment on the quality of this short because I'm still pretty confused what the hell I watched Psicobloc Part 2: I think this was the creation of Sharma's Psicobloc obsession. I wanna note - I really love Sharma, and seeing him here was no different. Just absolutely stoked on life and climbing and crushing hard shit while everyone else is amazed and has no idea how he's doing this. Hell yeah. Just the addition of him and his excitement made this short stand out a lot from part one of the psicobloc short. Summary: Pretty decent. Good mix of hard climbing, funny personalities, and general "WTF"ery but definitely has it's lulls too. You might send a couple texts during it. |
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Well after struggling and failing to send my current Guitar Hero Proj (Raining Blood on Expert, please don't tell me to just focus on the middle three frets that's absolutely not working), I figured I'd watch a video of someone sending their climbing projects Movie: Uncommon Ground (2002) Was excited for this guy - I haven't seen the northeast represented well in climbing movies, or really any other media in my life. I was stoked to see what the showcase of it looked like, get an understanding of the culture and climbing scene up there a bit, etc. And, based solely on the stereotypes of northeastern culture and my limited experiences in the northeast - this movie was very northeastern. I'm not sure how to describe it, but it's definitely just that sort of je ne sais quoi. That being said, the areas in the film were beautiful. If you haven't seen the rock that the NE has to offer, either in movies or real life, this is definitely worth checking out for that purpose. The Adirondacks are much more intimidating than I expected and while I have a lot of climbs on my "To-Do" list, Creation Of The World, a 3 pitch 5.10+ OW that was featured is the only climb on my "Absolute do not do" list. It was fun seeing Dave Graham and a young Joe Kinder climbing hard routes in Rumney that I had literally just seen in the previously reviewed Dosage Volume II. The montage near the end of bold shit people were doing (hard laybacks barefoot and the like) was entertaining but overall this film was extremely low key and undersold itself to the point of not being super interesting. Summary: Wouldn't personally burn down the town trying to find copies of this guy. Probably safe to skip, but if you know someone who has it, it's not going to be a full waste of your time to watch. |
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Hey Tal - I don’t have much to add but I’m enjoying these films reviews! I haven’t seen most of these - or heard of many for the matter - but I’m about to watch the Huntsman since your review piqued my interest. Keep it up! |
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Been watching Tyler Karow videos nonstop this week and figured I should probably get around to watching a movie too. And Kyle, hope you liked Huntsmen, I thought it was sweet. Movie: Scary Faces (2001) Somehow I've been living and climbing in Colorado for about the past 2 years now (AKA my entire climbing career) and haven't climbed in Eldo yet. Not only that, I'd somehow skirted most of the Eldo media - it wasn't represented in the movies I saw, or the articles I read, etc. Now that I've been going back and watching some older films, its absolutely everywhere, and I'm stoked to get out and about and check out what the hubbub is about. So this was a cool film to watch - focusing on a classic line in Eldo (Jules Verne) but also just climbing in Eldo in general in the early naughts. This movie is definitely on the more relaxed side - presenting some cool lines and solo clips without a lot of fanfare (also there's a shitload of attractive people in this movie, RIP Cameron Tague). It kind of bounces around a bit, introducing the story line first, then completely ignoring it for 20 minutes, and then jumping back into it fairly unceremoniously. It's a good movie to passively watch because there's not a ton to keep up with, but there's always some neat shots or decent music playing. Some people throw on video comps of people surfing or snowboarding or whatever on their TV to play in the background during get togethers - this whole movie would be good for that for climbing. The downside here is that this impressiveness of the climb, and the boldness of it doesn't really hold up all of these years later (and I'm not even sure it really did when it was released either). It certainly feels like a less impressive achievement when the main dude hazed his friend into...onsighting his lifelong goal? That being said, it's always fun to see some friendly sandbagging, but yeah it definitely lessened the feeling of achievement of the climb. Would put this one in the same quality category as Uncommon Ground Summary: Eldo diehards, give it a perusal. Otherwise, you can passively watch it (or skip it altogether) |
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Movie: Reel Rock 12 (2017) Thank the lord we're back into the realm of HD video and man I was looking forward to this one (thanks random number generator for hooking me up). I've watched this movie quite a few times before and was interested to see how it held up. As usual with these compilation movies, I'll go bit by bit. Above The Sea: I truly do have a giant mancrush on Chris Sharma, and this was pretty cool to see after recently watching the birth of Psicobloc Sharma in Dosage Vol 2. Beautiful shots, hard climbing over the sea, the dreamiest climber to ever walk the earth doing his thing. Really though - I think it's pretty underrated how well spoken Chris is in really every film he does and how much he just truly loves climbing. So often on the projecting movies you just see climbers obsessed with the process, but every time it's Sharma, he's just talking about how much he loves the line and climbing in general. What a beautiful bon-voyage this movie ended up being for feature films for Sharma Break On Through: Oh look, a movie about someone I just actually have a crush on. Margo Hayes is unbelievably badass. I'm actually incredibly grateful for this short film specifically because it was one of the first climbing movies I ever watched, and my fiancee loved it and now never complains about watching climbing films, despite me rapidly and deeply falling in love throughout the film. The film is funny, well shot, and actually really open about the effects that the mindset of the top climbers has. Plus, it's hard to find complaints in HD shots of La Rambla and Biographie, regardless of the rest of the subject matter. Safety Third: Fuck me man, Reel Rock 12 really was excellent wasn't it? I don't think a week has gone by since Brad's death where I haven't thought about him and this short film is an excellent example of why. I love his personality, his willingness to go balls to the wall (boxers to the wall?) and go for big things, and his, again, pure love for climbing. It's really hard to watch this without a bit of sadness about his death, because this is the type of movie I want to watch again and again. For anyone who needs an extra Gobright fix, check out The Climbing Zine's featured article about him - it's one of the best pieces of climbing literature I've ever read. Brad Gobright: Pure Of Heart (Part 1) Stumped: Don't worry Maureen, the love fest definitely doesn't stop with you - though I am going to refrain from spilling my heart here since I know you actually are on MP. First off, the film is hilarious - truly, Maureen and James are both really great in this film. Secondly, and much to the point of all of the adaptive climbers featured, it's extremely relatable. It's a bunch of folks, having fun climbing, projecting things, power-eating junk food and drinking beers at regrettably early hours in the day. Add in the fact that it's a story about a climber struggling to get their first 5.12, and it's pretty much the exact image of my current weekends. There's one notable difference however - Maureen is significantly more willing than I am to clip her draws and top out on less-than-perfect positions which, regardless of reality, might as well make her an untouchable pro climber in my eyes. The social commentary in the film is highly worth watching and genuinely digesting, and the cameo of Tommy Caldwell was a great addition to make the intake of that commentary unoffensive to even the most easily disgruntled of you out there. The only negative I could find of this whole film was the fact that Maureen threw out an ample amount of delightful snacks that she could have instead donated directly to my mouth. Summary: Truly an all-timer. Holds up wonderfully to rewatches, beautiful shots, classic climbs, hilarious, heartwarming, fun for the whole family, two thumbs up, etc. etc. I'm in love with every single climber shown. Call me. |
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Spent all last week actually climbing and finally got home to some non-ideal weather, so figured it was a good time to get another film in. Movie: Rotpunkt (2019) I'm assuming most people reading this review will have already seen this film, but if you're one of the lucky few who haven't, you're in for a treat. Personally, this kind of film is just one of my favorites - deep on the history of the frankenjura, Wolfgang, and Megos himself, while also including some great climbing shots. Especially when compared against a thematically similar film in "Action Directe" from this year's Reel Rock (15?). Honestly the biggest shortcoming of this film is just its length - it tackles so much in such a short time that it isn't able to go especially deep into any specific subject. You get a bit of the history of the redpoint and the frankenjura, a bit about Wolfgang and his incredible achievements and then death, and a bit about Megos and his success but ultimate mental struggles to perform to a level that he feels he's capable of. That all being said, I think the narrative of the movie is fairly clear, and the "hey, this shit isn't healthy" commentary towards Megos's mindset being presented in plain language is really refreshing actually. It shows how much these athletes are putting themselves into these projects beyond the purely physical. Beyond the story, the shots are beautiful - every location is scenic, megos is beautiful, there's really not anything to complain about from a visual perspective. Whole film is pretty much eye candy. Summary: Sweeeeeeeet film. One that holds up well to multiple rewatches (this is number 5 or 6 for me), covers a good range of subjects, and performs well at being both a "hard climbing film" and a "climbing history" film, though isn't able to top specialty movies in either category at their respective strength. |
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Well folks, it's certainly been a while. Not that I haven't been documenting the movies I've watched, but I've frankly just been climbing or traveling so much that I haven't watched any. Decided to knock one out today. Movie: Assault on El Capitan (2013) Boy oh boy do I have some words to say about this movie and if I'm being honest, not many of them are positive. For those unfamiliar, this is about the second ascent Ammon McNeely did on a controversial "Wings Of Steel" route up El Cap. I recently forayed into aiding - specifically hooking - for the first time when bolting a route and gained an intense appreciation for it when seeing the kind of features I was able to ascend with those hooks. I then immediately gained an intense fear of it when my hook popped and I took a 15-20 foot pendulum into air. So I was stoked about this film. Tyler Karow makes aiding look sweet, I know it's intense, it's El Cap history right - Should be a no-brainer right? Absolutely wrong. Watching this movie felt more like the worst history lesson possible instead, which is wild because it's full of interesting characters on a climb with intense and encapsulating history. I'm not sure how the editing choices that went into the movie were made but it felt like this was made for the OG History Channel, like, before it was all pawn shops and aliens, rather than to be an entertaining climbing film. And speaking of editing, I don't understand the visual choices they made earlier. Steve Grossman both looked and sounded like the obvious villain from an early 90s film, transitions were jarring, and there was remarkably little footage of the route, climbing, or anything other than interviews for the entire thing. The only person who was edited to have some charm was Ammon's brother Gabe and that's partially because he looked like he could have been a smuggler from the show Narcos now. Overall I was pretty bummed about this one. It's not a good introduction to aid climbing for those people on the fence about it, it's not an itch scratcher for people who want to see some real hard aid balls-to-the-wall commitments, the storyline is barely present and I'm still not even sure what the takeaway was. Certainly not one I'll be revisiting, but one that did inspire me to do some more research for myself on the route. I regret that, as I've now dug myself deeply into the trenches of a 2800 post SuperTopo thread. Summary: A boring history lecture with little actual climbing. Probably skip it. Go watch some Tyler Karow aid videos instead. |
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Lamenting both the fact that it's been steadily raining here on the front range and that I am feeling poor and decided to watch a film Movie: Salathe - Blood, Sweat, and Bagels (2002) This movie was initially described to me as "watching two regular dudes try big walling for the first time". I pretty quickly figured that probably wasn't the case, since "two regular dudes" generally don't try for a free ascent of the salathe as their first big wall. That being said, I came out of this film feeling like it was a biography about my climbing career. Not that I tried (or will try in the foreseeable future) to free the salathe - I mean, look at my ticks - but rather just watching some super stokers eventually start hate climbing as the realization of just how much they bit off comes to fruition. That is pretty much my climbing story to a T, and one I constantly come back to. The movie is a pretty ideal climbing movie to me if I'm being honest. There's a lot of beautiful climbing shots, regardless of the now-poor film quality. The banter between the climbers is great. There's enough suffering to make them feel human. There's even an emphasis on how dogshit hauling is, which serves as an excellent reminder to everyone that big walling can be (I imagine) absolutely soul sucking. And if anything, this accurate portrayal of life on a Big Wall™ actually made me more interested in giving it a shot one day. Overall the film takes on a fairly laid-back, friendly vibe. Nobody feels like they're putting themselves in mental ruin to accomplish a goal nor makes you feel like you're a bag of milk for not doing so either. The music isn't super aggressive, there's not a crazy story of adversity to overcome. It's just two dudes enjoying themselves whilst greatly suffering in a beautiful settings on a mega classic route. What's not to like? Summary: Captures the quintessence of what climbing is to me. Worth getting your hands on (hint: AAC Library worked for me). |
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I'm going to leave this right here. 11/10 gotez agree that it is the greatest climbing film ever made. |
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Movie: Masters of Stone (1991) Gotta say - the Ron Kauk anti piracy spiel at the start of this movie is effective - though would be more effective if getting hands on this movie was a less-than-herculean feat in this day and age. Sorry Ron! I do think that should become the de-facto DRM moving forward though. I'm not sure what I expected going into this movie. Maybe it's exactly what I got - a time where Climbing was trying to be cool. And wow - it sure was in this movie. Just an absolute of tour of the "who's who" in climbing in the 90s and some sweet climbs, fun stunts, and general mayhem to boot. If this was recreated in the modern day, it would probably be scoffed at - but John Bachar playing sax, a random space shuttle liftoff, 20ft slab ground fall (more of a steep slide down slab, blew my mind to see), and the warrior pit? Absolute gold for whatever reason in this film. This film heavily influenced so many climbing movies, and it's easy to see once you watch it. I mean, hell, Red River Ruckus is a borderline shot for shot remake of this retrospectively, except it is a bit more insane and instead had a bunch of Miguel's debauchery instead of the warrior pits (and also some ridiculous CGI and questionable editing choices, but that's for a different review). Seeing where it largely started was great, but beyond the rose tinted glasses, this is just straight up a good climbing film. High stoke, high fun, and huge names. I have pretty much nothing to complain about. You know how sometimes you go to house parties and people put up like surfing montages or skateboarding montages on a TV as background stuff or ambiance or whatever? You could do that with this film and I don't think anyone would bat an eye. Conclusion: There's a reason they made 6 of them. Recommended for everyone, but required watching for climbing history/climbing movie history buffs. Find a way to get your hands on it. |
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Movie: Reel Rock 5 (2010) Got home after the long weekend of hiking/camping/climbing and wanted to finish it off with a last injection of stoke - this one felt like the perfect movie to do so. As usual with compilation films like this, I'll review by sub-film. That being said - shout out to the 2-minute short winners (Top Rope Tough guys and Roxxxy?), they were both excellent and I still quote TRTG every time I go climbing. The Hulk: I'll be honest, I pretty much chose this film because of this shorty, almost entirely because I'm doing my first pilgrimage to the Hulk at the end of the month, and wanted the confidence that watching someone successfully whip on a cam with only 2 lobes in the crack inspires. If there's anything from this film that's going to feel relatable on my trip, it will be whipping onto poorly placed gear. This is a great short though, it's a strong way to start the movie and really helps conjure up some of those "big pieces of rock are cool" feelings that inspire you (or just me maybe) to set some loftier goals. First Round First Minute: I will just never get sick of seeing Sharma climb, straight up. I love his approach and outlook towards everything, and this is no different. This is pretty standard "world's greatest climber tries one of the world's hardest routes" type fare, but as usual, Sharma's positive outlook is refreshing, and the ending was a nice twist on how these normally go Fly or Die: Ah, here it is, the section of the movie that's going to make me want to puke. Was wondering when this was going to show up. Dean Potter, freebasing around the world. Absolutely nuts, as always. Some really incredible shots and accomplishments showcased here, though starts to get repetitive despite it's short nature near the end. Full adrenaline though. Down and Out and Under: This year's entry into the "silly reel rock film" category, this one is an enjoyable watch. Forces the comedy angle a bit too hard it feels like, but there's some reasonably exciting climbing to watch here. Overall this is a good piece just before intermission and definitely a good cool down after watching Fly or Die. The Hardest Moves: Man, I don't understand how D Wood climbed "The Game" and I certainly don't understand how he came back to it and then downgraded it by almost 2 full grades later. He's an absolute madman, and Paul is pretty great too. Some hard bouldering footage that can be more appreciated for the insight it gives into top-end bouldering culture rather than for it's actual climbing footage The Swiss Machine: Ueli Steck showing why he was the next great phenom in mountaineering and climbing. Indeterminable work ethic, willing to just go for it. Just a montage of incredibly impressive achievements and somehow he makes them all seem mundane. Truly just an exceedingly impressive showing, and an awesome note to finish the film on. Conclusion: Not the greatest Reel Rock, but still in the upper echelon of climbing movies overall. Some great and not-so-great films in this compilation but certainly worth the watch regardless. |
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Movie: The Long Hope (2011) I'll be honest, this movie had an uphill battle to fight today, as I didn't go into watching it in the best mood. If anyone can relax someone, I figure it's Dave MacLeod. This film is about his send of St Johns Head on the Island of Hoy, a huge sea cliff on the coast of Scotland. Couple things out of the gate - wow this movie really hams up that this film is in Scotland. Which, I think a lot of climbing films do when they're in various countries of interest, but they certainly leaned into it with the music. It is not something that casually fades into the background, so prepare yourself for about an hour of energetic Scottish music when you watch. For the actual movie, I was sadly not too impressed. It's more akin to Assault on El Cap than it is to Salathe in that it's a lot of talking to older climbers and having them recount stories in fairly boring interviews rather than featuring the interesting climbing - which is nuts, because there's some pretty serious shit going on. I mean, hell, I'm pretty sure this route is 5.14- (E11 7a, how in the hell do you convert english grades?) and there's times where Dave is talking about being 40+ feet out over his gear on extremely consequential climbing and there's probably only like 10 combined minutes of climbing footage in the entire film. Surely it could get a bit bigger of a share than that? Overall it's an okay film, but certainly not my favorite. Dave is his usual mellow self but the music was...not. So the tone is kind of weird to start. Plus it's a bit heavier on the history, without making the history particularly interesting, than I would like. It's certainly an awesome climbing accomplishment and overall was neat but definitely a bit of a letdown compared to what I was expecting. Conclusion: A bit of a letdown, but still an ok flick. The trailer is unfortunately better than the film itself. |