Touching The Void

'127 Hours' In The Snow?



Director: Kevin Macdonald

Release Date: 2004

Rating: 15

Running Time:

Genre: Documentary/Adventure

Actors: Brendam Mackey, Nicholas Aaron

'127 Hours' but in the snow is probably the best way to sum up this film. Another true story of an incredible climbing adventure gone wrong. This film, despite being a documentary, is able to come across like any normal film and is so cleverly made in a way hat we are made to feel like we are going through this incredible journey with them. The film explores how much we can be tested as human beings, and the constant urge to survive and never give up. It's definitely not the lightest of films but it's so miraculous and awe inspiring it really makes you admire the strength that man possess in hopeless and treacherous situations. Filmed where the actual expedition took place, we see two actors, recreate the incredible week the climbers had to bear, along with the real Joe and Simon narrating while this is going on. It's so cleverly and well edited, we forget that this is a documentary and begin just enjoying it as a film, so much so that at some points you begin to wonder if the two climbers are actually going to survive, which is bizarre given as they are narrating it.

Taking place on one of the highest mountains in the Andes, we see two young climbers Joe and Simon venture up a mountain which no one has ever reached the top of, and why? 'It sounded like a fun day out' says Joe when narrating this film. In three days the climbers succeed in reaching the top with only each other and what they could carry to help them, but then they look down the mountain and suddenly be the question 'how the hell are we getting down?'. Upon venturing back down the mountain, the time when 80% of the accidents happen, we see Joe fall and break his leg severely, leaving him in no position to walk, Simon then must lower Joe down the mountain and fast before they end up running out of supplies and freezing to death, but that's where the story really takes off. Whilst lowering Joe down, Joe ends up falling over the void of the mountain and is suspended in the air hanging onto a single rope, Simon, who is now being dragged down slowly by Joe's body has to make a decision of what to do, and fast. Not sure of Joe is still even alive or his condition, Simon chooses to cut the rope to save himself and we see Joe fall 80 feet down the mountain falling through a cravass and consequently falling another 80 feet, but Joe isn't dead.

The amazing thing about 'Touching The Void' is the story. It's so utterly unbelievable that if it was a fictional story no one would believe it, the only way that we can is because Joe and Simon actually managed it and are telling us the story. That's one of the things about Documentaries that I find so fascinating. Like films, they may not portray the entire truth or 'the' truth but they certainly can portray 'a' truth. For many people documentaries can be seen as boring because for so many people, what happens in the real world can sometimes be quite mundane and that is why we rely on films so we can suspend our disbelief and end up loosing ourselves in different worlds.

This film will leave you constantly guessing and desperate to learn what is going to happen to the abandoned Joe and how this story is going to end. We know what happens, but we don't know how, and that is why this film stands out as such an amazing story and makes us all wonder what we would do if we were ever in a situation like this, I dread to think.

8/10