TOUCHING THE VOID
UK, 2003, 107 minutes, Colour.
Joe Simpson, Simon Yates, Richard Hawking;
Reconstruction cast: Brendan Mackey, Nicholas Erin, Ollie Ryall.
Directed by Kevin Macdonald.
This is a skilfully put together docudrama. It tells a harrowing story of a climb in 1985 of Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes that should have ended in death but, amazingly, did not. The two climbers involved, Joe Simpson and Simon Yates, and Richard Hawking, a stranger they met and asked to take care of their base camp during what was supposed to be a one day climb to the peak and back, all tell their story in vivid reminiscence straight to camera. They are very frank about their tensions, the decisions made on the mountain, life and death choices, as well as how they reacted to the climbing fraternities' criticisms of Simon for cutting the rope on Joe when he saw no other alternative.
Director, Kevin Macdonald, has based his film on Simpson's 1988 account of his experiences, Touching the Void and has elicited strong statements from the three concerned and edited them dramatically. He has also employed actors to re-enact the climb, filming in the Andes as well as the Alps. The hardships endured by both Joe and Simon are graphically recaptured as if we were watching the real thing - the unpredictable weather, the dangerous peaks and crevasses, snow and ice. When Simon cuts the rope on Joe, he thinks that Joe is dead and that he will die. He gets down to camp within four days. The latter part of the film is watching Joe, who has broken his leg, demonstrate a will to live and an instinct for survival that beggars belief. When people say the human spirit is indomitable, this is what they must mean. Simpson explains how he lost his Catholic faith and how it did not return during his ideal. He thought there was nothing after death, and he still strove desperately to live.
Those who will never climb a mountain or experience anything like this may find the film hard to watch. For the initiated, they will be watching with a close attention to detail (and memories of their own climbs and dangers).
1.The work of Kevin Macdonald, his Oscar for his documentary on the reconstruction of the events in the Munich Olympics? His similar story of courage, endurance, the desire for life?
2.The docudrama, the effective use of contemporary interviews with the central characters, their being edited together, intercut with the re-enactments of the events? The filming in the Peruvian Andes as well as the Alps?
3.The locations, the peaks, the explanations of climbing, alpine methods, ascending in one day and returning, staying in caves rather than base camps? The snow, powdery, falling from the mountain? The ice, the glaciers, the crevasses? The dangerous ledges? The range of the weather, fine, storms?
4.The nature of mountain-climbing, because the mountains are there? The skills, the necessary trust with two climbers and the connected ropes? The two men working together, their decisions? The decision of cutting the rope? Survival? The use of tools, ropes, the climbing gear? The packs and the food, the light and the batteries and the helmets? The endurance needed for such climbing?
5.The Peruvian Andes, the isolation, the mountains, no-one having climbed before? The goals of Simpson and Yates? The chance meeting with Richard Hawking, getting him to look after the base camp?
6.The climb up, its success? The dangers in the climb down, who went first, who was dependent on whom? Judging the weather, judging the distances? Estimating what had happened? Simon and his staying at the top, Joe dependent on him, the fall, his breaking his leg? His wanting to be lowered? Simon cutting the rope? His thoughts? Joe and his fall, in the crevasse? The transition from Simon walking down the mountains with great difficulty and reaching base camp? Joe and the days passing, his decisions, survival, dehydrated? The light in his lamp? His thoughts, death, his memories of his Catholicism and his loss of faith, it not returning to him? A simple faith in the desire to survive? The details each day of his climbing out of the crevasse, going down the mountain, the falls, the step-by-step progress? His timing himself with twenty-minute journeys? Success and failure? His finally getting down, climbing through the latrine area, calling out? Richard waking, not sure what to do, Simon rescuing and rescuing him?
7.The portrait of the three men: Simon, his skills as a climber, his honesty about his feelings, his memories of the time and their clarity? The dilemma of cutting the rope, later criticisms of him? His admitting that if he cut the rope he would be able to survive without Joe? Joe, his frankness, having written the book? An extraordinary experience of endurance? His magnanimity towards Simon? Richard, his not being friends, his finding Simon more friendly than Joe? His dilemmas at the base camp, not knowing anything about the two, their family etc? His waiting, his tending Simon? Hearing Joe but being afraid and not knowing what to do?
8.A picture of mountain climbing and its skills and dangers? Its challenge? The bleak side in dangers, possible death? The dramatising of the hardships of surviving on a mountain?
9.A film about the indomitable human spirit?
