Thursday 23 May 2019

Free Solo (2018 Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi)

Well, I thought that Alex Honnold and his girlfriend Sanni (what sort of name is that?) McCandless were nuts (he clearly in the Asberger's realm - "I didn't eat vegetables so at 21 I introduced them one by one into my diet").

Despite knowing the outcome, terrifying film shows first solo ropeless climb (also by madmen cameramen, of which Chin is one) up El Capitan, where there's no stopping for a quick espresso on the way up (it took four hours), causes sweaty palms with frequency.

What's next for him, though? you think ruefully, and expect to hear in the news about the tragic etc. etc.

You have to give it to Chin (and off camera Vasarhelyi) who devoted so much time into something that (a) may not have happened at all (b) may have ended up tragically - what sort of film would that have made? There's a jaw-dropping moment where we see a climber fall off, almost certainly to his death - then at the last minute a parachute opens - but after that he still fell to his death.

Cues Q's joke though about getting to the top and finding a staircase on the other side, or an impromptu lift that Dick Strawbridge has constructed... How did they get down?

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