GetPapa Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

Onlinewsma Absolutely Brilliant!

BeSummers Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

brendan-821-654855 I really enjoyed this film, finding it particularly engaging and informative, especially after having just watched the poorly crafted mountaineering documentary 'The Summit.'It was clearly a passion project, and it also revolved around attempting to recreate the fated Mallory expedition, so, unlike others, I wasn't too bothered by the fact that Conrad Anker featured a lot in this documentary. It felt a little bit forced in places (he clearly seemed to be reading from a script or reciting practiced lines, rather than speaking from the heart, at times) but there were still enough fascinating insights to overlook this sort of stuff (remember, he's an experienced climber, not a documentary filmmaker!)The one aspect of the documentary that I did find frustrating, and thus the lower rating, was the fact that it was clearly built on endorsing one particular theory about the Mallory expedition, rather than taking a more unbiased approach and allowing their conclusions to simply be part of the wider speculative mix.This bias meant that we did not get to hear all of the various theories about what possible route they could have taken or whether they even made the climb, let alone the summit, etc.It also created a situation in which some rather glaring holes in their re-creation attempt of Mallory's possible final climb were completely ignored.For example; even though he was inexperienced at altitude, Conrad Anker's partner for the re-creation attempt was a very capable rock climber, whereas Mallory's partner was a rower with no climbing experience.Or the fact that they made their re-creation climb dressed in modern climbing gear, whereas the clothes and boots used by Mallory were very rudimentary and would not have afforded the same advantages to him.In fact, aspects of their modern re-creation expedition were a little bit gimmicky in places and really added nothing of substance to the documentary - like the very brief use of old style climbing clothes and boots similar to the ones worn by Mallory and his team.If they'd carried out their whole re-creation expedition wearing the old style gear (something I would never expect them to do in a million years) then that would have added something truly important to the documentary. Simply putting it on for a brief period was merely a gimmick and it really only resulted in one interesting piece of information - that the old style clothing provided far less protection from the elements, and the boots were far less suitable for climbing than modern gear is. This really should have featured in the final narrative as evidence that challenges the theory that the documentary was proposing, but, alas, it is simply mentioned and then quickly moved on from.There are also other issues around the timing of the original attempt, and whether they had appropriate oxygen supplies, etc, to complete the climb.All in all this is a very watchable and interesting documentary that is let down by one simple flaw: it doesn't document all of the evidence, and it really only presents their preferred theory about Mallory's summit attempt (and even then, it's only a very brief examination of that attempt, and a lot of unwarranted conclusions are drawn from it.)That being said, I'd still highly recommend this movie to others.

Vultural ~ Modern documentary retracing George Mallory's 1924 Mt Everest attempt, which ended in his and his companion's disappearance. His frozen body, with compound fracture, was found in 1999.1924 was near the end of the glory years of the old explorers. Both poles, darkest Africa, perfumed Asia, tropical South America, all have been trekked. Only that peak remained to be claimed.Two modern climbers retraced Mallory's path, wearing layered clothing, fur hats, hobnail boots, goggles.The ladder, placed near the top in the 70s (and used since by countless handicapped, overweight, blind wannabee mountaineers) was removed.Film swings back and forth between Mallory, his letters, the 20s and the difficulties the modern duo encounter.Cold is ever present, and caused one viewer in the room to move closer to the fire.

keach50 Stories of mountaineering and of Everest have always fascinated me. So often, facts make better stories than fiction, and this is another example. I first remember hearing about the discovery of George Mallory's body on what turned out to be a PBS/NOVA special "Lost on Everest" made shortly after the discovery of his body by Conrad Anker, which shows the actual footage of the discovery. The story of George Mallory and Andrew Irvine is overshadowed by the story of Sir Edmond Hillary, who is the first person to officially summit Everest. Mallory and Irvine's story and efforts are no less dramatic considering they attempted the summit 30 earlier, along a more difficult route. Even if they did not succeed in reaching the summit, the fact that they were 800 feet within the summit is in itself astounding. Using up to date technology and filming techniques, along with rarely seen archival footage, this documentary complements the story and narration, and the repeat attempt along the same route replicating similar conditions back then are equally dramatic. Along with "Touching the Void", "The Beckoning Silence" and the current Nova special "Chasing Shackleton" captures the adventurous spirit of the Golden Age of Exploration.

hobersl Interesting movie. The only thing that bothers me is that they lied. When it comes to "were tied together by a thin cotton rope". Well it was 1942 and the blemish of cannabis hasn't reached out so far that the people were willingly give up their good tear-proof nature-fiber hemp. Never the less there are beautiful pictures been shown and the story has been good transcript-ed. So in the end you should have at least seen this movie once and if just for the pictures that has been taken for it. So when you see this grab it and you can at least expect fantastic pictures taken from the highest point of the earth. Especially interesting when you plan to climb this mountain. It's certainly not the toughest to climb and with the tourism up there you would rather perish by cold waiting for the man in front of you to climb on.