Movie Review: "Everest"

"Everest": B+.  If you've ever had an inclination or an aspiration to become a mountain climber, one viewing of Everest should be enough to disabuse you of that silly notion.  This exciting rendition of the ill-fated assault on the world's highest peak is based on a real life 1996 tragedy which was famously chronicled by Jon Krakauer in his book, Into Thin Air, published in 1997.

Everest expeditions are led by a handful of mountaineering outfitters from around the globe.  There is a delicate balance between these companies, as they are, indeed, competitors, but at the same time there is a certain amount of mandatory cooperation among them.  The optimal time for ascent is early May, due to usually favorable weather conditions.  As was the case in 1996, the climbing "season" might come down to less than one week.   The result is scores of climbers, most of whom have paid more than $60,000 for the privilege, attempting to traverse the same face of the mountain, across the same mostly narrow passageways, simultaneously.  Sometimes those treacherous passageways must be shared by climbers going up with those coming down.

The film follows Rob Hall (Jason Clarke), the leader of Adventure Consultants, one of the several companies offering guided climbing expeditions.  He bids his pretty pregnant wife, Jan (Keira Knightley), goodbye at the Auckland airport.  As he heads down the concourse to catch his flight to Kathmandu, Jan's eyes well up with tears.  Foreshadowing, or just a natural reaction by a young mother-to-be?

The first half of the story, which I found just as interesting as the second, establishes the preparation which the climbers and the guides must undertake before they even get close to the summit.  The frenzied street scenes of Kathmandu are in stark contrast to the tranquility the adventurers hope to find on the mountain.  From there it is on to a base camp, which resembles a refugee tent city with people from dozens of different nations.  Many of the climbers, such as Texan Beck Weathers (Josh Brolin), stroll in like rock stars.  They are experienced mountaineers who give new meaning to the phrase "living on the edge."  A big part of Weathers' personality is bravado.  Maybe that's a necessary component to climbers like him who are willing to risk their lives for a momentary thrill.

The venture includes almost six weeks of getting acclimated to the high altitudes.  In the base camp we meet Scott Fischer (Jake Gyllenhaal), Hall's counterpart as the leader of the rival mountaineering company, Mountain Madness.  Gyllenhaal's portrait of Fischer is what you might expect from a stoner waiting in line for a Grateful Dead concert: totally laid back, in the moment, seemingly oblivious to the impending perils, preserving his strength for the endeavors ahead.  Compared to Hall, Fischer appears almost detached from his responsibilities.  The two men have shared a mountain, this mountain, before.  Deep down these two realize that the other is not the enemy; the true adversary is the mountain itself.  There is some discussion about ropes being in place and oxygen tanks having been abundantly dispatched in more-than-adequate supply.  Fischer is coughing a lot.  Again we wonder, is some or all of this foreshadowing?  Perhaps red herrings?

Even before the groups leave for their final ascent we can feel the external forces which could lead to imprudent decisions.  If climbers with one of the groups successfully reach the summit while those from other groups do not, the public relations wound to those latter groups will be devastating.  For most of the climbers this will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, either for reasons of health, advancing age or prohibitive costs.  It's now or never.  The presence of Jon Krakauer (Michael Kelly), a widely read writer for Outside magazine, with Hall's group adds another layer of tension.

The second half of the film, in which we go up Everest with the climbers, is an amazing feat of cinematography.  A tip of the hat must go to cinematographer Salvatore Totino.  The adventurers use shaky metal ladders to cross crevices so deep that they appear bottomless.  We simultaneously experience the beauty of "the earth's rooftop" with the hazardous traps the route cruelly entails.  Following many days at base camp, the climbers proceed to four additional camps, each a thousand or more feet higher than the one before.  The expert guides know that time must be spent at each location so that their charges can acclimate to the thinning air.  Oxygen deprivation will not only play tricks on the mind, it can also lead to life-threatening illness such as pulmonary edema.

On the day of the final ascent, when the Adventure Consultants group is awakened with 12:30 a.m. reveille, Hall announces more than once that their "turnaround time" (i.e., the time by which those who've managed to conquer the summit must begin their descent) can be no later than 2:00 p.m.  As soon as the words are out of his mouth we know that deadline will not be met.  What we don't know, unless we've read Krakauer's book, are the consequences of failing to do so.  The most prophetic line in the story is recited by someone at base camp.  "The mountain makes its own weather."

Unfortunately, choppy editing constitutes one of the most irksome defects of the movie.  We see a climber in a certain position on the mountain, and a moment later he is nowhere near the original spot.  This wouldn't be so bad if we could more easily differentiate among the multitude of climbers who look more or less the same with similar mountaineering apparel, fogged up goggles, hoods and scarves, and plenty of facial hair.  I suppose it would have been asking too much of director Baltasar Kormakur to require his cast to wear name tags.