Broad Peak

I find movies about climbers strangely fascinating, since I don't have a clue about what pushes them to do crazy stuff that very often ends with death by hypothermia.

Based on real events, the main character of this story is Maciej Berbeka, a Polish climber who attempted to reach Broad Peak in 1988, almost dying in the proceedings, only to be told that he stopped some 20 metres from the peak. To be noted, he stopped because he was exhausted and lost in a blizzard in terrible weather conditions.

On the way down he almost died and he talked about his near death experience as awful, since he spent almost 24 hours in a hole in the snow at -40° at over 8000 mt. A reasonable person would probably not be willing to repeat such an experience, but 25 years later Maciej is contacted by the guy who organized the first expedition and asked to go again, with three much younger guys.

After a short hesitation Maciej decides to go, stating that he needs "to finish what he started". It looked pretty much finished 25 years earlier to me, but the inevitable ensues, with a much older Maciej attempting another winter expedition with the younger guys just to prove... what exactly?

The story is told in a rather boring way, with sparse dialogue and little to no insight into any characters minds. Makes you feel cold and despairing about human nature. Still, some interesting photography.

The breathtaking mountain climbing shots - especially when they pan out and show you where the climbers are in relation to the size of the mountain - is terrifying - how they get up these sheer ice faces is just amazing. I found most of the film very gripping and my only issue is that the time lag between the first attempt to climb Broad Peak and the second attempt is supposed to be 25 years later. This length of time seems more like a few years as all you see the main character doing is some joinery and giving some school talks etc. Plus he and his wife look no different 25 years later. I had to go and check that it really was 25 years later. Just a quibble though.

Extremely well-made film, with very good CGI depicting the Baltoro area of the Karakoram in winter. Climbing movies - good ones anyway - are notoriously difficult to make as the real climbing itself is, in the case of alpine climbing in the Karakoram and Himalaya, slow, and hence the pace of the film as well. One climber described Himalayan climbing as long stretches of tedium punctuated by moments of sheer terror. And climbers - high mountain alpinists - are notoriously taciturn. The director does an excellent job of showing the inner life of these tough, but very human men, while not feeling the need to create meaningless dialogue. Silence does work in the case of this film. Very well photographed, and the Polish cast is uniformly excellent, while the principals also bear a striking resemblance to the real climbers - Bielecki, Berbeka, Wielecki, and others, the famous Polish Ice Warriors of the 70s, 80s, 90, and into the 21st century (read Bernadette McDonald's "The Art of Freedom" on Woyteck Kurtyka, on of the famous Poles).

The final climb seemed a bit truncated - I was expecting more, so I would say that the film was about 15 minutes too short. Other than that, this is well worth watching, and I don't really understand the negative reviews. The climbing sequences are true to form (I am a climber myself, and have been to the Himalaya), the gear, everything, and it is not over sensationalistic. Ranks right up there with another great climbing film, "Nordwand," a German film about the 1936 attempt on the Eiger North wall.

A "lite" version of the ascent of Broad Peak by Polish high altitude mountaineer Maciej Berbeka. The story is not too bad, but predictable. Similar movies like EVEREST are more gripping with better editing.

That said, this movie holds its place based on true events. It's so important in this sport to know your limits, to know when to let go and to never let ego take control.

Wonder how can such an acclaimed director blow off such a fantastic story. We get attechet to absolutely no characters in the films. The story just passes by quickly, with no emotions nor suspense. Dialogues are rare, fragmented and have no relevance to the story. There are neither any questions nor answers in this film. Even the clibmbing scene es have no sense. We don know who is Berbeka, why he is climbing and what is it all about. His wife is completely in a shadow with no meaningful dialogues between them. There was such a great opportunity in this movie. Unfortunately we cannot experience it. I am soooo disappointed.