Everest

It is apparently a real life story that happened at the top of the world in 1996. There is little drama you can add to such an incident and even within that limitations Everest works for the audience quiet emotionally. With almost 90% of the movie entirely invested in visualizing the toughness of the mountain climbing part, the trauma and practical difficulties we get to see will really shake our perspective about the whole expedition thing and of course Everest.

The movie is actually an essay of an event that happened in 1996. Rob Hall was one of the expedition leaders who were there with their team among many other groups that came there at the same time of the year. The climbing became difficult with the unexpected wind and severe climate and the movie Everest depicts these events in its realistic best.

The movie starts of quite normally with the expedition warming up and characters getting introduced in the flow of events. The quality of the making makes the movie quite absorbing and the mountain climbing part with its full strain gets pictured in the first hour itself. The intense and nervous second half of the movie that shows us the harsh realities of devastating experiences the members had almost leaves you speechless. I don’t know which part was CGI and which part was real, but I must say that it looked really harsh on screen. People giving it up, leader doing his best, support team giving their best, one person who was declared dead coming back and the reason behind many people’s decision to climb make the movie emotionally rich.

Jason Clarke was really good as the expedition leader Rob Hall. The guy has that charm of a leader with knowledge and patience. Jake Gyllenhaal did the part of Scott Fischer with the necessary cool attitude at such an altitude. Josh Brolin was good as Beck Weathers and other notable performers were John Hawkes, Keira Knightley and Emily Watson.

Baltasar Kormakur who earlier made movies like 2 Guns and Contraband makes a totally different film here and the director has done a splendid job in visualizing the beautiful and harsh side of Everest. The last half an hour or so is heart wrenching and as I wasn’t that aware about what really happened in the 1996 tragedy it was even more emotional for me. The cinematography is excellent with surreal visuals of the world’s peak. Whatever visual effects they might have added has to be acknowledged as it was totally blended. The background score was also impressive. One thing that confused me was the characters as a few of them wore similar jackets. BTW Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Ghum was released in 2001 (One song from KKKG was playing in a bus in the movie).

So to sum it up, Everest is an emotionally resonant content that will touch your heart. The rating for the film is 4/5. If you don’t know much about these 1996 Everest incidents, that’s good if you are planning to watch Everest.