Touching the Void (film)
| Touching the Void | |
|---|---|
 Region 2 DVD cover | |
| Directed by | Kevin MacDonald |
| Produced by | John Smithson |
| Starring | Brendan Mackey Nicholas Aaron Ollie Ryall |
| Distributed by | Pathé (UK theatrical) IFC (US theatrical) MGM (US DVD) |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 106 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $13,885,802 |
Touching the Void is a 2003 documentary based on the book of the same name by Joe Simpson about Simpson's and Simon Yates' disastrous and near fatal attempt to climb Siula Grande (6,344m) in the Cordillera Huayhuash in the Peruvian Andes in 1985.
Outline
Both climbers successfully reach the summit of the previously unclimbed West Face of Siula Grande in Peru. Joe is injured during the descent after falling, resulting in a badly broken leg. The pair decide to lower Joe with the help of ropes on the steep snowy slope, while an enormous storm rages on. Simon cannot see where he is lowering Joe and Joe eventually drops off a cliff and is suspended by the rope in mid-air. Simon arrests his fall, but does not see the predicament his partner is in nor hear him because of the severity of the storm.
After about an hour, Simon realizes that there is little chance of recovery from this situation for either of them and he makes the decision to cut Joe's rope. After surviving a subzero and stormy night on the mountain, Simon descends, but cannot find his partner. He decides his partner is dead, and returns to the base camp alone, where he stays to recover.
Joe, who survived the fall but fell into a large crevasse, manages to lower himself further into the dark abyss despite his broken leg and find an exit leading to the base of the mountain. He then spends days crawling across glacier and rocks with his broken leg and other injuries. Delirious, he found and crawled into the climbers' base camp the night before the day in which Simon had decided to leave.
Production
The film combines documentary footage of interviews conducted with Simpson, Yates and Richard Hawking with a re-enactment performed by actors Brendan Mackey, Nicholas Aaron and Ollie Ryall. For the film's few Peru segments, Simpson and Yates doubled as their younger selves for long-distance shots of the snow-fluted couloirs of Siula Grande.[1] The film was directed by Kevin MacDonald.
The BBC1's Film 2011 included Brendan Mackey's performance as Joe Simpson in their Top Five "Should Have Won An Oscar", along with Ingrid Bergman (for Casablanca), Anthony Perkins (for Psycho), Ralph Fiennes (for Schindler's List) and Jeff Bridges (for The Big Lebowski).[2]
Responses
During the making of the film, the director and producers invited Simon Yates and Joe Simpson to return to Siula Grande in 2002 for the first time since the events of 1985. Simpson, despite finding the return emotionally difficult and experiencing post traumatic stress syndrome on his return, eventually said that he was happy with the film and its portrayal of the events. Yates, on the other hand, reported having no emotional response to returning to Siula Grande, and decided to have nothing to do with the film once he had returned from the mountain.[3]
According to the film's end notes Yates received much criticism from some mountaineers for cutting the rope during the descent after the story of what happened to Simpson and Yates returned to England. Simpson has deeply accepted that Yates did the right thing and practically saved his life, and has always defended him on that matter.
Because Touching the Void is almost all reenactment, it created controversy within the Academy Awards, touching off a debate as to how much of a documentary film could be reenactment, and was instrumental in the Academy resetting its rules.[citation needed]
Box office
The film was released on 23 January 2004 and grossed $96,973 in the opening weekend. It went on to gross $4,593,598 in America and $9,292,204 from foreign markets for a worldwide total of $13,885,802 after 20 weeks.[4]
Music
The climbers reach the summit to the climax of Thomas Tallis's Spem in alium. During one of Simpson's many deliriums, he experiences a very strong reminiscence of a Boney M song he hated thoroughly, "Brown Girl in the Ring"; at one point thinking "Bloody hell, I'm going to die to Boney M".
See also
- Survival film, about the film genre, with a list of related films
References
- ^ http://outsideonline.com/outside/news/200402/200402_making_the_cut_1.html?page=2
- ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00x7l47
- ^ Touching the Void Region 1 Special Features (DVD). MGM. 2004.
- ^ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=touchingthevoid.htm