Film Rec: Touching the Void (2003)
Touching the Void
This documentary-style story of a climbing expedition gone wrong must be one of the world's greatest tales of survival. I was stomach-clenchingly afraid at times, totally unable to see how the man could possibly get himself out of his terrible situation, and reassured only by the fact that he obviously had, since he was there on camera narrating. His screams of pain were agonising and the honesty with which he talked about his fears very moving - talking about a night (in extremely extreme circumstances) of screaming and crying, he said, looking straight at the camera, "I thought I'd've been stronger." With what he went on to do, it's hard to imagine anyone stronger.
I was interested that he said that though raised a strict Catholic, he'd ceased to believe in God long before the expedition, and not once in his days-long ordeal did it even cross his mind to think of a god or an afterlife. He thought he could take that as certainty that he really did not believe!
His climbing partner's honesty was also striking. He talked of thinking about how much easier it would be for him if Joe had died in his initial accident, about his decision to cut the rope tying them together after there seemed no other alternative, and even his thoughts of making up a different story during his descent to make himself look better. He apparently came under heavy fire in the climbing community for those things, but they seemed very natural to me.
I love real-life stories of survival (and courage where survival isn't possible) - I think I believe that the more of that sort of thing I soak up, the more likely I am to react a little bit better than otherwise myself if I ever find myself in one of those situations.
In case my secret santa doesn't have any ideas about what to get me, I wouldn't mind the book!
This documentary-style story of a climbing expedition gone wrong must be one of the world's greatest tales of survival. I was stomach-clenchingly afraid at times, totally unable to see how the man could possibly get himself out of his terrible situation, and reassured only by the fact that he obviously had, since he was there on camera narrating. His screams of pain were agonising and the honesty with which he talked about his fears very moving - talking about a night (in extremely extreme circumstances) of screaming and crying, he said, looking straight at the camera, "I thought I'd've been stronger." With what he went on to do, it's hard to imagine anyone stronger.
I was interested that he said that though raised a strict Catholic, he'd ceased to believe in God long before the expedition, and not once in his days-long ordeal did it even cross his mind to think of a god or an afterlife. He thought he could take that as certainty that he really did not believe!
His climbing partner's honesty was also striking. He talked of thinking about how much easier it would be for him if Joe had died in his initial accident, about his decision to cut the rope tying them together after there seemed no other alternative, and even his thoughts of making up a different story during his descent to make himself look better. He apparently came under heavy fire in the climbing community for those things, but they seemed very natural to me.
I love real-life stories of survival (and courage where survival isn't possible) - I think I believe that the more of that sort of thing I soak up, the more likely I am to react a little bit better than otherwise myself if I ever find myself in one of those situations.
In case my secret santa doesn't have any ideas about what to get me, I wouldn't mind the book!