Touching the Void

In 1985, two British mountaineers, Joe Simpson and Simon Yates, embarked on a daring--arguably reckless in the extreme--attempt to climb the previously unconquered mountain Siula Grande. A mixture of overconfidence in their own abilities and underestimation of the climb's difficulties brought them to grief after the successful slog to the summit. What follows is an often harrowing account of their perilous descent.

Based on Joe Simpson's gripping book, the film boasts glorious widescreen photography of Siula Grande and its notorious glacier. Actors take the place of the two climbers for close-ups, though Simpson did return to Peru in order to reenact parts of his dreadful crawl back down the ice. The story of Simpson's almost-superhuman fortitude has become legendary in climbing circles, and even for viewers uninterested in mountaineering, Touching the Void is an astonishing slice of real-life drama, magnificently retold. --Mark Walker

Spotlight Reviews
3.5 stars out of 4 (2009-01-03)
Customer Review : 5
The Bottom Line:

A harrowing and gripping documentary that plays likes a thriller, Touching the Void is a fascinating film that made me both understand the allure of mountain clumbing and never want to do it.

Touching the Void touches the soul... (2008-12-26)
Customer Review : 5
A heart-pounding, non-stop adventure full of action that shows us how amazing the human body and will to survive really is. I watched this movie a couple years ago and was hooked the first time I saw it. I recently purchased it for Christmas and was reminded of how much pain the human body can endure but when someone is desperate to survive, their willpower can overcome that pain. This movie is amazing...I always suggest it to people...especially lovers of the outdoors.

Some considerations to keep in mind! (2008-11-04)
Customer Review : 5
First of all, this is one of those rare productions where some 'Hollywood' version of true events [** you know, the old Hollywood classic of "for the sake of the script, viewer interest and so-termed 'creative license' ...] doesn't tinker with the facts or where countless Hollywood hawked "taken from true events" winds up taking a beating and pure 'fiction' enters the script forthwith! See my K2 review and the additional problem of some folks seeing a 'movie' and suddenly transpose the movie and sometimes even its 'fictional' characters and conjured plot to literal 'fact' [!] simply because they never researched the actual events any further than the Silver Screen representation of same!

In this film production , while professional actors duly play Joe Simpson and Simon Yates, the 'real' Simpson and Yates comment on the film as the film progresses. I don't mean some viewer option 'commentary' DVD machine turn on/turn off kind of thing, I mean the actual 'visuals' of the real Joe Simpson and Simon Yates commenting throughout the film itself. One could say it's a documentary versus 'movie' per se but the direct input of Simpson and Yates, at least in this case and IMO of course, only adds to the film. And its accuracy.

Now for the biggie: It's hardly any secret that Simon Yates took some heavy flak from certain folks in the mountaineering fraternity citing what they believe to be the unwritten code or "golden rule", viz., "you don't cut the rope!" That's of course very easy to say when it's someone 'else' who is involved in such horror filled time spans but my own feeling is who is to say what one will do or not do in such dire circumstances! And keep this one in mind: I keep hearing as the alleged 'primary' reason for Yates cutting the rope [from various and sundry who are highly critical of Yates] that, "Yates says he thought Simpson was dead" and followed by "how could Yates ever know this!" but I suggest that Yates believing Simpson was dead was a 'secondary' consideration and the 'primary' consideration was the FACT that Yates was 'himself' being slowly but surely edged off the mountain. In effect, 'both' climbers could have fallen had the rope not been cut and who is to say the result then!

Further, and of cogence, Simpson 'defended' the action of Yates cutting the rope. Simpson also dedicated his book to Simon Yates. Recall too that in the real drama, Simpson landed on a small ledge "within a few feet of a deep drop-off" within the crevasse. Who is to say what the impact of that ledge landing would have been had 'both' men tumbled off the mountain? Yates could not pull Simpson up nor was Simpson capable of assisting in any upward climb on the rope, Yates was himself being edged off the vertical and into oblivion by the weight of the rope -- what does one do! Finally, and think about this one, Simpson was freezing to death on the end of that rope during the storm and, ironically, landing in the crevasse after the rope was cut actually sheltered him [such as it was but nevertheless shelter] from the brunt of the storm and significantly reduced the effect of the storm winds [while dangling on the rope] with regard to acute hypothermia and wind-chill issues.

On the other hand, we have a situation here where both men did survive and were able to fill in the gaps as to what happened versus some 'conjectured' scenario of having no input from the original climbers involved. And, hey, OK, I'll play, what would 'I' have done? I don't know! I've mercifully not been in a situation like that but what I'm grousing about are those Yates detractors who were not there yet castigate Yates by simply parroting "You don't cut the rope!" ad infinitum suggesting that no matter the circumstances, ahhh, 'they' would 'never' conceive of doing such a thing. No-no, not they! 'They' would allegedly die first, kind of thing, and allegedly never even give a passing thought to touching that rope but I'm not so sure that kind of statement can be made when the speaker of same is not the one involved in the decision! Or the intense physical and psychological stress of the moment as one is being edged off the mountain and into oblivion themselves!

It's a gripping film and has various extras including the making of the film featurette and "Return to Siula Grande" with further interviews with Joe Simpson and Simon Yates. BTW, it also shows the truism that the 'majority' of accidents in mountaineering endeavors occur on the 'descent' versus the 'ascent' -- as the most recent K2 tragedy [August 1, 2008] well demonstrates where 11 experienced climbers were killed.

Doc Tony

Excellent (2008-09-21)
Customer Review : 4
The simplest of words can sometimes convey far more than the most elaborate action scenes. This runs counter to the whole `a picture is worth a thousand words', yet is nonetheless true.
This film is a docudrama about two young British mountaineers, Joe Simpson and Simon Yates, who in 1985 decided to become the first men to ever scale a treacherous Andean peak in Peru called Siula Grande. They left for their task with a third climber who was to wait at their base camp- Richard Hawking.
The film documents the weeklong adventure Joe and Simon had. The first three days were rather uneventful, and the duo reached the summit. It was on the way down that trouble hit. Freak storms were the first augur of bad things to come. Then Joe broke his leg and Simon was left to innovate a technique to lower his partner down the mountainside in 150 foot increments. Then, a second accident befell the duo. In a blizzard, Simon lowered Joe over an overhang that hung over a massive crevasse. When Joe could not signal what had occurred Simon was left in the precarious position of being unable to lift his partner back, and slowly being dragged down the face himself. After a few hours with no signal from Joe Simon made a fateful decision to cut the rope to Joe, assuming he had died and was a dead weight, lest he face sure death as well.
Joe fell into the crevasse, where he dangled for hours. The next morning, a shaken Simon looked in vain, and assumed his partner had died. Simon made it back to the base camp, nearly dead from frostbite, and needed a few days to recover physically and emotionally with Richard. Joe, meanwhile, after much frustration, lowered himself into the crevasse and made his way out, then spent several days painfully eking his way down the mountain with an improvised splint, over glaciers and rock fields. The last night that Simon and Richard were at camp they heard Joe's cries and were shocked that he survived.... this is a terrific film as documentary and adventure. A viewer can understand why these adventurers do what they do, as well as recoil from it. Watching Joe Simpson narrate his tale you can see him do both at once, sometimes. It's in those fleeting moments that the viewer gets why this film was.


True Spirt (2008-08-25)
Customer Review : 5
This movie is one that shows a real life story of a mountian climbing trip that leads one man to a struggle for his life. Touching the void conveys a the true feeling of strugle to the viewer. It offers a sense of how those with the those that can withstand the forging of ones soul in life will have the fortitude to make it through anything humanly possably. This Movie shows the limits of man can sometimes be just enough to survive.