Stranded (2008) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)The story of the 1972 plane crash in the Andes and the struggles of the men aboard to survive seems to pop into the public awareness periodically over the three decades since it happened. "Stranded" is the latest documentary on the subject, and it's the best I've seen. All 16 survivors participated. Director Gonzalo Arijon incorporates grainy, impressionistic, silent reenactments of the scenes the men describe. This enhances the audience's picture of the events without usurping the gripping commentary of the survivors. The combination of interviews, some archival footage, and the dreamlike reenactments, which seem like memories, make this retelling of the story more engrossing than any narrative adaptation.
On Friday, October 13, 1972, a college rugby team from Montevideo, Uruguay set out on Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 to Santiago, Chile, where they were to compete in a match. Having changed its route to avoid inclement weather, the plane descended too early over the mountains, severed both wings, and crash-landed high in the snow-covered Andes. Of the 45 people aboard, 29 survived the crash, 23 uninjured. They didn't have adequate clothing for the freezing conditions. Many had never seen snow before. And, even strictly rationed, food would only last a few days. They hoped to be rescued but could hear on the radio that the aerial search was called off due to heavy snow. And yet 16 of the young men spent 72 days on the mountain and lived to talk about it.
All survivors participated, but some say more than others. Fernando "Nando" Parrado, who wrote a book about his experiences, seems to have been a leader after the group lost its team captain. Roberto Canessa, who, with Nando, was responsible for the rescue, is the most pensive and analytical of the experience. Gustavo Zerbina is vibrant and opinionated. Those who had the strongest voices on the mountain have the most to say today. The film places no more emphasis on the men's cannibalism than on any other element of their story, for which I am grateful. I've never understood the fascination with the cannibalism. It's the least interesting aspect of the ordeal. This is an incredible story of survival and escape against all odds and against the indifference and supremacy of Nature. In Spanish with optional English subtitles.
The DVD (Zeitgeist 2009): Bonus features are a US trailer (2 min) and a featurette, "The Making of Stranded" (52 min). This is a loosely organized mix of interviews with survivors that were cut from the final edit of the film, some brief interviews with the director on location, in which he emphasizes that this film is about the experiences of the men, not about action, and we spend time with some of the survivors as they relate more details of their experiences to the young actors who will portray them. Both the film and featurette are in Spanish with optional English subtitles.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Stranded (2008)

On October 13, 1972, a young rugby team called "The Old Christians" from Montevideo, Uruguay, boarded a plane for a match in Chile--and then vanished into thin air. Two days before Christmas, 16 of the 45 passengers miraculously resurfaced. They had managed to survive for 72 days after their plane crashed on a remote Andean glacier. Thirty-five years later, the survivors returned to the crash site--known as the Valley of Tears--to recount in their own words their harrowing story of defiant endurance, intense spirituality, and indestructible friendship. Previously documented in the worldwide bestseller Alive (and the film adaptation starring Ethan Hawke), this shocking true story finally gets the cinematic treatment it deserves. Visually breathtaking and crafted with riveting detail by documentary filmmaker (and childhood friend of the survivors) Gonzalo Arijon with a masterful combination of on-location interviews, archival footage and reenactments, Stranded is a hauntingly powerful and spiritually moving celebration of humanity.SPECIAL FEATURES- 16:9 anamorphic transfer, formatted for widescreen televisions- "The Making of Stranded": A 52-minute featurette with behind-the-scenes footage of the cast and crew, and additional interviews with the crash survivors- U.S. theatrical trailer- Optional English subtitles- Director's statement

Get 27% OFF

Click here for more information about Stranded (2008)

Everest: Beyond the Limit (2006) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Please note that this review contains spoilers. Don't read if you don't want to know the ending.
First off, let me say that if you're looking for a series that covers an Everest expedition with careful attention to detail, this is the series for you. Over the course of six episodes, we get to know the individual climbers pretty well. We learn their motivations, their fears, their hopes and the risks they are taking by climbing this mountain. We watch them suffer from exhaustion, oxygen deprivation, frostbite and other serious ailments. By the end of the series, you've come to care about these climbers and you feel you have a vested interest in the success of their summit bids.
What's even more noteworthy is the exceptional job done by the photojournalists who shot the climb -- some of whom were sherpas. Using special cameras attached to their headgear (humorously nicknamed "sherpacams" by the production team), the climbers were able to continuously shoot their dangerous trek from the Death Zone to the summit. As someone who has seen a lot of documentaries of Everest, this is some of the most breathtaking footage ever shot of that mountain.
From the production angle, this documentary gets top marks. Kudos to the Discovery Channel for placing this in our hands.
So why is one star deducted?
It should be noted that this documentary was shot during the 2006 climbing season -- one of the deadliest seasons on record, rivaled only by the 1996 climbing season recounted in John Krakauer's book "Into Thin Air".
If memory serves, 11 people died in 2006. One of them is David Sharp, a solo climber who collapsed in the Death Zone. Members of the Discovery Channel's expedition encountered the dying Sharp while making their way down from their summit attempts (there is actually some dispute as to whether they also encountered him on the way up).
To their credit, some of the climbers (like Lebanese climber Max Chaya) attempted to help Sharp. But ultimately Russell Brice -- the expedition's guide who stayed below at Advanced Base Camp -- ordered them to leave Sharp to his death. All of this is covered in detail in the final episode, as it happens -- even to the extent of including Chaya's weeping transmissions as he has to leave the climber to die.
Brice's logic is simple: he doesn't want to risk the lives of his own clients (who are already frostbitten and on the verge of exhaustion) to save the (at the time) unknown climber.
In retrospect, he was probably right.
All the same, when it's all said and done, I can't decide if I like Brice or not. That incident causes you to see the trek to Everest in much different light. Is it really worth it? It would be one thing if you were climbing for the purposes of exploration and discovery...if the trek had never been done before and you were hoping to learn something new. (Like the first lunar landing or a manned mission to Mars.) But why are these guys going? To fly a flag and get their picture taken? Bravado? Vanity?
Leaving Sharp was a tough moral decision...one that's hard to reconcile. Until I can do that, I'm docking one star.
Oh...and one quick note to the producers: there's no such word as "disorientated". Other than that, it's an excellent documentary.


Click Here to see more reviews about: Everest: Beyond the Limit (2006)

Experience Everest as it's never been before in this harrowing trek to touch the roof of the world. With unusually severe weather and heartbreaking circumstances, this expedition up the world's tallest peak becomes fraught with unexpected perils, leading to an emotional journey full of fear, hardship, exhaustion, disappointment and unforgettable triumphs. Boasting a crew of climbers each with something to prove, this expedition includes the first-ever double amputee to aim for the summit, an asthmatic climber ascending without bottled oxygen and a motorcyclist embracing life once again after a near-fatal traffic accident. Stunningly captured with high-definition cameras, each episode of this special DVD edition includes additional footage not seen in the original broadcast, plus behind-the-scenes moments you won't want to miss! Featuring: Summit Dreams: At Everest Base Camp, newly arrived climbers struggle to acclimate to the Himalayas' extreme altitude. A cameraman collapses with intense stomach pains and is rushed down the mountain. The Gatekeeper: After they learn of a Sherpa's death from altitude sickness, expedition members struggle to prepare themselves for a climb that will be the ultimate test of their mental and physical capabilities. To the Summit: The expedition is divided into two teams for the five-day summit assault. The expedition leader warns the group that he will withdraw the Sherpas if any of the climbers disobey his rules. Into the Death Zone: The expedition is trapped in a high-altitude camp by unexpectedly high winds and is further delayed by a human traffic jam when slower climbers are encountered. Mutiny on the Mountain: Climbers must deal with one of the coldest days ever remembered on the mountain and get caught in another group's descent lines.The Final Cost: With the summit just 350 feet above them, struggling climbers, dangerously weak from serious frostbite and insufficient oxygen, are fiercely determined to reach Everest's pinnacle.

Get 27% OFF

Click here for more information about Everest: Beyond the Limit (2006)

Everest: Season 2 (2007) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Don't hesitate on this one! Grab it! The second season PLUS what in my opinion is an equally important bonus area of discussion [all visual material] including various of the series participants and extra input from those who need no introduction to their high altitude climbing credentials and mountaineering achievements. So too, in the bonus material, the hard questions [read: TV documentary criticisms] of the documentary on Everest are not avoided nor in any way sugar-coated. You're looking at approximately 7 hours of visual material here between the TV episodes and the added bonus discussion material consisting of 4 extended episodes entitled, "Everest: After the Climb" . You absolutely can't beat it for under $15.00! This was the price [$14.97] when I did the review.
I'll lay my cards on the table and as I always do especially if commenting on films [documentary or fiction!] or books that deal with the climbing and/or mountaineering community. I'm tired of seeing Russell Brice used as a sort of handy and proverbial punching bag and especially by, inter alia, various and sundry types who wouldn't know a belay from a ballet or whose knowledge of high altitude climbing and its 'realities' wholly escapes them. Still others take the view that Brice is somehow the perceived "culprit" and allegedly 'responsible' [!?] for the David Sharp matter [2006] as if Russell had some hidden magic wand and could simply wave it around a few times and, voila, some 20 Sherpas could be made to suddenly materialize from his tent to initiate high altitude rescues of virtually anyone in trouble and regardless of altitude issues or weather considerations.
The bonus material addresses various of these considerations. But it also addresses the 'realities' of high altitude climbing in general. For example, the question is put on the table in virtually any mountain rescue attempt by the narrator: Does it come down to a matter of "who should be or shouldn't be rescued" and Brice responds, rightly so in my opinion, that it has nothing to do with who 'should' or 'shouldn't be' rescued issues but rather a more realistic appraisal of "who CAN be rescued" and whether it is 'possible' and logistically feasible to do it! You don't produce the resources for a mountain rescue out of nothing! Or 'thin air', as it were. And the weather at hand is a significant factor not to mention the perils of the higher one climbs or the intricacies/complexities of the route. Naturally, there are always the exceptions to the rule who almost miraculously are saved but then these exceptions become the benchmarks for those who know nothing about high altitude climbing making with, "See! 'X' and 'Y' were saved! Why not 'Z' ?" It's simply not that easy! Look at the cumulative mountaineering experience of both Rob Hall and Scott Fischer [1996] but factors were present on the mountain that day which precluded their rescue. Folks can't relate that 'feet/meters' can be like 'miles/kilometers' in places like Everest and K2 [et al] -- that's something they just can't comprehend not to mention navigation issues during a white-out or numbing cold 'despite' protective and modern insulation gear.
In any event, I think the visual discussion material following the second season episodes is well worth the listen! And the realities of high altitude mountaineering. We're also in the age of so-termed "adventure tourism" with a literal proliferation of various world-wide commercial entities offering to take clients to "you name it" but it's also true, IMO, that some of these clients have no business being at places like Everest or K2 where their prior climbing experience is virtually negligible not to mention altitude issues where some actually believe that the use of bottled oxygen brings them to 'sea level' breathing or that fixed ropes right to the summit itself 'assures a summit' --- NOTHING is 'assured' since it can't be! And it's not 'just' the weather to force one back, it's a whole gammut of factors than can go wrong and at 'any' level on the mountain much less over 26,000 feet. Client temperament(s) notwithstanding.
It seems to me that certain websites have almost dedicated themselves to Russell Brice bashing with a veritable laundry list litany of J'accuse mongering so that if Russell can't pull off ad hoc rescue miracles while pulling rescuers from his derriere, as it were, or indeed take 'anyone' to the summit and back no matter how they are faltering or showing their lack of experience and/or physical stamina limitations on the trial runs, ahh, then he's the proverbial and alleged "don't give a ****" bad guy! Sherpas and guides are NOT there to die for the aspirations of the client especially, I'll add at once, for the client who despite literal hours of cajoling and pleading to turn back, proceed forward and perhaps expect and damn the consequences to both themselves and others -- or to be hand-held or short-roped to their dream. In the series, various 'did' finally listen to reason and turned back but the reality is that some do not despite the best efforts of others [including climbing partners or expedition leaders in some scenarios] to reason with them. And some of them are still up there. Or indeed, miraculously rescued 'by' the climbing community ... at least when feasible and possible to do so.
Doc Tony




Click Here to see more reviews about: Everest: Season 2 (2007)

Item Name: Everest: Season 2; Studio:Discovery Channel

Get 12% OFF

Click here for more information about Everest: Season 2 (2007)