My review of the film Everest released in September 2015

1. Everest - Movie review
A Poignant, inspired-from-real-life and mostrealistically told adventure drama is what Everestcan be best
described as. Even with its austere, toned down sentimentalities and a flat depiction ofevents focusing
more on the characters than the unfolding drama itself, Everest directed by Baltasar Kormákur, still makes
for a greatcinematic experience.Whatsets Everestapart from films like Vertical limit is the sheer masterly
and overwhelming imagery ofthe majestic mountains, which are depicted as a character themselves –as
one ofthe trek guides putit“the mountains have the last say”, and especially so in 3D, which was a very
wise decision by the film makers. Thus the 3-dimensional cinematography-by Salvatore Totino, is simply
spellbinding and had been putto the bestpossible use. The added elementoftoo much air-conditioning
inside the theatre which I suspect, was intentional, along with the 3-D visuals successfully transported me

2. to the pristine Himalayan kingdom which is a Milky Way (as in galaxy) away from my mundane, traffic-
ridden city and thus made me a fellow mountaineer and a witness to the whole proceedings.
Thus the film begins with a note about the much crowded and competitive guided mountaineering trips to
scale Mount Everestthat were organized during the late-mid 90s. The film is aboutthe real-life, final
Everestexpedition undertaken by Rob Hall, a New Zealander who was one of the three guides belonging to
the ‘Adventure consultants’- greatly performed by Jason Clarke. Their rival group is ‘Mountain Madness’
whose guide is ScottFischer – played by Jake Gyllenhaal, and the two bring in clients from all over the
world for scaling the Summit. Rob Hall’s clients include the gruff Texan, Beck Weathers – by Josh Brolin; I
will come to him later, Doug Hansen, an ailing postal employee – played by John Hawkes and Yasuko
Namba, an experienced Japanese climber attempting to become the oldestwoman to summit Everest – by
Naoko Mori. Hall had already scaled the Everestfour times and the story takes place during his fifth
attempt which would sadly become his lastalbeitbeing successful. He departs from New Zealand together
with their base camp manager Helen Wilton- played by a delightful and dignified Emily Watson, after
bidding adieu to his pregnantwife Jan – played by Keira Knightley. He meets up with his clients in Nepal
airport and proceeds to the Base camp where he catches up with his old pal Fischer of‘Mountain
Madness’. The team’s arduous climb to the summit, the havoc wreaked by an unpredictable nature and the
mounting death tolls form the restof the story, shown with an admirably muted yetdignified poignancy. I
must say, the summit scene could be the mostrealistic and yetmostbeautiful and awesome depiction of
the scaling ofEverestever. We could feel the importofthe achievement(ofthe climbers) ofsuch a scale
and the sense ofpride and joy in their faces. The director and cinematographer simply deserve a standing
ovation for this particular scene alone.
Their initial journey from Kathmandu to the Base camp makes for some ofthe mostspectacular and
beautiful imagery ever to have been captured in celluloid (notto be taken literally as the film is shot in
Digital format). The helicopter ride and the corresponding shots are absolutely breathtaking in 3-D format
and cinematographer Salvatore Totino, a frequentcollaborator ofDirector Ron Howard and whose body of
work includes such massive productions as The Da Vinci code, Cinderella Man and The Missing to name a
few, mightwell be headed for an oscarette, this time. The cast of this film is what you might call as a
veritably stellar one with the likes ofJosh Brolin who proves to be well castfor the gritty and coarse voiced
Texan character, Jason Clarke, Jake Gyllenhall, Sam Worthington – can anyone tell me what on earth must
he have been thinking while accepting to do such an insignificant role?, Keira Knightley, Emily Watson,
Martin Henderson and Robin Wright. Overall, a greatmovie which is great in visuals, sound effects, special
effects and lead actors’ performances and low on sentimentality and cinematic tempo. A mustwatch
(especially in 3D) would be my verdict.
Vijay Ram