I like sports; extreme sports where the line between life and death, beauty and horror is as thin as air.
I like golf, ping pong, chess, rock climbing. ...And music listening, including the sound of the wind against the mountain's side.
Free Solo | National Geographic | Documentary | 2018 Best | Theaters, Amazon, Vudu, Google Play, YouTube
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I like sports; extreme sports where the line between life and death, beauty and horror is as thin as air.
I like golf, ping pong, chess, rock climbing. ...And music listening, including the sound of the wind against the mountain's side.
Alex Honnold climbed El Capitan on June 3, 2017, in 3 hours and 56 minutes (2,900-foot Freerider route). He climbed it by himself (solo) and without ropes, without a safety net @ the bottom, and without a parachute (free). No other climber has ever done it, but only him. And he didn't fall (die).
? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Honnold
I've watched many rock climbing documentaries, mountain climbing documentaries, ...Everest, K2, etc., all the best ones. Free Solo is nominated for Best Documentary @ the Oscars next week; it's a winner, it will win the Oscar, I cannot fathom a different outcome.
In the documentary the film crew, Alex, his girlfriend, his friends, they all prepare to the reality, his death. The film crew they discuss it, and even if it's not a happy subject they prepare for the worst case scenario, how to deal with it emotionally and legally. One tiny slip of a finger and that's it. This is very precise climb, by the millimeter (tip of the finger and toe). It's like a super precise ballet. The ones who know the most that he can die are the professional rock climbers.
One of them filming @ the base with a super zoom video camera is too scared @ times to look @ the camera's screen during few very dangerous passages. It is scary, perfect spots to fall, and normally I don't feel the danger but this time I was grinding my teeth, my fingers and my toes.
My body was tense, which is extremely rare from watching any film or any documentary.
The more intense experiences I had in life were real; working on steep terrains and under harsh natural conditions...heavy rain, snow, freezing cold and fierce winds. Those days were part of my job, some near death situations. But watching docs is not real as in real life, it's on a screen so I don't feel the same. But it is real life, it was filmed in real location with real cameras, real actors, real stuntman, cameraman, real climbers, real life people who do that for a living passion. The cameramen, the documentary crew, Alex, his friends, ...they are real life, there is no escaping the facts, they don't have to force anyone, it's all right there in front of our very eyes with everything else attached to it.
With 'Free Solo', with the quality cinematography, the amazing shots, there were few moments...minutes I was tense a little, very exceptional...I don't usually tight my hands and sweat from them...here I was.
Anyway, if climbing is your thing (passion, hobby, job), Free Solo is unparallel, a unique experience, a journey, the last fifteen minutes are the apothosis with incredible camera shots following his climb, extreme closeups, gorgeous backgrounds, perspective to die for... The film crew did a fabulous job.
I should go to my local museum where it's playing on IMAX, the largest one. ...I just might. The screen is so big that they need more brightness, more light from the projector(s), and make the place totally pitch black dark. Just a small realistic observation, but the sheer size would help big in few of the immersive shots of the rock face with the background. ...Beautiful valley.
They use top quality cameras because some of the shots are razor blade sharp and well focused.
Last word: It's going to take some time for me to unstuck from that rock.
Overall: 99
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It's eleven degree Celsius right now, I'm outside under a blue sunny sky and two thirds of the snow is gone, all melted down by warmer temperatures of the last three days.
A hummingbird is two feet from my face, I'm wearing a t-shirt and getting a suntan.
In the background silence is playing, symphony number nine.
EDIT: It is now 20° Celsius. ...1:30 PM Pacific Time.
A hummingbird is two feet from my face, I'm wearing a t-shirt and getting a suntan.
In the background silence is playing, symphony number nine.
EDIT: It is now 20° Celsius. ...1:30 PM Pacific Time.
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I wasn't so much impressed by the death stuff, as I was by how thoroughly Alex approached and prepared for the climb. Also, I was struck by how much he has matured, more in terms of becoming more "social" and communicative, especially, than as a climber.
He's very very technical, he analyzed every inch of his 3,000 feet vertical climb. The death aspect is simply life's reality.
He puts everything on paper, with graphs and important notes, like a NASA rocket scientist.
True, he has matured a lot over the years socially. It's normal; he's worldwide known, giving interviews, writing books, in documentaries, covering the front pages of sport magazines, and others.
He could quit climbing tomorrow morning, have many children, and live forever.
I'm not sure he's ready for that right now. It's in his blood, and he has very good friends. I like his mother.
He's an exceptional guy well respected and loved by the best. He's the best.
One reviewer commented about the documentary (Free Solo) not building the tension.
True, we see him in his regular life, with friends, the filming crew, his girlfriend, Mom, his past climbs, etc.
Then and only then, in the last fifteen minutes we see him starting to climb, his pants cut with a knife, just as simple as that, no parade, no fanfare...then he keeps climbing, and fast too. It is during those last fifteen minutes that everything before it rings true.
It is a superb rock climbing documentary with the best free solo rock climber of the planet Earth.
It's in the bag @ the Oscars this Sunday coming up.
_____
* Just before those last fifteen minutes in the doc he had a conversation with his girlfriend and asked her to go on her own for five days or so. He needed all his own concentration, perfectly humanly intelligently realistically natural. He is very considerate of others and don't want to hurt anyone or make them feel responsible for his own life, or death. That's one way I see it.
He got that from his parents.
He puts everything on paper, with graphs and important notes, like a NASA rocket scientist.
True, he has matured a lot over the years socially. It's normal; he's worldwide known, giving interviews, writing books, in documentaries, covering the front pages of sport magazines, and others.
He could quit climbing tomorrow morning, have many children, and live forever.
I'm not sure he's ready for that right now. It's in his blood, and he has very good friends. I like his mother.
He's an exceptional guy well respected and loved by the best. He's the best.
One reviewer commented about the documentary (Free Solo) not building the tension.
True, we see him in his regular life, with friends, the filming crew, his girlfriend, Mom, his past climbs, etc.
Then and only then, in the last fifteen minutes we see him starting to climb, his pants cut with a knife, just as simple as that, no parade, no fanfare...then he keeps climbing, and fast too. It is during those last fifteen minutes that everything before it rings true.
It is a superb rock climbing documentary with the best free solo rock climber of the planet Earth.
It's in the bag @ the Oscars this Sunday coming up.
_____
* Just before those last fifteen minutes in the doc he had a conversation with his girlfriend and asked her to go on her own for five days or so. He needed all his own concentration, perfectly humanly intelligently realistically natural. He is very considerate of others and don't want to hurt anyone or make them feel responsible for his own life, or death. That's one way I see it.
He got that from his parents.
Today's article, from the king of news (just kidding, that title belongs to the Economist):
? https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/02/21/...-rock-climbing-el-capitan-spt-intl/index.html
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Here's your chance ...
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