Why do the script writers and movie directors have such little respect for history? This is something I'll never understand.
In the North face we are again confronted to such an inexcusable behavior. What should we do then? Condemn the whole movie and suppress it from the list or be indulgent about it?
In the case of this movie at least we have a choice between two versions of the tragedy which is told. We can watch the Joe Simpson's movie adapted from his book the Beckoning Silence and then have the real facts staged before us with very interesting comments by the great climber who faced that terrible mountain.
On the other hand North face in spite of its flaws remains a great movie because of the fantastic actors and the intense atmosphere of the scenario. From this point of view it is much more dramatic than Simpson's movie.
Perhaps the flaw which is the worst of all is at the beginning of the movie which present Newsreels which are obviously edited to motivate the subsequent presentation of this historical event. From a German director and script writer this is unforgivable. Especially in the dramatic period Germany was facing you are not allowed to change facts of that kind even if you try to stress what was going on in the country with its huge and massive propaganda, lies and boldness .
This is for me by far the greatest flaw in the movie. The rest is childish or assumptions of what was going on between the participants of the climb. We were not there and can't tell what they were saying to each others during the events, our guesses may be true or quite wrong. Does it really matter? Of course not, the tragedy was the same in the end.
From a cinematic point of view the film is astounding even considering that we have today such possibilities to recreate such conditions.
From an acting point of view again we have great actors doing a splendid performance in all respects. Benno Fürmann is absolutely moving all along the film. Ulrich Tukur in the part of the German journalist is giving an image of the typical Nazi thinking only of the glory of his country whatever the costs in lives. You hate him from the beginning without restrictions. His performance is also interesting because it is the full opposite to the part he played in Costa Gavras's Amen 6 years earlier.
Johanna Wokalek and Florian Lukas are also great showing both respectively the fragility of a woman too naive to understand how her boss exploits her for his only ambition and the guy too ambitious to realize the incredible carelessness of his decisions.
In conclusion both movies are a must see without restrictions at all.
In the North face we are again confronted to such an inexcusable behavior. What should we do then? Condemn the whole movie and suppress it from the list or be indulgent about it?
In the case of this movie at least we have a choice between two versions of the tragedy which is told. We can watch the Joe Simpson's movie adapted from his book the Beckoning Silence and then have the real facts staged before us with very interesting comments by the great climber who faced that terrible mountain.
On the other hand North face in spite of its flaws remains a great movie because of the fantastic actors and the intense atmosphere of the scenario. From this point of view it is much more dramatic than Simpson's movie.
Perhaps the flaw which is the worst of all is at the beginning of the movie which present Newsreels which are obviously edited to motivate the subsequent presentation of this historical event. From a German director and script writer this is unforgivable. Especially in the dramatic period Germany was facing you are not allowed to change facts of that kind even if you try to stress what was going on in the country with its huge and massive propaganda, lies and boldness .
This is for me by far the greatest flaw in the movie. The rest is childish or assumptions of what was going on between the participants of the climb. We were not there and can't tell what they were saying to each others during the events, our guesses may be true or quite wrong. Does it really matter? Of course not, the tragedy was the same in the end.
From a cinematic point of view the film is astounding even considering that we have today such possibilities to recreate such conditions.
From an acting point of view again we have great actors doing a splendid performance in all respects. Benno Fürmann is absolutely moving all along the film. Ulrich Tukur in the part of the German journalist is giving an image of the typical Nazi thinking only of the glory of his country whatever the costs in lives. You hate him from the beginning without restrictions. His performance is also interesting because it is the full opposite to the part he played in Costa Gavras's Amen 6 years earlier.
Johanna Wokalek and Florian Lukas are also great showing both respectively the fragility of a woman too naive to understand how her boss exploits her for his only ambition and the guy too ambitious to realize the incredible carelessness of his decisions.
In conclusion both movies are a must see without restrictions at all.