I’m slightly obsessed with movies and books involving people who choose to risk their life by engaging in extracurricular activities such as mountain climbing. I read Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air in 2000 and was riveted so I knew that I would watch Everest. I also love disaster movies, but Everest is more sober than the average disaster film because it is based on a real-life disaster on Mount Everest in 1996. Basically a bunch of hikers of various expertise levels died in a storm while climbing the peak due to a combination of incompetence, kindness and nature acting natural-humans aren’t built to be there. Because it has been so long since I read the book, I have no idea how closely Everest adheres to Krakauer’s account. Everest seems to imply that warring sherpas just straight up refused to coordinate with each other so the teams weren’t as prepared as they could be. Yet the sherpas lived. I could almost see the metaphorical bus that the natives were thrown under.
I liked Everest because I am interested in the story and subject matter. Everest is really beautiful to watch. Everest depicted the deaths in a chilling and understated way, but I wonder if some people inappropriately laughed because it was so sudden, silent and unreal.
If Everest has a flaw, it may be the decision to cast Jason Clarke as the main character or to decide to make Rob Hall the main character when he dies before the end of the movie. Everest is an ensemble movie, but Everest’s mission statement seems to be to tell the story of a tragic hero rather than a tragic event. Rob dominates the movie. Everest goes out of its way to depict him sympathetically, even though his kindness is partially responsible for the disaster and the death of at least two people, including himself. I’m not saying that they shouldn’t depict Rob Hall sympathetically, but Everest felt like it had a Rob Hall agenda when there are so many other real life characters who could get more screen time. I will never understand how actors like Jason Clarke (or Sam Worthington, who also appears in a small role) get cast because they are aggressively, not inherently interesting to watch. They are adequate, but has anyone ever said breathlessly, “I can’t wait to see this movie because Jason Clarke/Sam Worthington is in it?”
I was delighted to see Jake Gyllenhaal in a brief appearance, and the real acting power houses have smaller, but memorable roles: Josh Brolin, Robin Wright, John Hawkes and Emily Watson. Keira Knightley played a pregnant wife anxious about the fate of her husband (trademark). Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson stole every scene that he was in, and he had fewer lines than the person who bags your groceries.
If you are not into mountain climbing or disaster moves, skip Everest, but if you are, then Everest is a must see for the visuals alone.