Post by Brad Nelson on Nov 20, 2019 9:02:51 GMT -8
There is an interesting and strange documentary in the National Geographic tab of Disney+: Free Solo. And, no, it’s not another dumb Star Wars movie.
An Asbergersque climber (Alex Honnold) wants to be the first to climb El Capitan in Yosemite without benefit of rope.
Whether you like the touchy-feely side of this documenatry or not, I found it frequently annoying but usually interesting. One reviewer writes:
Well…maybe. The reality is that this guy’s long-term girlfriend doesn’t mean enough to him not to risk his life. Yes, she helps him “better manage his emotions” (that is, to cater to her needs). Yes, he does seem to learn a thing or two about breaking out of his shell.
But there is a lot of this sort of gunk layered over what is otherwise an incredible story. You’ll eventually be yelling at the screen, as I was, “Dude, ditch the girlfriend before she kills you.”
And she almost did kill him. I admit to thinking almost until the end that the attraction that his girlfriend has for him was nothing more than that he was a celebrity. The attempted climb also made him a larger one as well, but he was fairly well known before that. I changed my opinion a little at the end. But I still have my suspicions.
What Alex wants to do is reckless to the point of absurdity. But he wants to do it and you just accept that some people are driven to do great (if unimportant) things. What he is trying to do is summed-up by one of the other climbers. It went something like, “Imagine that you are in the Olympics seeking a gold medal. But in this case your performance must be perfect or you die.”
That, my friends, is a perfect characterization of what Alex is attempting. And I found it difficult to watch. The attempt is both insane and wonderful. There are other odd bits as well as noted by that same reviewer:
Yeah. There is that. This guy isn’t attempting to wrestle an alligator which, although dangerous, would certainly be doable depending upon the size of the alligator. But he’s chosen the largest, strongest, and most wild alligator in all the swamps: El Capitan. Death and failure are not theoretical, they are probable.
I think the correct picture is that this guy is driven to do this because he likes the challenge and has an interesting trait of being relatively fearless. And then all the others from the outside throw their emotional baggage onto him as depicted in this documentary. So like most modern stuff, this documentary isn’t about the climb as much as it is about the climber and the people around him.
There are some mentions of the technical difficulties of the climb. You are with Alex as he does a run-through on some of the difficult sections of El Capitan while he is roped up. In the end, I found it interesting that the filmmakers sort of bailed on Alex by not stressing more the technical, strength, and mental aspects that it takes to do what Alex is trying to do. Instead, we get more of a fussbudget soap opera.
Alex is clearly one-of-a-kind. Arguably, he did something consisting of this strange dichotomy of being probably the most difficult athletic achievement ever combined with the most trivial thing a human has ever done. At least the runner at Marathon was warning his homeland of invaders. Alex’s feat is just of the “because it’s there” variety.
So it’s both noble, in a way, but also extremely trivial. And yet — delving into subtexts here — it was interesting to see a man act like a man, attempting difficult challenges just for the fun of it. That’s what guys do. As much as they tried to pussify this documentary, that aspect still comes through.
An Asbergersque climber (Alex Honnold) wants to be the first to climb El Capitan in Yosemite without benefit of rope.
Whether you like the touchy-feely side of this documenatry or not, I found it frequently annoying but usually interesting. One reviewer writes:
A documentary about climbing solo up sheer vertical cliffs without safety ropes sounds too crazy-masculine to contain a gentle story of emotional awakening. While Free Solo (2018) celebrates athletic triumph it is also a thoughtful essay on mortality, fear, and self-identity, as it probes into the heart and mind of an elite athlete in an extreme sport.
Well…maybe. The reality is that this guy’s long-term girlfriend doesn’t mean enough to him not to risk his life. Yes, she helps him “better manage his emotions” (that is, to cater to her needs). Yes, he does seem to learn a thing or two about breaking out of his shell.
But there is a lot of this sort of gunk layered over what is otherwise an incredible story. You’ll eventually be yelling at the screen, as I was, “Dude, ditch the girlfriend before she kills you.”
And she almost did kill him. I admit to thinking almost until the end that the attraction that his girlfriend has for him was nothing more than that he was a celebrity. The attempted climb also made him a larger one as well, but he was fairly well known before that. I changed my opinion a little at the end. But I still have my suspicions.
What Alex wants to do is reckless to the point of absurdity. But he wants to do it and you just accept that some people are driven to do great (if unimportant) things. What he is trying to do is summed-up by one of the other climbers. It went something like, “Imagine that you are in the Olympics seeking a gold medal. But in this case your performance must be perfect or you die.”
That, my friends, is a perfect characterization of what Alex is attempting. And I found it difficult to watch. The attempt is both insane and wonderful. There are other odd bits as well as noted by that same reviewer:
Some viewers will notice the unbounded selfishness required to put others through the stress of Alex's personal pursuit while he is relatively free from the constraints of human emotion.
Yeah. There is that. This guy isn’t attempting to wrestle an alligator which, although dangerous, would certainly be doable depending upon the size of the alligator. But he’s chosen the largest, strongest, and most wild alligator in all the swamps: El Capitan. Death and failure are not theoretical, they are probable.
I think the correct picture is that this guy is driven to do this because he likes the challenge and has an interesting trait of being relatively fearless. And then all the others from the outside throw their emotional baggage onto him as depicted in this documentary. So like most modern stuff, this documentary isn’t about the climb as much as it is about the climber and the people around him.
There are some mentions of the technical difficulties of the climb. You are with Alex as he does a run-through on some of the difficult sections of El Capitan while he is roped up. In the end, I found it interesting that the filmmakers sort of bailed on Alex by not stressing more the technical, strength, and mental aspects that it takes to do what Alex is trying to do. Instead, we get more of a fussbudget soap opera.
Alex is clearly one-of-a-kind. Arguably, he did something consisting of this strange dichotomy of being probably the most difficult athletic achievement ever combined with the most trivial thing a human has ever done. At least the runner at Marathon was warning his homeland of invaders. Alex’s feat is just of the “because it’s there” variety.
So it’s both noble, in a way, but also extremely trivial. And yet — delving into subtexts here — it was interesting to see a man act like a man, attempting difficult challenges just for the fun of it. That’s what guys do. As much as they tried to pussify this documentary, that aspect still comes through.