“The Alpinist” (2021) Lacks the Narrative to Keep the Stunning Visuals Together (Part I of II)
6.5/10
“The Alpinist” (2021) is a documentary about a 23-year old “free soloist” named Marc-André Leclerc who climbs ice and rock alone without ropes, harnesses or any other safety precautions. In capturing the dare devil pursuits of a man obsessed with conquering mother nature’s greatest challenges, this movie will inevitably draw conclusions to “Everest” (2015), which captured the enigma of climbers risking their lives to reach the highest peak in the world.
Because “The Alpinist” is a real-life documentary while “Everest” is a based-on-a-true-story fiction, it manages to surpasses “Everest” in two indelible ways.
The first is the human element. Watching Marc-André’s hanging on rock and ice in the grandness of the mountains is a surreal experience, which quickly turns terrifying when you remember that this is all for real. Fictional movies done well can provide a sense of tension, but nothing can replace the realism that comes from knowing that the person on screen is one slip of the hand away from certain death.
Equally stunning is the cinematography. The movie is filled with incredible shots of Marc-André’s free soloing. There are shots from afar of his hanging on a cliff as the camera canvasses the mountain chains. Then there are the close-ups of his hands and feet, and their tenuous grip on the ice and the rocks.
If you’re a film-lover, you have to appreciate the remarkableness of getting all this on film. Being a documentary, all of these shots were taken with a live camera. The close-up shots could have only been taken if the camera crew was accompanying Marc-André on the climb; if Marc-André is risking his life, so too is the filmmaker. The extreme lengths to which “The Alpinist” goes to capturing the thrilling footage alone is worthy of celebration.
What’s so unfortunate about this film is that it took all these incredible shots, yet it couldn’t find a cohesive narrative to put it all together. There are four narrative voices telling the Marc-André story, and that’s simply one too many.
(Continued to Part II)
