Touching the Void (2003)
Average Rating: 8.1/10
Reviews Counted: 138
Fresh: 129 | Rotten: 9
Gripping even though the outcome is known.
Average Rating: 7.6/10
Critic Reviews: 40
Fresh: 37 | Rotten: 3
Gripping even though the outcome is known.
liked it
Average Rating: 4.1/5
User Ratings: 10,058
My Rating
Movie Info
In 1985, two adventurous young mountaineers, Joe Simpson and Simon Yates, set off to climb the treacherous west face of the Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes. They were experienced climbers, and climbed "Alpine-style," climbing the mountain in "one great push," without setting up ropes or base camps ahead of time. After dealing with a snowstorm and some dangerous climbing over powder formations, they reached the summit (about 21,000 feet) on the third day. The climb down proved to be far more
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Cast
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Brendan Mackey
Joe Simpson -
Nicholas Aaron
Simon Yates -
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All Critics (145) | Top Critics (41) | Fresh (132) | Rotten (9) | DVD (13)
Touching the Void leaves you emotionally and physically spent, and grateful it was only a movie, not a mountain, you had to endure.
Top CriticAwesome and harrowing.
As a meditation on extreme human endeavour, character, friendship and the mysteries revealed by facing death, it provides much food for thought.
Most movies of this type re-create the action far from the actual scene of the crime, but Macdonald has invented a new subgenre: a docudrama in which the docu and the drama are equally authentic.
The facts drop away, and it becomes impossible not to read the movie symbolically -- as a journey to the center of the earth, or farther still.
Touching the Void is one of those rare movies that prove that fact is indeed stranger than fiction.
Excruciatingly tense story of a terrible accident.
"Void" plummets into the nucleus of instinct and consciousness - survival a near-primordial pursuit beyond bravery or weakness. It concocts no comfort about what was gained, but stares in transfixed, unforgettable awe at the horror of all that was lost.
"Touching the Void" towers above the rest of that rarest of all film genres, the docudrama.
This harrowing, white-knuckle tale of human endurance and gut-wrenching dilemma mingles the dramatization of these events and interviews with both climbers into an unforgettable, sometimes comically deadpan nightmare.
A slow starter which builds into a chilling depiction of the agonising disintegration of body and mind as they are exposed to the elements.
About a primal war waged by man against both himself and the natural world that surrounds him.
It's certainly a far better thriller than anything Hollywood has churned out lately.
This is a gripping tale of courage and survival with gorgeous cinematography.
With his new film Macdonald has achieved, if not physical elevation, then at least spiritual soaring.
Illustrates the inherent human instinct to self-preserve.
Forget those Hollywood movies about extreme sports. MacDonald...has created a thrilling picture about a high-risk sport based on a true story.
Audience Reviews for Touching the Void
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
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- Joe Simpson: Bloody hell, I'm going to die to Boney M.
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Foreign Titles
- Sturz ins Leere (DE)
- La Mort suspendue (FR)
It takes a while for this film to get interesting -- about forty-five minutes. And once it does, it's a decent survival story along the lines of 127 Hours.
However, I found the reenactments to be trite because they didn't add much to the story the interviewees told, and the story the interviewees told isn't unique in their language or revelation about their characters. I guess what I'm saying is that I wish the film had found a middle ground in which the reenactments could show, not tell, and the interviews could teach us more about who these people really are and what it takes to survive such an ordeal. The one exception to this is Joe's line: "You gotta keep making decisions, even if they're wrong decisions, you know. If you don't make decisions, you're stuffed."
Overall, as survival stories go, Touching the Void is good but not great.