High and mighty

‘Ain’t about what’s waiting on the other side,’ sang Miley Cyrus. ‘It’s the climb.’ She’s not usually a musician to be turned to for profound insight but in this case pop’s wild child has captured the absolute crux of this year’s Gravity wannabe, the visually spectacular 3D Everest, which kicked off the Venice Film Festival two weeks ago to a mixed reception.

That’s because, even though in the case of the 1996 Mount Everest disaster (in which eight people died) what was waiting on the other side for most people was a cold and lonely death, it was indeed all about the climb. Despite knowing just what a perilous undertaking reaching the Nepalese summit could be — one in four people died trying at the time — attempting to scale it had become something of a must-do for keen climbers (at least those with deep pockets — a trip to the top cost $65,000) and numerous expedition companies had sprung up to meet growing demand. In fact, congestion and competition between guides was arguably partly to blame for the terrible events that ensued.

So why would you bother, in the face of such brutal odds? Not just ‘because it’s there’ as George Mallory proclaimed (a phrase used ad nauseam in the film). Here, climbing Everest becomes something of a spiritual healer, something to stay the pain of a failing marriage, say.

Despite a stellar cast and rock-solid performances throughout, the characterisation here is at best crude and at worst troublingly lazy — Josh Brolin as the brash and foolhardy Texan, Beck Weathers, for example, whose main role seems to be to annoy everyone intensely before emerging as an unlikely hero at the 11th hour.

But the majesty of the mountain and the burning desire to brave its ascent become gripping, despite the strong possibility (and, from the audience’s perspective, inevitability, as heralded by the unmissable portent of the score’s ominous crescendo) of death.