Touching the Void

Kevin MacDonald, 2003


3/5

Using first-hand interviews interlaced with accurate reenactment footage, this docu-drama covers the story of Joe Simpson and Simon Yates, a pair mountain climbers who run into trouble when one of them falls and breaks their leg while attempting to climb the west face of the Siula Grande in the Andes mountains in 1985.

It is undeniably a story worth telling. Using the technique of reenacting the journey, it certainly puts you in the action. The camera is not just fixated on the side of the mountain either. Unique locations like elevated above the climbers, down at the base of the snow where you see chips of ice falling on the lens. It makes the work much more cinematic, more entertaining than if you were just sitting watching two veteran climbers reflect on their journey. When the heavy snow is pinning them to the sides of the cliff at night while they look above with miner's lights on their helmets - you really get a sense of the comradery involved. Connected by a piece of rope, their lives are really in each others hands. The sudden decision made by one of the climbers is made in a few seconds but is clearly a life-changing one. It certainly presents a moral dilemma to the film that leaves the viewer wondering what he or she would do in the same situation. When the film makes a shift into a more survival-based theme, its very reminiscent of the struggle in Danny Boyle's 127 Hours. Like that story, there is a focus on the resilience of the human body. The film certainly explores the concept that perhaps there are parts to this world that are not meant to be accessed. But that wouldn't be human nature would it? We are curious creatures, bound to take risks. We are eager to put our foot in virgin soil. We want to make our mark.

Friday Night Lights

Peter Berg, 2004


3/5

The Permian High Panthers are a high school football team that gives the depressing town of Odessa, TX hope... and also high expectations. The players are competitive yet innocent, looking ahead to their future while also trying to please everyone around them by bringing home the big victory. Based on the book by H.G. Bissinger.

Berg successfully captures the rapid pace of a football game, and augments his unsteady camera work with a transcendent soundtrack. Transitional shots of industrial rust-littered landscapes are peppered in throughout the film with beautiful, ambient musical elements that are reminiscent of early Modest Mouse. The high expectations resonate throughout the town, from the deadbeat old-jock father vicariously living through his son's athletic moments to the African American uncle who just wants his nephew to have a future more meaningful than his own. The high expectations of the Panthers do not just stop at the players. Coach Gary Gaines (Billy Bob Thornton) feels the weight of the pressure on his own shoulders, and at times wonders if the long hours and late-night arrivals at home to a cold dinner plate are really worth it. Berg effectively paces the film to a big climax of a championship game. Versatile cinematography really puts you in the middle of the action on the field, although at times it's a bit erratic with jumping back to the scoreboard quickly and then back to the line of scrimmage. You find that you lose track of the game clock, presumably because Berg wanted to focus on the individual player drama more than the technical details of the game. Too often sports dramas have that cheese factor: repetitive shots and exhausting cliches with scenes that might as well play out to the "Chariots of Fire" theme on repeat. Berg avoids the cliches here and really paints a compelling picture.