Touching the Void (2003)

Director:

Kevin Macdonald

Writer:

Joe Simpson (book)

Release Date:

12 December 2003 (UK)

Genre:

Documentary | Adventure | Drama | Sport

Tagline:

The closer you are to death. The more you realize you are alive.

Plot:

The true story of two climbers and their perilous journey up the west face of Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes in 1985.

Plot Keywords:

Rope | Disaster | Crevasse | Broken Leg | Delirium

Awards:

5 wins & 7 nominations

Cast

  (Credited cast)

Brendan Mackey	...	Joe Simpson
Nicholas Aaron	...	Simon Yates
Richard Hawking	...	Himself
Joe Simpson	...	Himself
Simon Yates	...	Himself
Ollie Ryall	...	Richard Hawking

MPAA:

Rated R for language.

Runtime:

106 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Germany:12 | Netherlands:MG6 | Singapore:NC-16 | Switzerland:7 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:7 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Chamonix, Haute-Savoie, France

Company:

Darlow Smithson Productions

Trivia:

At the end of the movie, there's a written line claiming that Simon faced "strong criticism" from the climbing community after his return to England. This claim has been repeated in several press statements and reviews, but it's not correct. What really happened is that, one month after his return in Europe, Simon went climbing in the Alps, unaware that the Daily Mail newspaper had published a wildly incorrect version of the Siula story, implying that Simon had tried to kill Joe. This was of course absurd, and the British climbing community dismissed it immediately as nonsense. However, back home Simon discovered that a small group of senior members of the Mount Everest Foundation (the body that manages founding for climbing expeditions in the Greater Ranges) had misjudged the story and now wanted Simon excluded in the future from the MEF funds - a move that could basically kill Simon's climbing career. At this point however, Joe Simpson had a correct version of the Siula story published in a respected climbing magazine, and the whole issue was cleared. However, in the DVD commentary, Joe Simpson himself clearly says that Simon came under much criticism after returning home, and that he wrote Touching the Void to defend Simon.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: When Joe reaches the bottom of the crevasse (00:59:57) and starts crawling on his stomach towards the sunlight, you can clearly see the blue helmet of another person.

Quotes:

Joe Simpson: Bloody hell... I'm gonna die to Boney M.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Making of 'Touching the Void' (2003) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Brown Girl in the Ring

Remarkable courage and determination

Based on the best-selling book of the same name, Kevin Macdonald's docu-drama Touching the Void recreates the 1985 experience of Joe Simpson and Simon Yates, two British mountaineers attempting to climb the Siula Grande Mountains of Peru, a mountain range no one had ever succeeded in scaling before. The film tells the story of how Simpson, alone at 21,000 feet -- with a broken leg, dehydrated, and a step away from death, pushed his broken body beyond the limits of what he knew to be possible in order to survive. Oscar-winning director of One Day in September, Macdonald uses actors Brendan Mackay (Simpson) and Nicholas Aaron (Yates) to recreate the adventure while the real climbers provide a running commentary.

After ascending the west face of the mountain in 3 1/2 days using the "purest" style of climbing (sleeping in ice caves rather than setting up base camps along the way), the descent is treacherous as Simpson misses a step and his lower leg is driven into his kneecap. Tied together by a rope, Yates begins lowering his partner downward in the darkness, 300 feet at a time while Simpson is in excruciating pain. Progress is halted when Simpson is lowered into a crevasse and left dangling in mid-air, unable to signal his companion. Yates believes him to be dead and makes a crucial and controversial decision to cut the rope, leaving his partner alone and without support. Simpson has never blamed Yates for his decision and has gone to great lengths in his book and in interviews to defend Simon whose character has been continually under attack since that fateful day.

The film was shot in authentic locations in the Andes and the Alps, and the result is a sense of being there, experiencing the pitiless forces of nature. Though the outcome is preordained, how the two friends managed to survive their ordeal provides more than enough heart-pounding suspense. The film shows Simpson trying to knot a rope with frozen fingers and guzzling the first muddy water he finds to counter the effects of severe dehydration. One of the most intriguing sequences shows the climber in a semi-delirious state listening in his mind to the sound of Boney M's Brown Girl in the Ring.

While there is little in the way of spiritual epiphany (Simpson candidly discusses his atheism), there is an unmistakable feeling that both men have been strengthened by their shared ordeal. Simpson touches the void within him, an emptiness that compels him to keep going only because he "wanted to be with someone when I died". Reaching base camp in the middle of the night, he calls out but no one answers, `When no one answered the call", he says, "I lost something. I lost me.' Then, when Simon and Richard rescue him, the thing he remembers most is the feeling of being held. Though he did not experience a higher power guiding him, he does sense a freedom from the world's clutter that makes him feel more alive. Touching the Void is a tale of remarkable courage and determination that touches the place within ourselves that tells us that miracles can occur in our life if we are able to go beyond what we thought was possible and act as if our life depends on the result.