The Epic of Everest

15 March 2016. It's hard to really compare notes when talking about a silent documentary movie, accompanied by an amazing soundtrack which was introduced later. It's like talking a colorized version of a silent movie. Nevertheless, considering the technology at the time, with the exception of the telescopic lenses, the quality of the production is pretty amazing. This movie is both a travelogue and a real life drama. The prolonged scenes of men hiking is rather amazing and unlike The Loneliest Planet (2011) which was fictionalized and very boring, the experience of actually seeing real people in a time long ago for movies, along with the compelling soundtrack and music, there is a sense of such realism, isolation, a sense of place in time that the audience is swept up in their vicarious adventure. In many ways this is a Touching the Void (2003) of the silent era.

As a silent film enthusiast and as someone who has taught close to 30 classes on silent movies at the local university, I have seen a LOT of silent movies including a number of silent documentaries but nothing quite like THE EPIC OF EVEREST. I was vaguely aware of the 1924 George Mallory expedition but was unaware that they had taken a movie camera with them and recorded all but the last 2000 feet of the climb (the last part done with an early telephoto lens). I knew that Mallory and his associate Andrew Irvine had perished some 600 feet from the summit and that their bodies had not been recovered (Mallory's was found 75 years later and buried on the mountain). This astonishing documentary while essentially just a documentation of their journey becomes so much more because of the quality and the purity of the images captured by amateur cameraman Captain John Noel. Noel doesn't just record the expedition but enshrines and transforms it by the beauty of the set ups he chose.

The film begins with them setting out and then arriving in a Tibetan village. Although 200 miles away, Mt Everest looms over everything. Noel's camera captures the look and feel of the village and its people. Remember this is almost 100 years ago and much of what he captures has long since slipped into history. The customs and clothing of the villagers of that time have been preserved forever. As they get closer to the mountain, the natural conditions began to change and we are thrust into an unbelievable landscape of ice and snow. The way the camera catches it you'd think you were on a far away planet. The power and majesty of Everest are all around as it literally becomes a force of nature dooming the expedition. While there is a palpable spirituality to the images, they are enhanced by the title cards which occasionally refer to the mountain as a divine entity (Chomo-Lung-Ma "Goddess Mother of the World"). Some also reflect the condescending British colonial attitude of the time.

A major contribution to the effectiveness of the film is the haunting new score commissioned by the British Film Institute and composed by Simon Fisher Turner. It is a balanced mixture of ethnic music and minimalist simplicity augmented by authentic sound effects including the actual wind from the mountain itself. When you realize that these men were not decked out in the latest equipment but with only tweeds and thick coats and gloves to protect themselves, you then realize their courage and fortitude and become amazed at what they actually did manage to accomplish.. While there are natural similarities to SOUTH, Ernest Shackelton's ENDURANCE documentary and the Cooper-Schoedsack saga of Persian tribesman, GRASS, those silent films lack the poetry and potency of Captain Noel's images. I came away from my viewing of this thinking "This is the most amazing documentary I have ever seen!". I know that I'll be revisiting it on several occasions...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.

Newly restored by the British Film Institute with a specially-composed score, THE EPIC OF EVEREST recounts the failed attempt to scale Mount Everest by Mallory, Irvine and their cohorts. Dating from 1924, the film offers a fascinating insight into attitudes at that time. It begins with a description of arriving in Tibet, and the filmmakers' impressions of the locals; there is a combination of strangeness and colonialism that seems typical of Britain and its people at that time. They considered themselves at once superior to yet somehow inhibited by the presence of different ways of life. As the action unfolds, however, so the tone changes, as the members of the expedition discover just how difficult the task of conquering Everest actually is. Judging from the film, their equipment was rudimentary, to say the least; the mountaineers' outfits of puttees and parkas seems more suited to the Scottish Highlands rather than the Himalayas. In the end the two brave mountaineers who made an assault on the Everest's peak fail to return: the film concludes that perhaps they were thwarted not so much by their own hubris, but by the presence of Everest itself, that resisted any attempt at colonization. This is a fascinating conclusion, perhaps suggesting a gradual dawning in the filmmakers' minds that territories (and peoples) do not automatically submit themselves to imperialist rule. Some of the photography is simply breathtaking, given the equipment available at that time. THE EPIC OF EVEREST is well worth watching as a period-piece as well as an insight into mid-Twenties attitudes and how they could be re-evaluated.

I thoroughly recommend watching the wonderful BFI restoration of this enthralling documentary. The picture quality (with some nice blue and lavender tints) and the specially commissioned score are superb. It benefits also from having no voice over but relying solely on the title cards to narrate the footage.

Some of the original anthropological observations smack a little of colonial condescension but considering the era in which the film was made they are quite mild, and all such negatives are outweighed by the very rare cinematic portraits of Tibetans.

And then there are the mountains - beautiful and terrible - and the mountaineers - heroic and tragic. I couldn't take my eyes from the screen.

THE EPIC OF EVEREST is a silent, tinted 1924 documentary that follows an ill-fated expedition to climb Everest by the explorers George Mallory and Paul Irvine. The documentary is a melting pot of icy vistas, adventure-style hiking and rescue, Eastern mysticism and camaraderie. I was worried that it might be staid and dull given the era it was released, but instead it's a vibrant film and one that's full of heart.

Of course, the world was a lot different when this documentary was shot and much has changed, but that's what makes it so interesting and useful as a historical document. It's a snapshot of a long-forgotten world in which men heroically explored the globe and interacted with remote peoples, all the while pushing themselves to attain the unattainable.

THE EPIC OF EVEREST is gripping in places and surprisingly moving given the eventual outcome of the expedition. I didn't feel that it had dated at all, as it had me hooked throughout.