Just watched this documentary, with recreations, of mountain climbers Joe Simpson and Simon Yates and their trials of their trek in Peru on Netflix Streaming on recommendation from one of my brothers-in-law who I watched with as well as my other one. Quite harrowing especially when Joe recounts his breaking one of his legs and his attempts to just keep going despite that. Meanwhile, Simon has his own crisis of faith along the way. That's all I'll mention except there were also some humorous moments like when Joe starts constantly thinking of a song, with the recording provided, by Boney M and he really hates them! So on that note, I really recommend Touching the Void.

I watched the documentary drama during my time in college, and thought it was fantastic, and I knew I had to watch it again, so I'm glad I got the opportunity to do so, directed by Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland, Life in a Day, Whitney). Basically, Joe Simpson, Simon Yates and Richard Hawking tell the story of their trip to the icy mountains of Peru in 1985. Their story is told with actors re-enacting the events. Joe Simpson (Brendan Mackey) and Simon Yates (Nicholas Aaron) are both experienced mountaineers and travelled to Peru to ascend the previously unclimbed West Face of Siula Grande in the Andes. They manage to reach the summit, but a powerful storm develops. Simon suffers a fall and breaks his leg during the ascent. The pair attempt a self-rescue, lowering Simpson down the mountain with ropes down the snowy and steep slope as the enormous storm rages on. Yates cannot see where he is lowering Simpson, and inadvertently lowers him over the edge of a cliff, leaving him suspended by the rope in mid-air. Yates cannot see or hear the predicament his partner is in. Unable to pull Simpson back over the cliff and losing his grip with the loose snow, he realises there is no chance of recovery for either them without killing both of them. Yates has no choice and decides to cut the rope connecting him with Simpson. Yates descends after surviving a sub-zero and stormy night on the mountain but cannot find his partner. He assumes Simpson is dead and returns to the base camp alone to recover. Simpson, however, actually survived the fall and is trapped in a large crevasse. He initially tries to find a way back upwards, but his broken leg makes this impossible. He decides to try lowering himself further into the dark abyss hoping to find a way out. He is relieved to see sunlight coming from an exit at the base of the mountain. When he manages to get out, he spends days crawling back to base camp across glaciers and rocks, despite his broken leg, frostbite, and severe dehydration. Exhausted and nearly delirious, Simpson reaches camp only a few hours before Yates and fellow climber Richard Hawking (Ollie Ryall) intended to leave and return to civilisation. Yates is amazed that he survived the fall and managed to find way, injured, back to base camp. This is an extraordinary story of survival, going against the forces of nature, it is a good combination of interviews and reconstructions, and the physical and psychological themes are well explained and dramatized, a most worthwhile docudrama. It was nominated the BAFTA for the Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film. It was number 89 on The 100 Greatest Tearjerkers, it was number 45 on The 50 Greatest British Films, and it was number 2 on The 50 Greatest Documentaries. Very good!

There are exceptions, but mountaineering movies fall roughly into two classes; overblown, unrealistic cliffhanging (in more than one sense) dramas ('Eiger Sanction', 'K2', 'Cliffhanger', 'Vertical Limit') and rather trite descriptive documentaries often seen as padding for the 'National Geographic' channel schedules, although Jon Krakaur's 'Into Thin Air' managed to combine the worst of both worlds. Both classes have in common (usually) Gortex gear, superb mountain scenery and splendid cinematography. What distinguishes this survival story is that it has (sorry about this) high drama, an understated style and absolute authenticity. The actual principals, Joe Simpson and Simon Yates, and Richard Hawkins the non-climber base camp minder, narrate their story as it is re-enacted, partly at the original site in Peru (though some filming was done in the European Alps), while actors (with very few lines to say) re-enact the saga of the Siula West Face climb. It all hangs together beautifully; and I was rapt from go to whoa. My disbelief was entirely suspended.

Even documentaries are stories rather than fact (whatever that is) and this story is superbly told, for which director Kevin Macdonald can take full credit, though perhaps one should also thank Simon Yates and Joe Simpson for telling us their stories. One critic has taken the director to task in not dwelling on the moral issues involved – the cutting the rope bit. No mountaineering drama is without one of these but here it actually happened. That critic has missed the point – the approach here is 'be your own judge'.

This film manages to appeal both to mountaineers (a small but highly critical audience) and non-mountaineers. As a (semi-retired) and undistinguished member of the former group, I found few nits to pick, though a more extended explanation of the difference between Alpine-style and Expedition climbing would help to show non-mountaineers that it wasn't a suicide attempt (though speaking for myself I wouldn't have tried it with less than four in the party). And as the film was about a climb that went wrong, the joy of climbing, which is not easy to explain to non-mountaineers was rather overshadowed by Joe's suffering as he dragged himself, leg broken, down the mountain. But never have I seen a more graphic illustration of the adage 'never give up'. Lie down to die and you will die. Joe and the Texan doctor on Everest (see 'Into Thin Air') both should have died, yet they survived. In the doctor's case it seems to have been some primeval instinct (he was not a mountaineer). In Joe's case he seems to have treated survival as a challenge and focused his thoughts accordingly ('I thought, in twenty minutes I'll be at the next rock'). I winced every time his broken leg hit something.

To sum up this is a great film, which will live long in your memory, climber or non-climber.

P.S. Simon was only 20 or so at the time, Joe a more mature 25. Both have kept climbing, though significantly not together.