STORYLINE:  An intimate portrait of two people bound by love, ambition, and the pursuit of the impossible. Elite ski mountaineers Jim Morrison and Hilaree Nelson fell deeply in love while reaching the pinnacle of their sport: Everest’s north face. (IMDb)

  Racing was all the buzz, in the documentary Senna (2010), about the F One driver.  The rumble in the jungle boxing match was documented in 1993’s When We Were Kings. The Munich games were the subject of the motion picture One Day in September (1999).  The incredible documentary, Hoop Dreams (1994), which is a must see, follows two young basketball players, with dreams of college and professional basketball careers.  Everest: The Other Side has scaled its way onto the big screen.

  The movie projector has shown movies about achieving a goal, for generations.  There is an argument that is a strong point of 1931’s Frankenstein.  Typically, the goal is romance or personal glory, like fame and fortune.  In the documentary Everest: The Other Side the goal in question is to climb the north side of Mt Everest, and ski down it.

  The documentary fills its 115 runtime, with more back story and the why/want of the goal, then showing the process of going out to achieved the goal.  In doing this, the motion picture is filled with sentimental emotion.  When Everest: The Other Side gets to the mountain, and the climbing/skiing portions of the feature, there is no excitement.  This is a true documentary, as it just shows the events. There is a lot of insider jargon, and following the characters, as they go about their routines.   If mountain climbing is you’re thing, this would interest you, but it lost me as a viewer.  Thus caused me not to care for the subject, of the film, as he went for his goal.

  What did hold my attention were the occasional scenic shots of Mt Everest.  Since this was a National Geographic production, it will not surprise me if it was stock footage, but nine the less, I enjoyed seeing it on the big screen.

  Everest: The Other Side had the potential to be an exciting, abd interesting, documentary but fell short as it was more of a personal look at its subject matter, and filled with to much tech talk about mountain climbing. At least, it wasn’t a run of the mill fluff piece of musicians, or modern political documentary, that I’ve grown tired of watching.

  Until next time, I will see you at the movies!