Director Nick Ryan's first documentary The Summit is a gripping tale of the horrible tragedy on K2 in 2008. I should state up front that very shortly before seeing this movie I had read the fantastic book Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer. I think that may have influenced my viewing of the movie somewhat.
The Summit is a documentary, but it is one of those documentaries where you feel as though you don't know what happens at the end even though you do know what happens. The story follows the climbers from the beginning of the climb through to its tragic end and aftermath. You come away with an understanding of the passion that drives serious mountaineers, but also an idea of the terrible choices that people sometimes make on a mountain. That part was a bit difficult to understand. Why go on when things have gone so terribly wrong?
There were a couple of things about the documentary I did not enjoy. One, the movie claimed to be an exposition of some great mystery. From this I implied some sort of foul play, but the mystery was not really there in the documentary. My takeaway was that above 8000 meters things can get hazy and tragic. Two, I didn't really care for most of the actor reenactments of the events. Some were a bit too hokey. I should say that there were one or two that were very moving.
Those concerns aside this is a good documentary that tells an interesting story. The people interviewed seemed very frank in how they answered questions, and it didn't appear that anyone was trying to do some salvage job, or rewrite history. If you have any instance in mountaineering, or general adventure, you would probably enjoy this documentary.
6/10, but maybe 7/10 when I'm feeling very Tenzing Norgay
