Introduction by the Blog
Author
In the film, the director Jimmy Chin and his crew struggled on camera with how to film and not affect Honnold’s climb. According to Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, the key to solving this problem was in the extended preparation.
One of the hardest problems was getting sound from Honnold, who often was too far from the camera to use wireless mics. Meanwhile, the wiring of the mic couldn’t interfere with his climbing, and any recorder on his body would need to withstand the rigors of climbing. To solve the problem, they turned to production sound recordist Jim Hurst, who was a climber himself. He utilized a recorder that could transmit a signal to the camera, but also record to itself when the camera was out of range.
The film was made by National Geographic.
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 98% based on 108 reviews, with an average rating of 8.3/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Free Solo depicts athletic feats that many viewers will find beyond reason - and grounds the attempts in passions that are all but universal." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 83 out of 100, based on 25 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
Writing for Variety, Peter Debrudge said, "Apart from a slow stretch around the hour mark, the filmmakers keep things lively (with a big assist from Marco Beltrami's pulse-quickening score, the nail-biting opposite of Tim McGraw's soaring end-credits single, "Gravity"), featuring test runs at Zion National Park's Moonlight Buttress and the nearly sheer limestone cliffs in Taghia, Morocco." Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair called the film "bracingly made" and wrote, "I left the theater invigorated and rattled, in awe of this charismatic man's accomplishment but scared that it will inspire others to attempt the same...But maybe Free Solo's detailed, transfixing portrait of their hero will at least show some sort of barrier to entry, communicating to those eager wannabes that very few people indeed are built quite like Alex Honnold. And thank goodness, in a way, for that.”
There is a difference between courage and valor. Courage consists of being frightened but
doing the dangerous work necessary in spite of personal fear. Valor consists of understanding and agreeing
with the importance of the mission, and therefore becoming fearless in
execution of the necessary steps. As
Randy “Duke” Cunningham, an ace Navy fighter pilot in the Vietnam war, said
live on camera later (while he was a TopGun instructor), “You can’t afford the
luxury of fear.”
There is a rock climber named Alex Honnold who specializes
in free solo climbing. This is climbing
without ropes or pinions or normal gear but merely using the hands and feet to
scale the obstacle. National Geographic
made a documentary about this specialty, emphasizing Honnold’s skills.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Free Solo is a 2018 American documentary film
directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin. The film profiles rock
climber Alex Honnold, on his quest to perform a free solo climb of El Capitan in June 2017. The film premiered at the Telluride
Film Festival on August 31, 2018 and also screened at the 2018 Toronto
International Film Festival, where it won the People's Choice Award:
Documentaries. It was released in the United States
Production
In the film, the director Jimmy Chin and his crew struggled on camera with how to film and not affect Honnold’s climb. According to Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, the key to solving this problem was in the extended preparation.
One of the hardest problems was getting sound from Honnold, who often was too far from the camera to use wireless mics. Meanwhile, the wiring of the mic couldn’t interfere with his climbing, and any recorder on his body would need to withstand the rigors of climbing. To solve the problem, they turned to production sound recordist Jim Hurst, who was a climber himself. He utilized a recorder that could transmit a signal to the camera, but also record to itself when the camera was out of range.
The film was made by National Geographic.
Critical Response
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 98% based on 108 reviews, with an average rating of 8.3/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Free Solo depicts athletic feats that many viewers will find beyond reason - and grounds the attempts in passions that are all but universal." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 83 out of 100, based on 25 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
Writing for Variety, Peter Debrudge said, "Apart from a slow stretch around the hour mark, the filmmakers keep things lively (with a big assist from Marco Beltrami's pulse-quickening score, the nail-biting opposite of Tim McGraw's soaring end-credits single, "Gravity"), featuring test runs at Zion National Park's Moonlight Buttress and the nearly sheer limestone cliffs in Taghia, Morocco." Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair called the film "bracingly made" and wrote, "I left the theater invigorated and rattled, in awe of this charismatic man's accomplishment but scared that it will inspire others to attempt the same...But maybe Free Solo's detailed, transfixing portrait of their hero will at least show some sort of barrier to entry, communicating to those eager wannabes that very few people indeed are built quite like Alex Honnold. And thank goodness, in a way, for that.”
No comments:
Post a Comment