Touching the Void (film)

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source

Touching the Void is a 2003 documentary film based on the book of the same name by Joe Simpson about Simpson's and Simon Yates' disastrous and near fatal attempt to climb the 6,344 metre (20,813 foot) Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes in 1985. The film combines documentary footage of interviews conducted with Simpson, Yates and Richard Hawking with a reenactment performed by actors Brendan Mackey, Nicholas Aaron and Ollie Ryall. The film was directed by Kevin MacDonald.

Responses

During the making of the film, the director and producers invited Simon Yates and Joe Simpson to return to Siula Grande in 2002 for the first time since the events of 1985. Simpson, despite finding the return emotionally difficult, eventually said that he was happy with the film and its portrayal of the events. Yates, on the other hand, reported having no emotional response to returning to Siula Grande, and decided to have nothing to do with the film once he had returned from the mountain.

After the story of what happened to Simpson and Yates reached home (England), Yates received much criticism from some mountaineers for cutting the rope during the descent. Simpson has deeply accepted that Yates did the right thing, and has always defended him on that matter.

Music

The climbers reach the summit to the climax of Thomas Tallis's Spem in alium. The film also includes excerpts from Spiegel im Spiegel by Arvo Pärt, for example during the final credits. During one of Joe's many deliriums, he experiences a very strong reminiscence of a Boney M song, "Brown Girl in the Ring", a song he hated thoroughly, at one point he was thinking "Oh my God, I'm going to die with Boney M stuck in my head."

Notes

External links

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia © 2001-2006 Wikipedia contributors (Disclaimer)
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Sunday December 02, 2007 at 18:02:04 PST (GMT -0800)
View this article at Wikipedia.org - Edit this article at Wikipedia.org - Donate to the Wikimedia Foundation