127 Hours vs. Nordwand (Movie Reviews)

Here’s a neat little experiment—a double movie review.  Both of the following deal with similar themes:  Mountaineering, man versus the cruel vagaries of nature, and man’s innate drive to survive against impossible odds.  The first is 127 Hours, for which James Franco’s performance garnered a nomination for Best Actor at this year’s Academy Awards.  The second is Nordwand (North Face), a film about which you’ve probably never heard.  And that’s really unfortunate, because in a head-to-head analysis 127 Hours in my opinion falls far short in a comparison of the two films.

127 Hours

Drama (Based on a true story), U.S., 2010, 94 minutes, directed by Danny Boyle

Medium:  Netflix Blu-Ray (Available on DVD)

Rating:  3.5 (5-point system)

Versus

Nordwand (North Face)

Foreign Drama (Based on a true story), German, 2008, 121 minutes, directed by Philipp Stölzl

Medium:  Netflix Streaming (Available on DVD)

Rating:  5.0 (5-point system)

First up, 127 hours:

James Franco plays real-life mountaineer Aron Ralston, a cocksure loner who likes to pit himself against nature on his weekend jaunts into the wilderness.

While rappelling into a crevasse, Ralston falls and dislodges a large boulder.  His right arm is pinned between the boulder and a solid rock wall, trapping the young adventure seeker whose only gear and supplies include a cheap knife, a multi-function tool similar to a Leatherman, a flashlight, rope, a little food and even less water, a video camera, and absolutely no communication with the outside world.

For five days Ralston tries everything he can think of to free himself, including one very clever scene in which he rigs a makeshift pulley system.  Eventually he realizes there is no escape . . . at least none that includes retaining his right arm.  By then his knife is so dulled from chipping away at the boulder that the blade will not even penetrate his skin.  The only equipment still offering any chance of escape are the pliers and wire cutter built into his multi-function tool.  It’s a gruesome yet inspiring moment when a dehydrated and hallucinating Ralston begins the slow, excruciated job of self-amputation and devising his escape from the crevasse.

Unfortunately, at least for me, Ralston’s character comes off as an extremely well-prepared and physically capable outdoorsman with one near-fatal flaw—he’s so confident in his abilities that he neglects the cardinal rules of survival:  Don’t travel alone, and always leave word where you’re going.  As such, it was fairly hard for me to stomach his initial arrogance and, later, to muster very much sympathy for his plight.  Eventually, however, Franco’s performance won me over and in the end I did start to root for the character he portrayed.

Alas the film is flawed.  Franco’s performance, while good to borderline great, was not in my opinion truly Oscar-worthy.  And, even at a short 92 minutes, the film still seemed overly long.  That’s never a good sign.

Next, Nordwand (North Face):

So hungry was I for a more satisfying real-life outdoor adventure film after watching 127 Hours that I almost immediately went to my Netflix streaming queue to retrieve a film I had placed there over a month before.  That film was Nordwand, a German word that translates to North Face.  If you know anything about mountaineering, or if you’re a fan of Rodney William Whitaker’s outstanding 1972 spy thriller The Eiger Sanction (written under the pseudonym Trevanian), the title alone will send shivers down your spine.  And isn’t that the reaction you expect from such a story?  When one mentions, “The North Face,” those in the know immediately think of the infamous North Face of the magnificent Swiss Alp the Eiger, a climb that has claimed the lives of no less than 64 mountaineers since the first serious attempt made in 1935 on what would become known as, “The last great problem of the Alps.”

Nordwand details the true-life 1936 attempt to climb the North Face of the Eiger mounted by German climbers Andreas Hinterstoisser (Florian Lukas) and Toni Kurz ( Benno Fürmann), who in mid-climb would later joined forces with Austrians Willy Angerer (Simon Schwarz) and Edi Rainer (Georg Friedrich).  Kurz is the reluctant climber who considers the Eiger’s North Face far too dangerous.  Kurz’s childhood friend and current mountain climbing companion Hinterstoisser disagrees, and Hinterstoisser eventually badgers Kurz into taking up a challenge many consider sure suicide.  Also pressuring Kurz is former childhood sweetheart Luise (Johanna Wokalek), who views documenting their attempt as her breakout ticket in photo journalism.

Kurz and Hinterstoisser soon find themselves encamped at the base of the Eiger, having arrived by bicycle, living in a tent, near penniless, and surviving on barley soup made over a campfire.  Meanwhile spectators, the press, and even Luise party in grand fashion and formal clothing, gorging on gourmet food and swilling fine wine at the nearby luxury hotel.  The dichotomy between the high-living death-watchers situated on the overlooking hill and the various encamped, glory-seeking climbing parties below is both stunning and demoralizing.

Kurz and Hinterstoisser begin their arduous climb before sunrise early one morning.  Austrians Angerer and Rainer start out shortly after, vowing to catch and then pass the Germans as each team vie to be the first to conquer the North Face.  Eventually the Austrians link up with the German team after Hinterstoisser discovers a brilliant but technically very difficult traverse that reveals to the four climbers the one route that had eluded everyone who made the North Face attempt before them.  Unfortunately, the team makes a decision that later proves disastrous when they remove and take with them the ropes Hinterstoisser used to traverse the most dangerous and unforgiving portion of the mountain.  From that moment on the team’s fate is sealed.

Disaster strikes high on the sheer rock when, first, Angerer is struck by a falling rock dislodged by a climber above and receives a severe concussion, and then when the weather turns the North Face into an ice-shrouded death chute for which the climbers are ill-prepared and unequipped.  From then on it’s a battle for their very lives as they reverse course just shy of their goal, the dead weight of the injured Angerer strung among the three remaining able-bodied climbers.  They decide their only hope for survival lies in reaching the Eigerwand Viewpoint, a tunnel railway station scenic lookout some 9,396 feet up the side of the 13,025-foot tall Eiger.

The climbing scenes in Nordwand are as stunning and breathtaking as the scenic locations in which they were shot.  By the end of the movie you can almost feel the stinging frostbite on your exposed face and hands, the sharp pain of overexerted muscles and sinews, the overwhelming fatigue of five nearly sleepless night encampments tethered to an icy cliff, and the dull, pounding headache of oxygen deprivation.  This movie truly has everything that 127 Hours lacks, from superb acting to heart-pounding action and flawless direction.  And whereas 92 minutes seemed a tad too long for 127 Hours, the 121 minutes of Nordwand will leave the viewer amazed at just how fast two hours can pass.

This is truly a must-see cinematic event.

Interesting Side Note:  You’ll recall that I earlier mentioned one of my favorite spy thrillers (actually a very clever parody of the genre), The Eiger Sanction.  Please don’t confuse this magnificent novel with the rather tepid 1975 film adaptation starring Clint Eastwood.  If you’ve not read this book, I would highly recommend that you do so after viewing Nordwand.  The climbing scenes from Trevanian’s novel were obviously patterned almost piton-for-piton from the 1935 Hinterstoisser/Kurz assault on the Eiger, clear down to the concussed climber and the sudden, catastrophic, mid-Summer ice storm.  You’ll be amazed at the similarities, and Trevanian’s descriptions are even more effective than even the brilliant Nordwand at putting the reader up on the North Face, the last great problem of the Alps.