Fat Ninja

My entire life I’ve had a fear of heights. It’s such that I got dizzy watching King Kong scale the Empire State building, and it’s bad enough that I often get a small jolt of adrenaline when falling from heights in video games. As someone who is deathly afraid of high places, I suppose I look upon mountain climbers with a profound respect, but also with a marked incredulity. That said, there’s a genuine awe that comes over me when I witness individuals accomplish what is, in my mind, the impossible.

I can’t quite recall whose blog it was, but I remember I had been cruising through various people’s 360 pages, checking out blog entries. I had come across an entry about a movie called Touching the Void. The author of the blog had described his viewing experience as life altering. Now, I’ve heard people laud the most mundane of experiences as life-changing, so I’m skeptical when I hear the words, “it changed my life”. I’ve used the phrase far too casually in the past for me to put any stock in such an endorsement. However, it was the sincerity of the review that had grabbed my attention, and it didn’t strike me as overblown indulgence.

At that point I was resolved to see Touching the Void for myself. Unfortunately, I hadn’t anticipated the difficulty I would have in finding a copy of it. I finally tracked one down this past weekend, in a local Sam Goody of all places. While the film’s format was not what I had expected, I have to say that I was thoroughly moved by Touching the Void’s incredible story of the indomitability of the human spirit.

Presented in the format of a documentary,  Touching the Void relates the story of Joe Simpson and Simon Yates, two English mountaineers who set out in 1985 to reach the summit of one of the Andes’ only unconquered peaks, Siula Grande. After an arduous approach, through unforseen conditions, Joe and Simon become the only people to reach Siula Grande’s 21,000-foot peak. However, on the descent disaster befalls the two young climbers, as Simon suffers a severe break in his leg.

Despite the pair’s best efforts to continue their descent together, a deteriorating situation proceeds to collapse in upon itself, forcing the two of them to separate. Chronicling each man’s individual journey down the treacherous face of Siula Grande, Touching the Void offers a grim and provactive look at the perserverance of the human spirit and the incredible strength of will that resides in us to conquer not only nature, but even death.

I would easily catalog Touching the Void amongst my Top 10 films. I don’t know that I’ve seen a movie like it. Featuring some truly beautiful cinematography, the dramatic recreation of the ill-fated climb perfectly captures the harrowing events related in the voice-over narration provided by Simon Yates and Joe Simpson. Now, would I say that the film changed my life? Yes, I honestly would. Few films ever truly force me to ponder not only my own mortality, but also what I will manage to accomplish in that time; Touching the Void is one such film.

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