North Face (2010)

Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

just watch it!

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

"Nordwand" is a German 2-hour film from 7 years ago. It takes place during the early years of the Nazi reign and basically shows us how a group of mountain climbers try to master a truly touch challenge. The (co-)writer and director here is Philipp Stölzl and I have seen some of his works. I liked "Goethe!" and I loved "The Physician", so I had some hopes for "Nordwand" as well. Unfortunately, they were not fulfilled. I am generally not the biggest fan of Benno Fürmann, but he was okay here. the acting is good in general and there are more famous names in here, such as Florian Lukas, Ulrich Tukur, Georg Friedrich, Martin Brambach (personal favorite) and, of course, Johanna Wokalek, who sort of plays the only significant female character in the film and also gives the best performance I guess. Quite a pity that, in recent years, she hardly acted in films.Anyway, the reason why I did not really enjoy this film was that adventure movies are not exactly my cup of tea. I liked the film for the historic references in the first half and it would have been great if this could have been a political movie and not entirely focused on the expedition. The more history, the better for me. The less climbing scenes, the better as well. Unfortunately, pretty much the entire second half/hour takes place in the Alps. The film is sometimes fairly graphic in terms of injuries and drama, especially towards the ending. People who like this kind of films more than I do and also enjoyed the recent Hollywood film "Everest" can check this out, but everybody else is not really missing much. Not recommended.

Being a mountaineer, and having read several books about the early attempts to climb the Eiger's North face, I naively assumed this film would be a reasonably accurate portrayal of the events. What a let-down when the story started straying further and further from what actually happened, only to turn into a sappy Hollywood-style BS-fest. The filmmakers should be ashamed of themselves for completely misrepresenting a gripping and tragic story which didn't have any need whatsoever for fiction to make it compelling. This is my first review on IMDb after many years using the site. The reason is that this film is simply disrespectful to the people involved in the actual events.

This is a beautifully shot film, and captures the feel of 1930's Germany. The actors are very believable and the climbing scenes and scenery, stunning. I wondered how they filmed the climbing scenes so realistically, and found out in the extras that although they employed special effects and CGI images, they are so realistic and well integrated that you absolutely cannot tell where they used the effects. The storyline is gripping, made even more so knowing that the movie was based on actual events. The actual account on Wikipedia is even more heartbreaking. Easily one of the best mountaineering movies out there, along with "Touching the Void".

I watched North Face last night and think it's a terrific movie. It seems to accurately depict a true event, yes, with some Hollywoodisms added or enhanced (Love story, girl climbing where local Swiss alpinists won't). What struck me most was the utter tragedy, that was extremely well depicted. The fanatical, Nazi-supporting publisher who only cares about scoring points with the Third Reich, balanced by his reporter whose affiliations only become clearer as the movie progresses. The contrasts presented were simply amazing. The climbers living in tents, eating soup for dinner, while the hotel guests slept in warm beds and ate banquet dinners served by waiters. The guests watching from a balcony via telescopes while the climbers tried to save themselves. Then the biggest tragedy was Kurz at the end. It's hard to believe that the Swiss, who are always prepared, screwed up by not bringing a long enough rope, and Kurz ended up dying because of this. So many tragedies, so well presented. This is a must-see film.