Free Solo
Year: 2018
Rating: PG-13
Length: 100 minutes / 1.67 hours
For those who view climbing as a serious hobby, most climbing documentaries are a way to live vicariously through those climbers who dare to do something impossible. And while the plot structure of these climbing documentaries all feel nearly identical, there was something special in Free Solo (2018) that made it better than the rest. Perhaps it was the recognizability of El Capitan. Maybe it was the danger involved. Either way, Free Solo was well deserving of its Best Documentary Feature Oscar.
Part of why I didn’t connect with Meru (2015)—the previous film by these directors—was that I had never heard of that mountain before I sat down to watch it. Having never climbed El Capitan, I was at least aware of its significance. Knowing how hard this climb is, the premise of climbing it with no kind of safety gear is intriguing, to say the least. Of course, most climbing movies seem to feature climbers who have more courage than sense, but this was a unique combo that made me want to watch this film way back when it came out.
Just like it’s mesmerizing to watch a master artisan create a new piece of art, it was gripping to watch this man achieve what nobody else had done before. While the titular free solo climb up El Capitan is the crux of this film, it’s really the amazing cinematography that captured this achievement that’s on display here. After all, how does one capture this harrowing adventure up an enormous slab of rock without impeding the one climbing it? The tension for the climb was quite palpable due to the way it was edited, but the visuals really bring home how much danger Alex Honnold was in as he ascended.
A climbing documentary with recognizable risks, I give Free Solo 4.0 stars out of 5.
