shakercoola Brutal and gripping account of the 1936 attempt by two Germans and two Austrians to summitt on the North Face of the Eiger mountain before the 1938 Olympic games. The film is weighed down a little by the baggage of Nazi Aryan notion, which is embodied bluntly by a Berlin journalist with few scruples observing their ascent - this could have been background rather than foreground because the actual mountain action is terrific and it is photographed very well indeed. The romantic element with a photojournalist feels unnecessary given the focus we all have on the drama on the rock.

dilipsant I couldn't sleep so I watched this movie, I really mean that this is the movie one should really watch to know what does it mean to climbing a mountain rather than reaching the summit.I watched some other mountain movies like "Touching the void" etc. But this is no1 till now. It really inspires you to do something.I like the guys approach towards the mountaineering, at times the summit was only 25% remaining and they decided to return because one of the fellow who was not even with them, was in bad shape.The movie is must watch for people who love climbing. Very nice direction and story telling.

greenfant Just watched the movie last night. Being German, one thing that bothered me was that neither the Toni Kurz, Andreas Hinterstoisser nor Luise Fellner character spoke with a Bavarian dialect. Wouldn't you expect that from somebody born and raised in Berchtesgaden? I do have to agree with an earlier comment: The Austrian team did not come across as a real competition to the German team. In fact, they were portrayed as being quite a miserable pair, technically and spiritually inferior to the German team.Otherwise I enjoyed the movie. Acting was solid and the story believable.

Rozinda There are spoilers in this review.Extreme sports can often lead to tragedies, so surely one of the rules is to take every possible precaution against disaster. These four climbers in one of the most famous and dreadful tragedies of Alpine climbing made a number of basic errors, but their desperation to be the first to make this dangerous climb drove them to continue regardless.I read Heinrich Harrer's famous book "The White Spider" many years ago. The moment I saw this movie in the library, I thought, I wonder.. and then I saw the name Toni Kurz and I knew it was that nightmare climb.I've stayed in Grindelwald to ski, and passed Klein Scheidegg on the train and seen the infamous North Face. It's a lovely, peaceful place, seemingly, when the sun's out and the snow glistening as when we saw it. But as every skier knows, the weather can change very quickly and become a hell. Such is the situation these climbers, already in difficulties due to their mistakes as well, found themselves in.This story isn't just about the climbers, but about people who would go to the village just to see people attempt this infamous climb in which a number had already died and the ghoulishness of some of the media is depicted strongly - the media doesn't want an easy win in any endeavour, easy winners are boring to the media, it wants drama and change.Setting out one early morning, the first couple found when some way up that their crampons were missing. Later, after two groups of two were more or less climbing together, the last climber up removed the traverse rope that might later have saved their lives - he said, we won't be going down, the idea is to go up. One of the second couple had been badly injured on the head by a rock fall but couldn't be persuaded to descend, so greatly did he want to do this climb, so he put all the others at risk. But for him, it's possibly they might have succeeded and they should have forced him to descend, but I suppose they all felt they'd want to continue if in his place.It was a race to be the first to do this climb and others were camped below ready to try so every time there was a serious problem they still continued upward. Further up, when they were in some trouble and the weather had turned to a storm and the injured man was becoming a serious liability, Kurz lost a glove and it seems had no spares, or none left perhaps. If Kurz's hands hadn't been near-useless with frostbite by the time the rescue team was near and all he, the sole survivor by now, needed to do was come down on a rope, he might have reached safety. Instead, his hands couldn't help him and the rescuers couldn't reach him. Such are the mistakes that are made due to that spirit of wanting to win overcoming being careful. But at the same time, isn't it human nature that we don't want to go back? All the time I was watching this movie, I was remembering the book, so thank goodness I knew just how harrowing it was going to be. You are up there on that face, you are experiencing what it really was like. A nightmare.Uplifting and tragic and such a waste of four young lives.The Swiss rescue team who eventually set out to help had to wait for the weather to clear somewhat. As they said, some of them dying wouldn't help anyone, but I can imagine someone not local wanting to say, how selfish of them. Not so. They live there, they know their mountains, and they can despair of visitors who don't really appreciate all the dangers and put local lives at risk trying to save them.This is as much a warning as a wonderful movie.