Touching the Void
Kevin Macdonald

Nathalie Rothschild

In 1985 two British mountaineers, Joe Simpson and Simon Yates, then in their early twenties, set out to conquer the west face of the 21,000 foot Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes, a mission never before accomplished.

Touching the Void retells their story, which has also been documented in a book with the same title, written by Simpson in 1988. This drama documentary combines dramatic reconstruction with witness accounts by Simpson, Yates and Richard Leaming, an English tourist whom the two mountaineers befriended in Lima and brought along with them to Siula Grande to guard the base camp. The three men recount their story in front of the camera and over the action as a commentary to the images. The actors, meanwhile, hardly speak.

Though the ascent of the mountain at times goes even smoother than expected by the two friends, the nightmare starts on the descent, which is apparently when most mountaineering accidents occur. Of course all will be well in the end - otherwise Simpson would not have written his bestselling book and the three men would not be sitting in front of the camera. The suspense is nevertheless high as we receive the detailed explication of what happened on Siula Grande that terrifying week in 1985 and how Simpson managed, against all odds, to rescue himself out of a lethal situation and become his own hero as well as a legend in the mountaineering community.

The film has the viewers impressed and at awe of this amazing, seemingly impossible feat of endurance and survival. At the same time, while easy-going and almost casual in their recountals, the mountaineers reveal the machismo necessary to undertake such a journey and the ego boost gained from 'climbing the world', as Simpson puts it, and probably a consequent sensation of conquest. The one tear that Simpson sheds in one of the close-up interview shots becomes a sign of the weakness that most of us would have revealed even at the thought of embarking on such a dangerous and challenging mission. As we sit comfortably back in the cinema seats there are actually people out there pushing themselves to their limits, challenging their physical and mental boundaries - and enjoying it.

But what else is Touching the Void except a story that impresses us and a film with breath taking scenery of the Peruvian Andes? (It is shot on the original location.) Besides telling us that mountaineering is a risky activity that requires skills, strength and courage, what does the film reveal about the mountaineers, about why they undertake such journeys knowing that their lives will be at risk?

It is an exciting story, but does not go into the complexities of why people put themselves in situations that require enormous strength, critical decision-making and moral choices in extreme conditions, and of what makes a hero. Neither does Touching the Void explain who the men were before they set out for the Peruvian Andes and who they became afterwards. In this sense, the film is devoid of context. The three men share their experiences with us and not much is asked of them in return, at least not in the making of the film itself.

See also the Culture Wars review of Touching the Void at the London Film Festival 2003.