Of course this isn't Free Solo, which was phenomenal. First off, this is aid climbing, but burly nevertheless. Not necessarily an aesthetically pleasing climbing as other films, but a great cast of characters (including villains) involved in an intriguing story spanniing 30 years. Interesting study on how any tight nit group of people can form a tribe like mentality with a set of absurd taboos that cross over into the sociopathic.
I enjoyed the fact that there was no attempt to aesthtisize everything with hyper emotional music or sentimental narration, but the unique content stands on its own without window dressing.
4 Reviews
Nothing but self serving interviews
kbass-2936125 December 2018
Dull with a Potential for Interesting
tonilee71027 March 2020
If you are not an elitist, judgmental climber, you may find yourself saying, as I did, "What a bunch of jerks" the anti-first ascensionists were. It's interesting that other reviews don't even mention Richard Jenson and Mark Smith, who made the first ascent of Wings of Steel in1983. The 2nd ascent, in 2011, by Ammon McNeely is portrayed in a very different way. He is, assuredly, a respected and skilled climber and it helps that the others interviewed are such cheerleaders for him - in sharp contrast to their sniping about Jenson and Smith. McNeely is very clear about the good job done by Jenson and Smith and validates their climb. Yes, I watched the entire film, so I would know if anything I'd written had been unproved. I did rate up from 2 stars to 5 because of Ammon KcNeely's comments and insights.
A documentary, almost 30 years after Wings of Steel was first climbed.
TxMike24 February 2019
My wife and I were talking about the recent movie "Free Solo" when we came across this documentary on Amazon streaming. I must admit, though, she dozed off during part of it. I am not a climber, but back in the 1990s I was at the base of El Capitan, on the large boulders as they began to shift and rumble, I thought I was a goner, never to be discovered beneath the debris. But here I am!
This is not a very dynamic film, in fact it has no professional polish to it, and includes interviews with a number of people in the climbing community. But Ammon McNeely, 42 during filming, was perhaps the best-known expert at climbing various El Capitan routes, but no one had repeated the 1983 Wings of Steel route which had taken two climbers 39 days. McNeely and his girlfriend Kait were to do it in 13 days and verify the descriptions of the climb almost 30 years earlier.
A big part of the story is how the Yosemite climbing "community" in 1983 resented the two men entering "their domain" without being properly accepted first, even though it was all in a public national park. The two men were bullied and threatened, some of their equipment sabotaged, yet they eventually completed the climb, and in present day admitting it was much more difficult than they had thought it would be.
This is a worthwhile film for those interested in this sort of thing. McNeely himself is quite interesting to listen to. Of note in the years following this film he has had several accidents, one even resulted in loss of his right leg below the knee, so I'm sure his climbing has changed. But regarding all his injuries and resultant medical bills, he says, "I was taught as a kid that if you want something out of your life, you've got to go out and earn it yourself, people can't just hand you stuff." Still it isn't clear how he pays all his medical bills which must be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Edit: On April 5th we watched "Free Solo", a 4-hour free climb of El Capitan that had never been attempted before, a fascinating documentary.
This is not a very dynamic film, in fact it has no professional polish to it, and includes interviews with a number of people in the climbing community. But Ammon McNeely, 42 during filming, was perhaps the best-known expert at climbing various El Capitan routes, but no one had repeated the 1983 Wings of Steel route which had taken two climbers 39 days. McNeely and his girlfriend Kait were to do it in 13 days and verify the descriptions of the climb almost 30 years earlier.
A big part of the story is how the Yosemite climbing "community" in 1983 resented the two men entering "their domain" without being properly accepted first, even though it was all in a public national park. The two men were bullied and threatened, some of their equipment sabotaged, yet they eventually completed the climb, and in present day admitting it was much more difficult than they had thought it would be.
This is a worthwhile film for those interested in this sort of thing. McNeely himself is quite interesting to listen to. Of note in the years following this film he has had several accidents, one even resulted in loss of his right leg below the knee, so I'm sure his climbing has changed. But regarding all his injuries and resultant medical bills, he says, "I was taught as a kid that if you want something out of your life, you've got to go out and earn it yourself, people can't just hand you stuff." Still it isn't clear how he pays all his medical bills which must be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Edit: On April 5th we watched "Free Solo", a 4-hour free climb of El Capitan that had never been attempted before, a fascinating documentary.
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