Everest (3-D)

First Hit:  Having read Krakauer’s book, the film was generally weak and disappointing.

I do not read many books that are tuned into films and I had read this book when it first came out.

Because it was some time ago, I hoped to just view the film without the prejudice of the book in the back of my mind. However, there was little or no back story as to why Scott Fisher (Jake Gyllenhaal) was the way he was. In fact the backstories were minimal and the attempt to build them during an evening when Krakauer (played by Michael Kelly) asked “Why” the climbers were climbing Everest fell far short of providing the needed information.

The audience needs to know why the characters are doing what they are doing - it is the primary set-up job of the director and scriptwriters. The gist of this story has too many people climbing Everest as part of their bucket list. With so many untrained and unskilled people trying to climb Everest we know something is going to happen.

Having been to Lukla, Namche Bazar, Tengboche and Kala Pattar, I’ve seen Everest reasonably close. I’ve seen hikers/climbers tossed onto the backs of Yaks to bring them expediently down the mountain because of altitude sickness. There just doesn’t seem to be enough respect for the mountain.

Rob Hall (Jason Clarke) had developed a company that took less experienced people up to the top of Everest. One of his rivals was Fisher. They are different in their attitude towards the mountain and they team up to try to get both their parties up and down the mountain safely. I heard this from the first time I hiked in to Lukla, “Everest makes its own weather”.

Having flown over the Everest from Gonggar airport in Lhasa, Tibet, seeing the way the wind whips across the top and the ridges the statement seemed so true. In this story a weather front comes in and seals the fate of many climbers who didn’t put their safety over the goal. There are great shots of Khumbu Icefall and the treacherous ladder bridges.

One of the best stories out of the book and one of the main stories in the film is of the rich arrogant Texan Beck Weathers (Josh Brolin) who ends up surviving the trek but ends up with a severe case of frostbite. The other sub-story is of the wives and supporting women of the men (and one woman) climbing the mountain.

The worst part of the film for me is seeing (and it is true) how much garbage and oxygen bottles are left on the mountain (from Base Camp on up) - lack of respect for nature.

Clarke was OK as Rob Hall. I didn’t believed his character but that could have been the direction. Gyllenhaal was OK, but with a lack of a backstory I just kept wondering why he acted the way he did. Kelly as Krakauer seemed like a very minor character, however his book raised the awareness of Everest and these climbers. Brolin was very good as the abrasive ego centric Texan. Emily Watson as Helen Wilton was strong as base camp manager. Keira Knightly was very strong as Hall's pregnant wife waiting for him to return for the birth of his daughter. William Nicholson and Simon Beaufoy wrote a weak script that really developed only 2 characters (Hall and Weathers). Baltasar Kormakur directed the film and given the intensity of the event and the decisions that were made, I was very disappointed in the result.

Overall:  This film did not deliver a very intense story.

Time Out of Mind

First Hit:  An insightful slow paced film that provides an interesting window into homelessness.

The film opens with cornucopia of noise and a view out of a trashed apartment in NYC. The noise continues through the entire film.

The background conversations and noise had me probing the screen looking to see who was talking or where the noise was coming from respectively. It was relentless and for George (Richard Gere) his 10 years of homeless or, being “temporarily without a home”, the noise adds to his inability to be clear and function. At times he’s clear and functional while at other times he succumbs to the fogginess of his despair and confusion.

As the film moved along, I felt as though this film was made by shooting Gere unrecognized wandering the streets and through homeless shelters of NYC. It was as if the cameras were shooting him from a distance and the people in the streets had no idea it was Gere. We learn during the film that his daughter Maggie (Jena Malone) doesn’t want to have anything to do with him and his attempts to see her are rebuffed.

The back story is shared with fellow homeless man Dixon (Ben Vereen). Dixon can’t stop talking which adds to the noise in George’s life. During one of their walks George tells Dixon what he remembers, his wife dying from cancer, his losing his job, drinking, losing his home, his daughter being raised elsewhere and going down a rabbit hole.

The scenes in the shelters and many of them on the street were really strong. When watching this film, one has to be patient as it moves at its own slow pace and everything unfolds slowly and realistically, just as in life.

Gere is really great. I loved his looking intelligent and at home within himself, yet barely holding on to what is next – wonderful juxtapositions. Malone is very good as Gere’s daughter. She has an edge of anger, sadness, and determination to not being dragged into George’s life again. Vereen is fantastic. His constant conscious stream of dialogue is perfectly like some of the homeless people I’ve befriended. Steve Buscemi as a building manager was perfect. Oren Moverman wrote the screen play and also directed the film. At first I was annoyed at the noise in the film, but quickly realized how it really made this film work.

Overall:  At the end of the film, I felt I’d been through a really good experience and got a view into homelessness.

Rosenwald

First Hit:  I love when I get to learn something new, and to have it be about a humble yet an amazing person, sublime perfection.

Julius Rosenwald did something that had me absolutely amazed. As the CEO of Sears Roebuck company, he founded a way to build over 5,300 all black schools throughout the South.

In the early part of the 20th Century Afro-Americans were not allowed to attend the white only schools in the South. The schools they were attending were in poor run down, left to die, buildings and the people who taught the kids were either barely or not educated themselves.

Working with Booker T. Washington of Tuskegee University, Rosenwald devised a plan to create a way that prompted communities to build new schools using financing from Rosenwald.

This film also talked about Rosenwald’s other philanthropy efforts through grants and other organizations. The filmmakers used archival footage, scenes from films that represented the time, and recent interviews to create an amazing tale of giving. However for me the coup de grace was short footage of him giving a talk about his success – beautifully humble.

Aviva Kempner wrote and directed this amazing biographical documentary of an amazing man.

Overall:  This was a great, humbling, and honorable story of a very benevolent man.

Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine

First Hit:  A very interesting and accurate view of Steve and his relationship to the people at Apple and his life.

I had a working relationship with an employee who worked very closely with Jobs in the late 1990’s. A few of the stories he told about both Steve’s brilliance and tyrannical behavior were reflected in this film.

What I liked most about this film is the way the makers weaved a way to show both. What I was disappointed about was there wasn’t much about his relationship with Steve Wozniak and his early on main rival,

Bill Gates. However, the dramas that were only briefly referred to including; the 5 other CEOs like John Scully whom Jobs thought almost ruined Apple, were mildly sufficient. The famous product reveals were covered well and was his struggle with owning his paternity of his first daughter Lisa.

Many of the interviews were revealing and when one person, who was a lead engineer on one of  Jobs' projects, lost his wife and family to the effort he gave jobs, I could really feel his pain - so did he.

Alex Gibney did a very good job of piecing together archival footage and recent interviews with friends, others, and family.

Overall:  This was a very interesting film about a driven man.

A Walk in the Woods

First Hit:  Enjoyable, interesting at times and funny – it was “A Walk in the Woods”.

This film has two veteran actors past their prime, showing why they still have something left in the tank.

Bill Bryson (Robert Redford) and Stephan Katz (Nick Nolte) are two old friends who’ve not seen each other for quite some time. Bryson gets an idea that he needs to change something in his life and decides to walk the Appalachian Trail (From Georgia to Maine).

His wife Catherine (Emma Thompson) doesn’t want him to do this, thinks he’s too old and makes a stipulation that he has to do this with someone. He calls lots of people and everyone turns him down, except Katz who wasn’t asked directly but heard it from a mutual friend. He’s interested because he has arrest warrants out against him and this will give him some relief from those worries.

The characters are clearly defined, Bryson refined, well spoken, and intelligent, while Katz is rude, crude, and well worn. But during the walk we see their likeness and learn of their history together. All the while each is walking in this beautiful part of the country for their own reasons.

They meet people along the way that supposedly challenge their beliefs, but only one, hiker Mary Ellen (Kristin Schaal), challenge them as a team. I never got a solid clear feeling as to why Bryson did the hike in the first place but it probably wasn’t important.

Overall, Redford was strong and was perfect to play this reserved controlled character. Nolte has had a lot of hard miles on him and was perfectly cast in this role because his character called for his background. Thompson was effective in her small role. Schaal was perfectly annoying and wonderful in her role as fellow hiker. Rick Kerb and Bill Holderman wrote a good screenplay that effectively highlighted these two disparate characters. Ken Kwapis got a fair amount of great scenes from these two, but some of the scene sets were obviously done in a studio.

Overall:  This was a very enjoyable film.