ridiculous rating

Excellent but underrated film

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

I watched this expecting little and receiving even less. 1970's feminism with Farrah Fawcett screen time thrown in. Tough girl with big heart pursues difficult sport to prove something. The main characters female co-hort went between used, underhanded, sneaky and best friend. Because, you know, women never really pull for each other unless they are foreign and speak little English, as seen in last third of movie. Long blown out hair and perfect skin made this even less than a movie about mountain climbing in some ways. I was just endlessly reminded that it was a TV movie, and that makes any movie hardly worth interpreting.

Based on a true story, so one allows for that, this is the story of a rookie woman mountain climber going through a sort of normal progression of acceptance from others, much like "initiation" and "hazing" seniors give freshmen.We learn early on that the people in this business or hobby are very arrogant and self important.Trouble is they are totally that way, and these sort of people are total bores, especially on screen.Was Hillary himself this dull and obnoxious? Perhaps. Who knows? Probably not, as he dealt mostly with experienced natives of the Himalayas whom he probably felt lower than. He'd have to in order to survive, I believe.However, I'm sure most mountain climbers today are simply wealthy people who are super athletic, and feel this sort of superiority, and want to be a superior species to Homo Sapien.The characters try to act more than one dimensional, but they are one dimensional, and that appears to be the reality of the situation. These are just dull people, and no one cares that they are pushing their limits, because they are dull and obnoxious to insane levels.It's an ordeal to sit through this movie, though it doesn't have a lot of grating sound effects. You could watch this on an exercise bike or elliptical and not be turned off.But you won't be turned on one iota either.

One of the best movies I've ever seen... and, besides, Lori Singer acts GREAT... though she isn't on screen very much nowadays... the movie has dangerous adventures, drama, beautiful surroundings... besides it's so funny listening how Lori tries to pronounce Russian words (as I know Russian language), it's a pity that she makes terrible pronunciation mistakes... =))