Better Late Then Never

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

One hundred years before our present era of Facebook and Instagram, George Mallory and his fellow mountaineers took a camera crew with them to record their attempt on the then-unconquered Mount Everest. Famously, they nearly succeeded but Mallory and his companion Sandy Irvine both died in the summit attempt. It's amazing to watch the film of their expedition, now restored by the Britsih Film Institute. Judged purely as a movie, it has some limitations: the camera work is pretty impressive for its time, but it lacks the colour (and associated sound) of a modern film; in addition, although each filmed scene is described in detail, the full narrative of the mission is less well explained. For example, we're told we're about to see film of a rescue attempt high above the camp, before we've been told that the attempt had even been launched, and the logistics are only ever well explained when they've been directly filmed. Still, the movie allows us to get close to a historic and tragic episode; and to admire the crazy bravery of the men who climbed into the unknown.

The other reviews of this wonderful film will give the reader more than enough motivation to watch it himself. I would like to add the point, however, that Mallory & Co. did not consider themselves to be personally superior to the natives. The film expresses a lot of respect for these hearty and isolated people, including praises for their unremitting cheerfulness towards their work. Such praises have been a part of the history of Everest exploration since that time. The Tibetan and Nepalese quite admirable. However it is probably true that Mallory and Irvine did believe they came from a more advanced society and I think that too is indisputable.We are so steeped in cultural relativism that we fail to make this distinction. It is a distinction that the natives themselves have made; as over the decades they have adopted as many innovations as have been introduced to their country. After seeing many films of Everest explorations I suspect that they have less nostalgia about their "old ways" and modes of living than many Westerners--steeped in romantic notions about the purity indigenous peoples--believe.

Comprised entirely of silent footage taken during the Mallory and Irvine expedition of 1924.I doubt I'm revealing much of a spoiler when I say it didn't end well. Knowing the fate that befell the young men on the mountain, it makes the footage all the more poignant, particularly the early scenes featuring smiling, optimistic faces at the beginning of their challenge.Although digitally remastered, it's hard to believe your watching footage that is (almost) a century old. The skies, the mountain peaks, and the small, close details captured on film look almost as fresh as anything from the modern era. There is a subtle ambient soundtrack played throughout the film that really adds to both the impressive, otherworldly landscape of wonder and the creeping, inescapable finality of how it will play out. A strangely disturbing mix of the ephemeral and the eternal. (Easily the most pretentious thing I've typed in years!)Brilliant.

I thoroughly recommend watching the wonderful BFI restoration of this enthralling documentary. The picture quality (with some nice blue and lavender tints) and the specially commissioned score are superb. It benefits also from having no voice over but relying solely on the title cards to narrate the footage.Some of the original anthropological observations smack a little of colonial condescension but considering the era in which the film was made they are quite mild, and all such negatives are outweighed by the very rare cinematic portraits of Tibetans.And then there are the mountains - beautiful and terrible - and the mountaineers - heroic and tragic. I couldn't take my eyes from the screen.