Broad Peak

Wonder how can such an acclaimed director blow off such a fantastic story. We get attechet to absolutely no characters in the films. The story just passes by quickly, with no emotions nor suspense. Dialogues are rare, fragmented and have no relevance to the story. There are neither any questions nor answers in this film. Even the clibmbing scene es have no sense. We don know who is Berbeka, why he is climbing and what is it all about. His wife is completely in a shadow with no meaningful dialogues between them. There was such a great opportunity in this movie. Unfortunately we cannot experience it. I am soooo disappointed.

I find movies about climbers strangely fascinating, since I don't have a clue about what pushes them to do crazy stuff that very often ends with death by hypothermia.

Based on real events, the main character of this story is Maciej Berbeka, a Polish climber who attempted to reach Broad Peak in 1988, almost dying in the proceedings, only to be told that he stopped some 20 metres from the peak. To be noted, he stopped because he was exhausted and lost in a blizzard in terrible weather conditions.

On the way down he almost died and he talked about his near death experience as awful, since he spent almost 24 hours in a hole in the snow at -40° at over 8000 mt. A reasonable person would probably not be willing to repeat such an experience, but 25 years later Maciej is contacted by the guy who organized the first expedition and asked to go again, with three much younger guys.

After a short hesitation Maciej decides to go, stating that he needs "to finish what he started". It looked pretty much finished 25 years earlier to me, but the inevitable ensues, with a much older Maciej attempting another winter expedition with the younger guys just to prove... what exactly?

The story is told in a rather boring way, with sparse dialogue and little to no insight into any characters minds. Makes you feel cold and despairing about human nature. Still, some interesting photography.

The breathtaking mountain climbing shots - especially when they pan out and show you where the climbers are in relation to the size of the mountain - is terrifying - how they get up these sheer ice faces is just amazing. I found most of the film very gripping and my only issue is that the time lag between the first attempt to climb Broad Peak and the second attempt is supposed to be 25 years later. This length of time seems more like a few years as all you see the main character doing is some joinery and giving some school talks etc. Plus he and his wife look no different 25 years later. I had to go and check that it really was 25 years later. Just a quibble though.

This is a typical film that should not have been made. The story that may have happened is not interesting for a moment. The scenes are sloppily tied together where there is hardly a story to discover. Apart from the fact that I do not understand mountain climbers, this is the worst film I have ever seen about the subject. The story is incoherent and the actors do not seem to be interested. I watched it for half an hour and then I knew, not worth it. It remains a shame that there are film makers who are not able to film this kind of subject better. In a word, a soporific, sloppy work, a waste of my time.

As "Broad Peak" (2022 release from Poland; 102 min.) opens, we are in "Karakoram, March 1988" as we see a mountain climber digging a shelter in the side of a mountain, desperately clinging on to life. We then go to "A Week Earlier" as Polish expedition is faltering on K2, and Majiej Berbeka and one other climber decide to abandon that climb and instead try to ascend the nearby Broad Peak on a whim, without support, and in -40C weather conditions. What could go wrong? At this point we are 10 min into the movie.

Couple of comments: this movie is a Polish production, and the entire cast was unfamiliar to me. Not had I ever heard of Maciej Berbeka, whose real life exploits are the basis of the move. Let me just outright say it: I was surprised, in the best possible way, with this production, which is top notch from start to finish. The climbing scenes are terrific, and terrifying. From the looks of it, a good part of the film was staged in the actual Karakoram mountain range in Pakistan. The footage of that is simply spectacular. The fact that there are some significant plot twists along the way doesn't hurt either...

"Broad Peak" premiered on Netflix a few days ago. I had read a heads up about this film somewhere on line, and was immediately intrigued. So glad I checked it out. If you are in the mood for a thoroughly entertaining (and more) extreme sports movie, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.