Cerro Torre: Schrei aus Stein

Brad Dourif (Billy in Cukoo's Nest, Hazel in Wise Blood and the voice of Chucky) is hilarious as Fingerless, the other characters are the usual pathetic humanoids struggling with their dreams and weaknesses. The mountain is the obstacle to life's fulfillment, people are dammed to pursue their dreams to their own destruction and only the old woman in the house at the base of the mountain knows what life is all about. Call it documentary fiction with a cameo by Donald Sutherland as the climber's agent. My favorite scene has "Alpinists" on a fake German TV show debating the climbers using some of Herzog's usual crew of character actors to give that Alpine authenticity.

Boy am I glad Herzog finally found a vehicle to display his positive side.

Im a mountain climber and love to watch movies about climbing, that stated most movies in this genre usually have really fake seaming climbing scene for example Cliff hanger with S Stalone climbing a huge wall in the Rockies(really Dolomites in Italy) with all the gear but using none of it or the bolt gun?(no such thing). Scream of Stone has plenty of fake stuff to stay in my contrived genre but is way more real, shot in Patigonia with a story by very famous climber (R Messner). There are some very real seaming climbing in this film. For a climbing film this is a ten as a real movie its really a five I gave it a eight as a compromise. All climbers will love this film enjoy

Or maybe it is the best. Characters are 100% convincing, shooting on location is terrific and the story itself is absolutely thrilling. It is another exploration of human obsession undertaken by Herzog with brilliant (as usual) results. Of course, one may question the technical side of the two solo climbs but here we can completely rely on the expertise of Reinhold Meissner. Unfortunately, it is not likely that this film will be ever appreciated by the mainstream American audience.

It's hard to imagine that a great director (Herzog), a famous film actor (Sutherland) and one of the greatest climbers in the world (Messner) could have gotten mixed up in this mess. What little plot there is doesn't explain itself and the aimless acting rises so above criticism that it's almost interesting. Still . . . the Patagonian backgrounds are a plus, the brief insight into the new, frantic European competition-climbing scene had promise and the shots (many from high altitude helicopters) of the incredible Torres del Paine and Cerro Torre were spectacular. How they did the last ascent scenes on the frozen whipped cream summit of Cerro Torre is something I'd love to read about. Warning: If you don't love the mountains don't even think of going near this movie!

This movie left me with mixed feelings. The filmography is beautiful but the acting not quite.

The good thing is that it is really a climbing movie, not an action movie wrapped up into a mountain scenery (like Cliffhanger or Vertical Limit). Some of the actors are real (and good) climbers and one gets a glimpse of the climbing ethics (or lack thereof when sponsors come into the field).

The scenario is very loosely based on the story of the first ascent of Cerro Torre, a hard Patagonian peak. Definitely worth seeing if you are into climbing.