Summit Fever

Mountain climbing has been one of my great lifelong passions, therefore I rate this film highly. It captures the beautiful romantic but sometimes tragic obsession of the mountaineer for climbing higher. And it recognizes their sacrifices - of their personal relationships and often of their very lives. Climbing can be an aesthetic madness, an unquenchable fever that drives one to the very heights of extreme sport. It's not for everyone.

The photography of the Alps is simply breathtaking, highlighting the sharp, impossibly rugged summits in every direction. The technical climbing details portrayed are very accurate - the filmmakers here obviously know the climbing arts very well.

A couple of times a year, this film is shown on a local TV movie channel, and I always watch for it and never miss it. I love its homage to heroic mountaineering, and I appreciate it more each time I see it.

SUMMIT FEVER is one of the more disappointing mountaineering films out there, mainly because it has no real plot. At least thrillers like CLIFFHANGER and A LONELY PLACE TO DIE (which director Julian Gilbey also made) had thriller plots with a mountaineering backdrop, which gave them drive and narrative coherency. Here, we just get a group of dull young friends (and added Hollywood star Ryan Philippe for name value) who decide to go climb a few mountains. Tragedy strikes on occasion, but it's not very thrilling or indeed involving. Gilbey obviously has a real-life passion for mountaineering but I do wonder if this would have just worked better as a documentary.

In my opinion, the most glaring part of this movie is the one black character, Rudi, that appears in the beginning of the movie as part of the group, but then suddenly disappears, appearing only in the background until the last half of the film, and then disappears again. He's the only character whose story never gets fleshed out in any way, and never gets an official ending. Sad to see tokenism is still alive and well.

Other than that, it's an engaging film, the climbing scenes are done very well, and I found the lead actor particularly talented. However, one other oddity of this film were the touches of old school nods such as the disposable camera, the film camera, the 1950s looking radio, etc.. If you enjoy films about climbing and climbers, you'll probably enjoy this film.

Half of Summit Fever is watching people climb. I know that may not seem like a criticism when that's what the movie is about. But you need more than that for it to feel like a real movie. I might as well watch a documentary or real footage of climbers.

The other half of Summit Fever is the most basic and useless character development and story setup. They throw in a love story that actually works but isn't necessary and doesn't make up for the rest of the movie.

I don't have much else to say. This movie is extremely boring with almost no intrigue. The main part of the story, the biggest mountain they will climb, doesn't happen until 70 minutes into the movie. By then I was mostly checked out. (1 viewing, 3/27/2023)

I really like climbing/mountain films generally. K2, everest, touching the void etc.

This film is very similar so if you enjoyed those you'll likely enjoy this.

Typical kinda story where you have 2 friends who like to climb together. One starts to grow up getting into an apprenticeship while the other continues on his adventures. Cue lots of luring and next min they're back together with a bunch of other climbers to take on some challenging (once in a lifetime opportunity) mountains.

Things inevitably take a turn for the worse and drama ensues!

You'd think the story ends there but nope! Get back on the horse and all that jazz, next min they're climbing another mountain. And guess what? Things take an inevitable turn for the worse and drama ensues!!

The acting was a mix, some good some not so much but nothing super terrible.

I enjoyed it and would watch it again for sure.