Cerro Torre, le cri de la roche

Donald Sutherland plays a news reporter who goads a sport climber into challenging a legendary mountain climber. A 3000 meter supposedly unclimbable Patagonia peak is their place of destiny. "Scream of Stone" is an extremely uneven film, with abrupt editing and despite Werner Herzog directing, the whole thing really never pulls together. There is a battle of egos for most of the movie that eventually wears thin. I found the most interesting character to be "Fingerless", played by the always intriguing Brad Dourif. Despite the spectacular mountain vistas, the film has several near fatal flaws, including some really unfunny attempts at humor, a "bimbo" who's acting is atrocious, and an ending on the mountain that seriously lacks credibility. - MERK

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

Herzog succeeds to show simultaneously several issues related to climbing.

The issue of the spectator: he is rather driven by roman circus spirit than by olympic ideals. The issues of the media: if there is an audience, there is money. The issues of the climbers: they are described as a king of athlete driven by a competitive spirit which allow betting its own life to reach a summit. The outdoors views of the famous Cerro Torre are beautiful and rare.

Some spectators might feel bored by the way the film is conducted. Actually, this conduction reminds some Nouvelle Vague issues and many spectators felt bored by films directed by monsters of the Nouvelle Vague like Antonioni, Goddard etc... C'est la vie.

Yet, Cerro Torre: Schrei aus Stein deserves to be seen by those who appreciate Herzog cinema.

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.

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.