La montagne des héros

Heroes' Mountain offers a great insight into the Thredbo tragedy. We Australians were devastated by this disaster and we all greatly admired the sole survivor Stuart Diver. This movie shows his ordeal very well, with a fine performance from Craig McLachlan as Diver. Every member of the supporting cast was excellent, lending such believability to their performances that you forgot that you were watching the film, and not the real thing.

The only drawback, I felt, was that it didn't deal with the aftermath at all. We got told that Stuart Diver recovered and eventually returned to Thredbo. It would have been good to know other details of the tragedy, rather than just focusing on Diver. How many people were killed? What happened to the families of the victims? What did Stuart Diver achieve after the accident, if anything?

It is a well directed film, and very engaging. Particularly for those of us who remember seeing Stuart Diver pulled out live on television in 1997. Well done to all the actors. Definitely worth a look.

Stuart Diver was the only survivor of a watery landslide that engulfed the small ski town of Thredbo in the Australian Alps. Diver clung to life for three days, with his dead wife beside him, while awaiting rescue. The movie portrays the anguish he went through, the reactions of his family, and that of his wife's parents, and the bravery and dedication of his rescuers. There are many poignant moments in the film and I doubt that any viewer would not be moved at least once. My only criticism is that the movie tends to focus too narrowly on the sole rescue, with not enough information given about the tragedy as a whole.

Premiered last night on Aussie Television (March 10th) and was indeed worth the wait.

As sensitively and professionally re-enacted as THE DAY OF THE ROSES (The story of the '74 Granville Train Disaster), which John Misto also scripted incidentally, HEROES' MOUNTAIN portrays the events leading up to the shocking deaths of 18 people in July 1997, trapped in a landslide in the southern NSW snowfields at Thredbo village, a few hours south of Canberra, the Australian Capital.

The docudrama focuses primarily on the fortitude and incredible will to live by sole survivor Stuart Diver, as well as the ceaseless rescue efforts by so many, to finally extricate him after an unimaginable 65 hours trapped beneath mud, concrete and icy water. Diver also lost his wife that day when she was trapped in adjacent buildings.

McLachlan turns in what is probably his best celluloid effort as Stuart Diver, acting under uniquely difficult circumstances. Word is that he was overcome emotionally at several points during filming, being unable to move himself under the elaborate and realistic sets. Being visible for the most part only from the neck upwards, necessitated extraordinary facial acting to project the real Diver's predicament.

Whilst the set was constructed 1/3 larger than the original collapsed site (to allow for cameras and crew) each rock, girder and piece of wreckage was painstakingly reproduced from original photographs and filed news coverage. Many on-set who were present during the original rescue (including Diver himself) were said to be amazed at the authenticity of the recreation.

An absolute must-see wherever it is shown!

When I first heard that the Thredbo disaster would be made into a telefeature, I was a little skeptical, envisaging similar American "based on true story" telethrillers which have plagued Channel 7's midday movie timeslot for years. But HEROES' MOUNTAIN was very good: Andrikidis obviously was aware that the tragedy and incredible rescue was not five years old in people's minds, and obviously the relatives of those who died might be watching. It was made in co-operation with survivor Stuart Diver, so it was never going to be sensationalised. However, I reckon it could have been a miniseries, with the second episode getting into the aftermath and investigations (ala DAY OF THE ROSES) and Diver's remarkable recovery and his amazing media run, which included being a part of Channel 7's commentary team for winter sports. McLachlan is in just about his best role to date, and everyone else performs admirably to create a film that is definitely not easy to watch (claustrophobes beware), but is important. 7/10.

I was able to watch the movie last Friday on Polish TV, four years after the movie had been made and nine years after the tragedy. And I was disgusted. The movie was a disaster, and if it is an accurate report, the rescue had been a disaster too. The rescue should have started with an attempt to make sure if there were any survivors. Not by simply saying "nobody could have survived this", but by using IR detectors, trained dogs, highly-sensitive microphones - there are numerous options. And what we can see is rescuers listening for survivors' voices by ear! and otherwise just standing or walking in the way of other rescuers. Now that's a well-organized action for me! And when the sole survivor is finally found, instead of dropping everything else and removing what has been piled on top of Stuart Diver, they talk and talk and talk. Indeed - three-fourths of the whole movie is talking. If that's the way rescue is brought in Australia, I surely don't want to go there at all. One more thing: If in the mountains you build a house of reinforced concrete with such poor foundations that melting snow can bring the whole structure down, then you really ask for trouble.