Escalada

Contains real life scenarios that most people can relate to and is not at all preachy. They do give somewhat of a gospel message but are not at all in your face about it. Good acting, great production. Involves the lives of an unbeliever and a committed Christian forging a friendship based on a mutual goal. I really like that it portrays a relationship between the two men that is similar to relationships that I have had as a believer with unbelievers. This would be a great movie to watch with friends that you want to hear the gospel message without it seeming like you are showing them the movie just for that reason. I would highly recommend!

Your appreciation of this movie will be directly related to your own interest in matters of faith. Those of Christian faith (such as myself) and those with an interest in Christian faith will appreciate the values contained here; those who are antagonistic to Christian faith will find the evangelistic emphasis of the movie distasteful. Of course, my question would be why anyone antagonistic to an evangelical Christian message would watch a movie produced by World Wide Pictures, which is an arm of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association?

I don't like movies that have a hidden agenda (even a hidden evangelistic agenda) but here the agenda is clear-cut and expected, so it didn't bother me. The story is interesting enough, focusing around two young mountain climbers (Jason George and Ned Vaughn) who suddenly find themselves with an unexpected opportunity to team up and climb the highest peak in the Chilean Andes. Derrick Williams (George) is an angry atheist, while Michael Harris (Vaughn) is a faithful Christian. The relationship between the two grows as they train and then climb together, culminating in the totally predictable religious conversion of Derrick. Of course, the real suspense in this kind of movie is not whether the atheist is going to convert; it's what the chain of events leading to the conversion will be, and that was a decent enough story.

Featuring the likes of Dabney Coleman, Clifton Davis and Todd Bridges, you'll find this an entertaining story as long as the overtly religious tone of it isn't something that will turn you off.

7/10

It's got a lot of deep themes, such as responsibility, friendship (two highly different men bond in a common vision), sacrificial love (risking one's life to save another's), capitalist greed vs social benevolence, stubborn pride as potentially dangerous (jumping a red light; not taking adrenaline help when needed), submission to deity (meaning of life), forgiveness (at various levels), and unborn life as precious and its own selfhood (not a callous, Your body, your choice pressure from a partner to avoid their moral responsibility).

There's good advice, such as times to let go of the past, and when getting to the next turn after moral falls, trying to take the high road and not to wallow in sin. It suffers from a common error of being 'born again'; asserting we're of value to God-nope, we're utterly superfluous but precious to him; and a more serious fallacy of God having died (no, it was God the son (not 'God') as a mortal human being (not as noncarnate son), who died): Antioch over Alexandria, so to speak.

The main story is of two guys (black (Derrick) & white (Michael)) being sponsored to take a dangerous mountain climb they both have longed to climb, viz Mount 'Chiconcagua' (Aconcagua?). There are subplots of profit over or under people, of lying vs honesty, and of pleasure over parenting (the latter includes the former). The climb doesn't go as well as hoped, but perhaps it goes far better. Judge for yourself.

PROS

+ The movie puts the spotlights on opposing selfishness, and is today more relevant than 22 years ago. Our culture is now saturated with those types of 'me, me, me'. I do that mountain on my own, I am my own boss in life, I, I, I. What a wonderful lesson Jason could learn in this movie, and is able to teach many others trapped in that selfish mentality today.

+ It elevates the family and the responsibilities of a father. At the same time it elevates the role of a father of the bride and shows how good protection looks alike, but also how biblical forgiveness should be alike.

CONS

• I never saw in a movie such a blatant endorsement, even including a closeup of one of his books. Billy Graham was one of the biggest frauds of Christian history, and this is also the reason why I sadly cannot promote this overall very good movie. (He was a great admirer of the 33° Mason Norman Vincent Peale; had a strong tendency towards Universalism; key figure in the ecumenical movement; used Roman Catholic lay people as supervisors and altar workers; close collaboration with the Vatican and the Pope; endorsement of female pastors)

• The advice Ned gives to the then girlfriend of Jason, when she was trying to get out of fornication, was 'we all go through periods like that'. This is a deeply troubling advise, which has contributed to the notion that it is ok in younger years to commit some 'mistakes', and then simply ask later for forgiveness.

While it might be true that THEOS can (and will upon repentance) forgive any sin, there is no assurance that we are ever drawn to the awareness of those sins and to the respective repentance. The further down the road, the more a miracle it requires getting out of it. But to the credit of this movie, this bad advice is obviously (and at least in parts) 'overwritten' by the later repentance of Jason.

• When Jason repents, he asks 'Jesus' to come into his heart. This is a formula foreign to the Bible and part of the evangelism scheme of Billy Graham, to enable him to count the 'conversions'. Another part of this scheme is the lifting of hands and then counting those lifted hands as saved people.

The story was very captivating and thought-provoking. The scenery of the mountains was beautiful, and the story brought tears to my eyes.

One thing I didn't particularly like was the sort of cheesy acting of the Mackie's owner, but I guess he was just supposed to be that way.

Great story...see it, and remember the high road!