Heroes' Mountain

When the landslide happened the last thing on anyone's mind was that 5 years down the track we would be watching the same event's unfolding before our eyes being replayed in a telemovie.

Craig McLaughlin as Stewart Diver is an interesting choice but he does the role justice. The only problem is that he doesn't look the role because everyone in Australia has seen Stuart Diver's face in the paper 100 times over and would instantly know him if they passed him in the street.

This event in Australian history is like our Kennedy assassination... everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing when it happened. I remember spending 3 days glued to the television and been drawn to tears when Stuart Diver's face rose out of the rubble. Truly amazing.

I give this movie a 7 out of 10 because it is so accurate in detail that you almost think you are looking at the real thing but a lot of detail is left out in the final product.

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.

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.

There wasn't anything new that could be done with a disaster story. It's a dramatisation of an actual event after all. But it was extraordinary to "see" the story behind what we all read in the newspapers and heard in TV broadcasts.

The direction was good, the story told well and acted very well. It was good to see Craig McLachlan in something again, and Nadine Garner.

Well worth a look.