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.

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)

Ok, this isn't a masterpiece. But negativity it gets is totally undeserved. I mean, if you just want a simple movie to pass some time, I can totally recommend it. If you are a climber and have been to Chamonix yourself - even more so, since it is realistic enough to bring some memories back.

Acting and story are fine. Sure, there was a couple of times when I rolled my eyes and scoffed, but "a couple of times" is actually quite good by my standards. I mean, take almost any Oscar-winning blockbuster with some insane budget and it will be yet another mind-numbingly stupid piece of crap. Yet people still like it somehow, it will have 7+ score on IMDB and might even become a classic.

Now, here is a pretty solid drama/adventure movie. Honestly, I was even touched by it. Is it plausible? Well, yeah, as I've said, there are some questionable moments, technical stuff being done incorrectly, totally unrealistic timing and such, but given how bad climbing/mountaineering is usually represented in the movies - wow, this one is actually super realistic. Usually it doesn't even make sense what gear they use, and here they even manage to use it correctly most of the time. Places are totally real, scenery is real and recognizable, dangers are (mostly) real.

All in all, if you've never been to mountains - it's a nothing out of ordinary drama, don't expect anything special and you won't be disappointed. It surely isn't awful. And if you've been there yourself, you may as well appreciate how familiar all of this is instead of complaining over relatively minor details.

And, once again: this is NOT a masterpiece. Normally, I wouldn't even bother to comment, but it just felt so unjust that it currently has IMDB rating of below 5, while being a better adventure and love story than 90% of all Hollywood.

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.

If you liked EVEREST (2015), FREE SOLO (2018), THE ALPINIST (2021), you will probably like this too. It's not as good as the aforementioned movie and documentaries, it's a low budget production and acting is mediocre, however, it's better than i thought it would be.

There are some impressive mountain shots, tension, acting is not bad and the ending is good. It is not much intense, your heart is not gonna beat faster, but these are 2 hours well spent, providing that you like these activities, i mean mountain climbing. If you are interested in this way of life (climbing and other dangerous activities), there is a kinda accurate depiction of it in this movie, and you will find it interesting.

It's not a great movie, probably it's not a good either, but i enjoy it. Read the plot and you will know what this is about. If you think it is interesting, watch it, you will not get disappointed. 4.9/10 is not a fair rating.