The Climb

When I saw the movie, it left a "mark" in my mind, I kept remembering parts of it and had to watch it again. The scenery is awesome and beautiful.The sequence of the story keeps you interested from start to end. There are so many topics of our life sewn together and presented in this production, like our struggles with traumas from the past and our pursue of success. You see business trickery intertwined with the thirst of fame;life & death decisions and more. There is a little bit of everything for every taste in this movie, from the sport fan to the romantic. It is a movie that is up to date with our use of technology so when you see it you sense this is a movie of our present time. I highly recommend it and you will be surprised!

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.

Two mountain climbers partner in the rescue of tycoon Dabney Coleman's son off a high peak. Jason George and Ned Vaughn aren't just different racially they have serious different approaches to life. Vaughn is white and a Christian, George is black and a skeptic to say the least. George is also keeping company with a believer in Kylie Santiago and her father Clifton Davis really does not like his son-in-law.

One reviewer is right about one thing, this Christian film from the Billy Graham Evangelical Association spent quite a bit of dough on this, especially the mountain climbing scenes. Coleman's company which got a windfall of good publicity decides to sponsor both these guys on a climb of the legendary Mount Chiconcagua in the Chilean Andes.

I was actually quite impressed with the 21st century technology used for mountain climbing. That 3 dimensional holograph was really something.

It's a Christian film, it's also a tragic one and it follows the usual parameters. But it's a great film technically if nothing else.

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!