berlinsf

Dean Walker was an amazing climber and slack-liner. A well-enough filmed doc about a totally fascinating climber, base-jumper, slack liner and free-soloist.

It covers his attempts to slack-line(or high-line) two record breaking spots in Yosemite, but also goes into some background about how he got started with slack-lining, as well as some of the ups and downs in his career and personal life. Interesting perspectives into his family life and break up, getting in trouble for climbing the Delicate Arch which caused him to lose a major sponsorship and resulted in a lot of personal turmoil.

In some ways it was most fascinating because it covers some much of his dare-devilry before he got in to BASE jumping and wing suiting that would eventually lead to his death in May 2015.

He who lives by the sword.

I actually can't quite understand why the overall reviews are so poor–it is one of my favorite Scandinavian films. Besides doing a great deal with very little (simple set, few actors), it is extremely effective. Witty, maybe a little harsh on Swedish society, and humor that is dry throughout. It definitely pushes buttons. I can only imagine how much fun they had sitting around writing the script. Everyone is so caught in their roles they are at a complete loss for party crashers in the form of a shiftless twin brother and date that show up at Katinka's party. Mia Mountain's performance as Katinka is outstanding as she tries to maintain her sense of propriety and role in this uptight little world she's built around herself. The house, the job as curator, the deathly boring and servile boyfriend, the holdover childhood friends, and the brother!

Brilliant!!!