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Everest (Large Format)


by Greg MacGillivray, Stephen Judson, Stephen Judson, Alec Lorimore, Tim Cahill
Directed by David Breashears, Greg MacGillivray, Stephen Judson
Starring Liam Neeson, Lhakpa Dorji, Dorje Sherpa, Ed Viesturs, Muktu Lhakpa Sherpa
Miramax

List Price: $14.99
Price: $9.99
You Save: $5.00 (33%)
Available: Usually ships in 24 hours
Sales Rank: 3136
Release Date: December 07, 1999
Rated: 
Running Time: 44 minutes
Theatrical Release: March 06, 1998
Studio: Miramax


FORMATS

  • Closed-captioned
  • Color
  • Dolby
  • DVD-Video
  • Special Edition
  • NTSC


ACCESSORIES

Everest: Soundtrack From The IMAX Film Experience
by George Harrison, Steve Wood
by Steve Wood, Daniel May
Ark 21



EDITORIAL REVIEWS

Description
Relive a breathtaking journey to the top of the world with EVEREST, the spectacular giant-screen motion picture for IMAX theatres! Filmed during the infamous 1996 storm that claimed eight lives, EVEREST documents the filmmakers' harrowing rescue efforts to help surviving members of the ill-fated group. Join an international team of climbers as they scale the world's tallest peak. Witness the perils of skin-blistering cold, violent blizzards that drop the windchill to minus 100 degrees, and air so thin it numbs the mind. EVEREST will take you across creaking icefalls and gaping chasms, up dangerous, towering cliffs and into the death zone of oxygen-thin altitude. Filmed in spellbinding IMAX photography, "the most hyperrealistic format yet invented," says producer Greg MacGillivray. Narrated by Academy Award(R)-nominee Liam Neeson, including the music of George Harrison, EVEREST is a rich, dramatic story -- a daring adventure of triumph and tragedy.

Amazon.com essential video
Filmed in the IMAX format, this film had the luck (or lack thereof) to be shot during the same fateful and fatal climb of Mount Everest chronicled in Jon Krakauer's book, Into Thin Air, in which a group of rich hobby climbers found themselves trapped by a blizzard near the summit. The IMAX film contains footage of those people, but focuses on its own group, as they make their assault on the top of the world's highest peak. Some startling footage of the mountain and the approaches--and, as in Krakauer's book, the depiction of what is involved in this kind of adventure (particularly the pain and suffering)--makes you wonder exactly where the fun is. But documentary film is about showing you something you're not likely to see otherwise, and this movie certainly fills the bill. --Marshall Fine


CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 150 reviews)

Grab this one! The "45 minutes" doesn't consider the many bonus extras!  
Grab this DVD! If you're one of those who sees a run time of "45 minutes" and that tends to keep you moving on, don't, because there are various bonus extras on the DVD so that 'hours' of viewing is a more equitable consideration.

First of all and in addition to the 45 minute IMAX film there is the "Making of Everest" which goes into much detail and what happened during filming when the unrelated to the IMAX film 1996 Everest tragedy struck during filming and the effect of that tragedy therein. So too, there is an extended and fairly lengthy bonus interview with Dr. Beck Weathers who was part of the 1996 Everest tragedy and this extended interview is particularly moving. Then there are deleted scenes as well as climber video journals.

Speaking of Dr. Beck Weathers, I'll tell you, that extended interview was 'so' compelling and moving to watch that one would have to be made of stone not to be affected by it. He says, among other observations, when he gave up his place on the helicopter rescue [** there was only room for 'one' passenger besides the pilot due to altitude and weight considerations] to another critically injured man and not knowing whether the helo could even 'make' another return landing attempt at such high altitude [** it had never been done before [1996] at least at C1 [Camp 1] where others of the climbing community had gotten a partially frozen and almost fully blinded [by his injuries] Dr. Weathers down from Camp 4 which he managed to reach on his own] , "You have to have some sense that you behaved well ... that you did the right thing ..." and about the helo pilot [Col. Madan] who in fact came back a second time when another landing was precarious at best, "I think he did it because he 'does' have a brave heart ... ." These moments and others when Dr. Weathers recounts the horror where even his wife was informed that he was "confirmed dead" [sic] and then some hours later she gets another call saying, "It looks like he's not dead after all [!] ... but he's critically injured" and the part about being placed into the tent when he staggered into Camp 4 and administered to at least to the extent possible in an obviously isolated area but essentially, and ironically, since he had already been left for dead in the snow before getting up and staggering on to Camp IV, he's 'again' left for dead in the tent because the feeling was that no matter what medical aid had now been rendered to him, he was thought to be too far gone to survive his horrendous condition [** both his frozen hands were subsequently amputated as well as his nose, et al] and he underwent extensive reconstructive facial surgeries [plural]. It's a powerful and gripping interview and well extended from his comments in the IMAX film itself.

The film is spectacular and while you're not going to get what IMAX viewers experienced in those multiple 10-story high IMAX screens, it is nevertheless breathtaking in scope. Like various others, I follow the goings-on of both Everest and K2 climbing expeditions and endeavors .. and the often high 'cost' of those summits. It once again makes the 'fact' that accidents/disasters on places like Everest and K2 [et al] happen more on the 'descent' versus the 'ascent' where the weather or sudden serac fallings are always an often unpredictable factor to reckon with as the recent disaster on K2 [August 1, 2008], where 11 seasoned climbers were killed, tragically demonstrates.

Doc Tony
November 04, 2008

Bafflingly dull -- how was this possible?  
After reading "Into Thin Air" and "The Climb" and a dozen or more online articles, I remember having watched this film -- Brashears comes across as nothing short of a hero in "Into Thin Air" -- how, then, is it possible that this film is so dull? The score is intrusive, nearly comically so -- is there a plot?

I don't understand how this film could be as... dull as it is. Was it bad editing? I just don't comprehend how this film could be anything less than stellar, yet it is.

"Hey, guys, we hauled a big camera up Everest. Neat, huh?" And that's about it. Something of a disappointment.

September 05, 2008

how not to photograph climbing mt. everest  
this is a MUST NOT buy. the commentary sounds as if it were written by a teenager. the story -too short- spends too little time on the climb and too much on extraneous matters. climbing mt. everest is a horrendously difficult task but this movie makes it appear not too hard. there are a few scenes of climbing and though i accept the photos taken at the summit are real, all the others could have been taken anywhere there was snow and ice. if this is the best these movie makers could do, they should look for another day job.
unfortunately my copy, new, was bothered by a sound track with bad hum and noise, so loud that at times the commentary, thankfully, could not be heard.
this is not recommended for adding to anyone's collection.
April 17, 2008

Shortened by the 1996 Disaster  
The reason for three stars instead of five is because this DVD is only about 45 minutes in length. I wanted more. There is the possibility that it was cut short in order to assist in saving lives on Mt. Everest during the 1996 Disaster. If I knew that to be the case I would change my rating to 5 stars with no regrets. I would liked to have seen more filming at the different camps along the way to the summit. Excellent filming but way too short in length and information.
January 07, 2008

Great adjunct to Krakauer's "Into Thin Air"  
Would have loved to have seen this when it came out in I-Max. Great profile of David Breashears.
October 28, 2007


SIMILAR PRODUCTS

National Geographic - Everest 50 Years on the Mountain
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NOVA - Everest: The Death Zone
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Into Thin Air: Death on Everest
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Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster
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Touching the Void
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