While his achievements are certainly unique, I have to say I never really liked Reinhold Messner. His approach to life goes together with the idea of higher, faster etc. to always reach something which wasn't done before and I do not approve. Seemingly, Werner Herzog does or at least he was interested in it, because this film was in the planning for quite a while. I saw Messner and Herzog in an older documentary, where the two actually talk about making a non-documentary movie in the snowy mountains starring Klaus Kinski, but as Kinski was already roughly 60 years old when this was made, they knew that it's not gonna happen anymore. So they took the documentary path.
The film runs for 45 minutes and is set mostly in Asia, the location of the mountains that Messner and his younger partner want to climb. There are some interesting scenes, like when Messner tells us that he only has 4 toes left or when he suddenly starts crying after being asked about this mother (not sure if this was authentic though). Sadly, there is also some fake drama like when Messner said early on that chances are pretty low that this expedition will be a success. And in the end they act as if it was just luck. Well.. I don't believe them. The worst part, however, is when Messner compares himself to an artist. Ridiculous. I personally love Werner Herzog, but as said I don't think highly of Messner, so this documentary was a bit of a double-edged sword for me. All in all, I really only recommend it to people with an interest in alpine climbing. I don't really have such interest and this documentary also did not manage to start me in that area.
The film runs for 45 minutes and is set mostly in Asia, the location of the mountains that Messner and his younger partner want to climb. There are some interesting scenes, like when Messner tells us that he only has 4 toes left or when he suddenly starts crying after being asked about this mother (not sure if this was authentic though). Sadly, there is also some fake drama like when Messner said early on that chances are pretty low that this expedition will be a success. And in the end they act as if it was just luck. Well.. I don't believe them. The worst part, however, is when Messner compares himself to an artist. Ridiculous. I personally love Werner Herzog, but as said I don't think highly of Messner, so this documentary was a bit of a double-edged sword for me. All in all, I really only recommend it to people with an interest in alpine climbing. I don't really have such interest and this documentary also did not manage to start me in that area.