Customer Reviews

IMAX: The Alps

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I saw "The Alps" at the IMAX theater at the Cincinnati Museum Center back in the fall, and I was very impressed with the film and the overall experience of seeing it in the IMAX format. The photography is beautiful, the setting is quite breathtaking, the music is excellent, and the story is involving, moving and ultimately very inspiring. "The Alps" contrasts the grandeur and majesty of nature with a meditation on the relationships between parents and their children, and does both very well. The film certainly made an impression on me.

This film is stunning. Very possibly the best IMAX documentary I've seen (and that's saying something considering I work for IMAX!) The aerial photography is insane. How they got some of the shots in this film is beyond me. WELL worth seeing...especially in HD!

Through the book by John Harlin and the film Alps about him I got endless admiration for him.

He only got over the drama of his father with endless courage. I admire him, how he transformed years long agony
in victory over himself and for his family. He had to live the drama thousand times longer as his father did whilst falling. What a man, father, husband and after all mountaineer!

if u want a good movie for cabin fever, this is good one. could of used a little bit more climbing in it though.

Breathtaking visuals and awesome footage even in the "non-mountain" scenes. That alone rates this movie a HIGH Recommendation. However, the choice of music was poor and more attention should have been paid to the climb and less to the backstory and peripheral issues. Overall though, an excellent if somewhat short film.

My husband and I both loved this. We love climbing and we were entertained by the story line and beautiful scenery. We actually want to take a trip there now. There are some great special feature as well including how they filmed the shots and I must say they had an amazing film crew to get the angles they did. I wouldn't buy it brand new but we bought a "used" dvd and it was like new. I think it's great for inspiring people just to get outside and reminding us that nature is the place to be.

It's an IMAX movie, so it's all about footage and great, soaring shots of the mountains. Includes a bit of history and a personal climbing quest. The Eiger is a challange that dates back forever. See Clint Eastwood's movie or Jon Krakauer's book.

I was on a High when I've received me DVD.. 5 months after waiting on another site., I just couldn't wait anymore..It's a huge trip in this mountain's journey! Couldn't speak and still I was crying...
A very good film with in background some Queen's tunes., not too bad for a Huge fan of Queen...
It's a product that I recommend deeply...
Queenly Your's

Mrs. Nicole Hammond., Quebec CANADA.

Mountain-oriented films have fallen off in past years and this is no exception. The film didn't know what it wanted to be: a John Harlin III family romp, a Swiss travelogue or a saga of an Eiger climb. To me, it didn't succeed on any level save one-beautiful cinematography (albeit with an over-indulgent use of the helicopter-cam). Oh, and they also threw in that, again, overused recreation of the Whymper climb of the Matterhorn.

I saw this film in an iMax theater and was mildly disappointed then. I rented it again and could barely get through it a second time.

Some of the ridiculously contrived scenes in the film include a casual meeting by the Harlin family with a professor of geology or somesuch on one of the Swiss high-end alps tour trains who describes the birth of the alps, a session with an avalanche expert who sets off explosives and generates an avalanche and a bungie jump by Harlin off a dam (!).

I appreciate what John Harlin senior did for mountain climbing and I am impressed by his past climbs. It was indeed unfortunate that this icon of American climbing died accidentally while performing an incredible route up the Eiger.

However, there seems to be a lot of mountain films (and mountain books) created that are based on some contrived storyline that has to do with visiting a place where some relative has perished or somesuch. I think that device has been overused to a great extent.

Oh, the film score. While at times the music has applicability, using a multitude of Queen songs is really overindulgent and seemed out of place.

This film had a lot of potential as I love all things associated with mountains and, particularly, the Swiss Alps. But the direction & editing of this film fell flat (to me anyway). However, I wouldn't hestitate to recommend it for the mountain scenery alone.

Now if I could just get the funding to convert my 16mm alps footage to video.....

This is the worst IMAX film I have seen in my entire life! Sure it has some great pictures of the Alps. It also very briefly covers Global Warming, which is wrecking the glaciers, and the very important subject of avalanche science. Unfortunately 90% of this film is about one man and his obsession to climb the most dangerous mountain in the Alps - The Eiger, by taking the most dangerous route possible - all because his father did the same, and died doing so!

Like father, like son! Never mind both men have or had families with children to support and nurture! Go ahead and make your wife and children watch you foolishly risk your life, so you can prove you're "A Man." If you're single - or have children who are grown adults - do what ever you want! But to have your young child watch your every agonizing step through the end of a telescope, for days, especially after knowing your child's grandfather fell to his death climbing the exact same route is just beyond belief! Talk about being selfish!

But then to see a rather graphic reenactment of the climber's father's fall to his death was nothing short of sick! What's next, showing a view of the broken body? I could not believe IMAX would stoop so low! Do you really think this it is going to help you sell tickets by reducing IMAX to a second-rate Reality television program?

At the end of this rather disturbing film our "hero" says, "he finally got something out of his system, by following in his father's footsteps and succeeding this time." As we were walking out of the theater I turned around to my friend and said, " it would have been a lot cheaper and easier on his wife and child if he had seen a psychiatrist instead!"

The Rise of Selfishness in America and King George and the Ducky: A Lesson about Selfishness