Customer Reviews

North Face ( Nordwand ) ( Northface ) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - United Kingdom ]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

North Face was a great film - in German with subtitles. Its a true story, though i am sure poetical license was taken in some areas. Great climbing shots set in 1936 when two men on a shoe-string set out to do what no one had done before; as a warm up for the Olympics and Arryan supremacy under the Nazi regime; with the eager Austrian eyes watching and following.

There are some moving moments with the reporter from Berlin who grew u with the two men and is attached to one of them. What happens on the mountains and all the other great bits which i will not share so as not to spoil it!

Good scenery, great filming, story line is great and all-in-all the film was well worth watching.

Saw this film in an art house and liked it so much I bought dvd. Captures the atmosphere of the era just before the annexation of Austria by the Nazis. Imposed on this is a gripping mountaineering story that will keep you on the edge of your seat. The tradgedy of the story seems preiscent considering the massive tradgedy that is about to unfold upon Europe.

One of the better foreign films and one of the better films I've seen recently, period. How historically accurate it is I don't know, but I really felt emotionally engaged with all the characters and the climbers and their challenge. I probably could have watched it without the English subtitles and still enjoyed it the acting and story were so good. I would put this up there with Troll Hunter, Run Lola Run, and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon as one of the better contemporary foreign language films I've seen.

If you want a movie that will move you, buy this one, I was still moved by the movie days later, it is a very gripping story and true. Sad but true!!

Some liberties are taken in this recreation of the famous tragedy of Toni Kurtz, but the overall film is highly watchable and spellbinding.

My friend first showed me a clip from this movie and told me it reminded him of us. The two main characters, one was cautious and the other was very gung-ho or 'don't worry be happy'. I did a little more research on it and found it was in German, but that didn't really affect my decision to purchase. We watched it on a projector and the subtitles were about 5 feet across. I was surprised at how easy it was for me to both follow the conversations and watch the movie. I didn't want to spoil the movie so I didn't read too much into it. By the end I was completely shocked and almost disturbed. This was a great movie. I would definitely recommend this movie even with the subtitles. The scenery is great, and at very least you will get out of it is pumped for the coming climbing season.

X-tream Mountain Adventure Nazi Period Style; this BD will fulfill, thrill, look pretty then slash 'n run. Played flat, like a documentary, this powerful drama is also a real cliffhanger! With the German war period, the Olympics and climbing the Eiger for real and the fatherland; the film has a tapestry that works slow and cool. The subject is delivered as slick as any new Hollywood film with an honest difference.
BD-AV tops, sound full

The movie itself is great, but the Blu-ray version does not have the extras that a regular Dvd would have. On a Dvd, they show the helicopter view of the Eiger which is beautiful. The blu-ray doesn't have that. Also, on the interviews with the actors, the blu-ray only has the interview written with no video of the actor. If I had known that I would have purchased the regular Dvd instead of Blu-ray.

This is an utterly gripping and beautifully made film. The climbing scenes are awesome and so realistic - no fantastical special effect unlike Vertical Limit. The magical atmosphere of the north face and the sense of dizzying hight looking down towards Grindelwald are most impressively captured. The political background of the story only adds to the tension, and the contrast between savagery of the mountain and the cozy upper-class luxury of Kleine Scheidegg Hotel intensifies the sense of drama.

My only disappointment about this film is the ending. Having read Heinrich Harrer's in-depth account of the tragedy in his book 'The White Spider', I found the intervention of the fictional character, Luise, quite off-putting. The fact was relentlessly tragic and more heroic. There was no guardian angel in the form of a woman encouraging Toni Kurz to keep awake during the night, he had to do more difficult operations than merely unravelling the ropes and connecting them, and his last words were not feeble 'Mir ist so kalt...' but 'Ich kann nicht mehr...' which were a heart-rending utterance of a life who had fought to the end and literally exhausted itself. It could have been a great film if they'd stuck to the historical facts.

The movie is based upon a true story, which typically translates to stretching the truth for the sake of the movie storyline. I don't know when and where the truth was stretched from the actual events, but it did not matter. This was the first foreign film I've ever bought. The story was riveting, and reading the subtitles was effortless most of the time. You could not help but become completely focused on the unfolding drama. The mountain climbing scenes literally made me nervous sometimes! The special effects were excellent. This is DEFINITELY worth a watch.