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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
WOW! WHAT A HIGH, April 1, 2005
Winner of the 1975 Best Documentary Oscar©, and certainly among the greatest adventure documentaries of all time, THE MAN WHO SKIED DOWN EVEREST (Image) might also be the first extreme Zen film.
The opening, widescreen shot shows Everest (29,002') through a gap in the clouds just as the morning sun hits the forbidding peak. And then this quote: "Throughout time, mas has aspired to great heights in search of peace of mind and a quiet heart. This is the story of such a man..."
The man in question is Yuichiro Miura, poet, adventurer and world champion skier (he set a speed record). The film follows his audacious attempt to ski down the upper slopes of Everest. The film, shot in 35MM Panavision, begins in Katmandu where 800 porters begin a trek of 185 miles with 27 tons of equipment.
Along the way, Miura visits Sir Edmund Hillary, who, in 1953, was the first climber (with his Sherpa partner Tenzing Norgay) to conquer Everest and return. Hillary says, "When we stop looking for challenges, human beings will be in a very bad way."
The poetic Miura is quoted as saying, "The challenge of the peaks is the challenge of life itself: To always struggle higher." Later he's quoted again: "We have wandered from the paths of the wind and become children of fear."
After trekking 185 miles across the high passes to Tibet and the base of Everest they take on 400 Sherpas. It takes another 40 days to traverse the next three miles.
Exquisitely photographed in beautifully composed shots, the breathtaking vistas are a dance of light and shadow and the memorable, poetic thoughts of Miura as he acclimates for his high altitude challenge in his "life of adventure to escape the labyrinth of the city."
During the treacherous climb, death claims six team members as they cross an icefall. About a thousand feet from the summit, Miura dons his skis, and with oxygen and a parachute, begins his descent. Zooming, almost free-falling, over ice and rock, he travel upright almost a mile and half. And then it happens. The wind knocks him off balance, he hits a big rock and falls, skidding, bouncing, across rocky ridges, skipping like a stone for 1,320 feet. He is stopped by a snowfield seconds away from the sure death of the Bergshrund Crevasse.
I have never seen a movie anything like this. If you have a big, widescreen TV, the pristine, high resolution images of this exotic place and extreme challenge will fill your field of vision and bend your mind until it literally takes your breath away during the last five minutes. This is an ultimate armchair adventure.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Documentaries do not get much better than this!, March 6, 2006
This is one of the most amazing documentaries I have ever seen, one that grabs you and does not let go for the entire film. It is about a Japanese skier named Yuichiro Miura, and his attempt to ski down Mt. Everest, the highest mountain in the world.
Yuichiro Miura starts out the quest to ski down Mt. Everest in Kathmadu, where he prepares a large expedition with everything which will be necessary on the mountain. The numbers are truly staggering; 800 men will help carry up the 27 tons of gear and equipment necessary for the expedition.
Yuichiro Miura adds Buddha-like narrative (taken from his personal diary) to the film throughout, making clear his love and respect for mountains, and nature in general. This is made infinitely clear when he says higher up on the mountain that he can no longer tell where he stops and the mountain begins, for the mountain dictates when and whether he can eat, sleep or even focus his mind clearly. One can see early on, and throughout the entire film, that Yuichiro Miura is not only one of the most capable athletes ever to have graced the slopes of Mt. Everest, but also one of the most spiritual, reflective and introspective. When six of the Sherpas on his team are killed by a cave-in of ice high up on a glacier, he openly states that he now wonders whether his attempt is worth the toll it is taking......a type of humility you will not often find in a world-class athlete. If nothing else, The Man Who Skied Down Everest gives one an insight into one of the most remarkable men you will ever come across. I thoroughly enjoyed this film, not because of the simple fact that he was able to ski down 8000 icy feet of Everest, but because with every day, he offers new insight and wisdom which makes this a film one can watch repeatedly.
I often wondered throughout the film exactly how this was filmed at all. They did an incredible job of getting cameras up to the most inhospitable of places, and in place at multiple views for every shot. And it should be noted that along the way to Everest, Yuichiro Miura stops and talks with Sir Edmund Hilary, the first man to "conquer" Mt. Everest, at a hospital he had set up in the village of Khumjung.....this is something that all history buffs of Everest will be interested in, as it is really part of history.
As a final note to this but entirely unrelated to the film review, it should be noted that Yuichiro Miura (Age 69 years and 6 months at the time) and his son Gota Miura reached the summit of Mt. Cho Oyu (8,201m) in Nepal in 2003. This expedition made Yuichiro the oldest person to reach the summit of an 8000m peak.
This fact however, will probably not surprise anyone who watched the film.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Man Who Skiied Down Everest, October 24, 2005
This is one of the most incredible true stories that I have ever seen. Until viewing the documentary I couldn't believe that skiing down Everest even was possible. To be able to see Yuichiro Mirua almost die while accomplishing his dangerous goal is breath taking. Although this film was shot in 1975 the quality of the picture is incredible, it is very clear. The narrator in this film is perfect; his voice aids what is being seen to be transferred into deep feelings and thought. I recommend this film to anyone with an interest in real life adventure.
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