With the North Face of the Eiger mountain still unconquered in the Alps.  Many have tried and many have failed, but now two of the best young climbers, Toni Kurz (Benno Fürmann) and Andreas Hinterstoisser (Florian Lukas), in all of Germany want to conquer the mountain.

In order to speak about this movie properly I must reveal some things that may or may not be considered spoilers.  So the short version of this review is that it’s pretty good but not something you’ll watch more than once.

What makes this movie special is the spectacle of it all.  Even if you have no experience rock climbing or have no idea about this place in the Alps once you see it happening on screen you just have to grab the edge of your seat hoping for these men’s lives that they don’t slip and fall to impending doom.  Like many other sports it takes skill and determination, and even though on paper it looks like a boring feat from a spectators point of view, while watching the movie ever hammering of a piton or shift of a climbers weight will make you hold your breath with suspense as how it is going to turn out.

One thing that I like that the filmmakers did in order to increase the drama of the film was include the characters of Luise Fellner (Johanna Wokalek) and Henry Arau (Ulrich Tukur).  These are the two sent out from the press to cover the event.  Luise is also the love interest to Toni.  There is a point in the film where something occurs on the mountain and they must abandon their goal of ascending to the peak of the mountain and I liked what Henry said.  It was something to the effect of it’s either got to be a glorious triumph or a horrible tragedy; an unremarkable retreat is only 3 lines on page three.  Watching this movie it felt like that was the main point.  It probably was the moment where I realised exactly how the movie was going to end.  Would the movie have been made if it were about an unremarkable retreat? Probably not, but since it was a horribly tragedy then it works as a remarkable story about these men who tried to conquer this unassailable task and ended up failing for one reason or another.

This movie also shows me something that I like to see in movies set in this period.  That to some being a Nazi was just a job.  Now, I’m not saying that we should forgive the Nazis, especially since I’m afraid that Aldo will hear me, but at the same time to say that everyone wearing that uniform actually shared the same hatred for the Jews seems slightly ridiculous.  There were people who took it as a pay cheque so that their families could survive.  It reminds me of Das Boot in that way.

Overall it’s a brilliantly filmed movie and a great story that you may want to visit.  However, with that said I doubt I’ll be watching this one again anytime soon.

VERDICT: RENT IT AND LOOK UP THE MOUNTAIN WITH COURAGE

IMDB says 7.3/10

Rotten Tomatoes says 83%

I say 8.0/10