Documentaries about specific subjects or professions can transcend their field when focused on passionate people. Arctic climbing doc Meru is a banner example of how by showing the ins and outs of climbing told by people who love it, we all can connect as an audience. It also dramatically helps that just about anyone who sees the images taken will experience vertigo: it’s truly breathtaking to watch.
The synopsis: three renowned climbers (Jimmy Chin, Conrad Anker, Renan Ozturk) navigate nature’s harshest elements to ascend Mount Meru, the most technically complex and dangerous peak in the Himilayas.
Not only are these climbers attempting to scale the unconquered shark fin known as Meru, but one of the directors Jimmy Chin is filming while he does it. In a director’s statement on this subject he says, “When you’re making a movie on the mountain, the camera is an added appendage – one you often wish you didn’t have to carry. While shooting Meru, it was a real struggle just to keep the two small cameras we carried from getting destroyed. I always say the rules on filming on a mountain climb are fairly straightforward. Shoot whenever you can. Don’t hold up the team. And don’t drop the camera.” The fact that this expedition is documented on film remains a feat in itself.
It also dramatically helps that just about anyone who sees the images taken will experience vertigo: it’s truly breathtaking to watch.
The difficulty of the climb is expressed in both the variety of terminology used to describe what exactly they’re doing, and that the stakes are naturally raised as the film goes on. To give an example: while Mount Everest is the tallest mountain in the world, you can have a Sherpa carry your load up the whole way. In this case, not only has nobody ever climbed to the top of Meru, but it involves a radical mixture of types of rock climbing amongst treacherous terrain. One area is known as the House of Cards, because if they chisel into the rock too much, the entire face of the rock will crumble.
It is easy for the viewer to get a slight understanding of what this climbing takes, but the main message is just how difficult it is, and the result is gripping.
The only feedback that isn’t positive regarding the film is its structure. Due to the nature of the story, it doesn’t always have the most even story development. The ending ironically lacks the punch that it could easily have created and quickly wraps up before the story even seems complete. Perhaps it is leaving the viewer to fill in the gaps, which isn’t too hard, but a little more natural of closure could have benefitted the story.
Regardless, its hard to deny just how breathtaking the film is to watch and how easy it is to get wrapped into the perilous climbing of Meru. Here is a film you cannot walk away from without feeling a rush of energy and admiration for these thrill seeking climbing masters that inspire the rest of us to get out of our comfort zones a little more often.
Meru opens in theaters this Friday.
