Director/Writer: Leanne Pooley
Starring: Chad Moffitt, Sonam Sherpa, John Wraight, Joshua Rutter, Daniel Musgrove, Erroll Shand
Running Time: 90 minutes
Certificate: PG
BEYOND THE EDGE tells the astonishing true story of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reaching the summit of Mount Everest in 1953, for the very first time. While their true-life tale of climbing 29,000ft and hitting that peak in treacherous conditions remains to be an equally brave, remarkable and stupendously historic moment, Dooley’s docudrama manages to get the facts across but without any of the tension or drama you’d hope for.
This film was first screened at the various film festivals last year in 3D and while I can see how that would have helped the audience feel immersed by the experience, as a standard 2D affair, it lulls around and treads too carefully via the fact-for-fact historic route.
While this would usually be fascinating, if you know any of the history then there’s little to surprise and the merging of minimal archival footage with additional, new ‘acted’ pieces clash somewhat horrifically. It’ll remind you of those over-dramatic reconstructions that you’ll see on the small screen in police shows like the UK’s 999 or Crimewatch.
This isn’t to say there aren’t interesting facts here, nor does it detract too much from the human feat of endurance and survival. While many before, and after, had failed Edmund Hillary, the New Zealander and local Sherpa Tenzing Norgay (who had gained extensive experience over 30 years of climbing Everest) does highlight their bond as the expedition grows more extreme and shows their desire to succeed against all the odds.
Sadly though, BEYOND THE EDGE is a deeply flawed docudrama but with the right intentions. It falls flat because if you know anything about Hillary and his Everest achievements, then you’ll probably get nothing from this beyond the slightly different ‘fly-on-the-wall’ insights.
That being said, if you’d like to find out more about their remarkable story, then there’s definitely something here to discover but bear in mind it’s quite the trek to get there.
[usr=2] BEYOND THE EDGE is released on DVD on July 14th.
