K2
by Franc Roddam
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Product details
Actor: Annie Grindlay, Blu Mankuma, Elena Wohl, Matt Craven, Michael BiehnDirector: Franc Roddam
Producer: Hal Weiner
Producer: Jonathan T. Taplin
Producer: Marilyn Weiner
Producer: Masa Mikage
Producer: Melvyn J. Estrin
Writer: Patrick Meyers
Writer: Scott Roberts
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language), Analog
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, HiFi Sound, NTSC
Running Time: 104 minutes
Release Date: 1998-01-01
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Publisher: Paramount
Studio: Paramount
VHS Movie Reviews of K2
Movie Review: K2 -- the latest victims and with further comment ...
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm motivated to write this review well after the fact of the movie's initial release [1991 in Europe and then May of 1992 in the USA] and subsequent DVD release in 2001 because K2 is again in the news with the most recent tragedy of 11 climbers being killed on K2 which occurred on August 1, 2008.
My thrust however is to once again caution at least certain viewers that while K2 is in fact dedicated [superimposed on the screen in the closing scene] to real life K2 summiteers, Jim Wickwire and Dr. Louis Reichardt, and, of note, those movie 'fictional' characters 'Taylor Brooks' and 'Harold Jameson' who just happen to share the identical professions of the real-life Jim Wickwire and Lou Reichardt, viz., lawyer and biophysicist, well, far too often what is seen on the proverbial 'Silver Screen' is erroneously interpreted as take-it-to-the-bank 'fact' versus cinematic 'for the sake of the script and pure entertainment value' fiction!
Put another way, readers are urged to research the actual 1978 K2 climb by, among further others by the way in the same expedition, Jim Wickwire and Lou Reichardt and see what the actual facts really were and are, versus, shall we say, Hollywood creativity. I 'have' actually run across folks who saw the movie and make the transposition, so to speak, of 'Taylor' suddenly becoming Jim Wickwire and 'Harold' or 'H' suddenly becoming Lou Reichardt in their minds and hence their post-movie "conclusion" is that their totally erroneous transposition sees Wickwire supposedly having 'saved Reichardt's life' [!] when Reichardt supposedly 'broke his leg' [!] on the vertical ice fall and Wickwire supposedly 'dragged Reichardt down the mountain as far as he could until the Pakistani helicopter suddenly showed up' [!] -- BIZZZZ! That is total cinematic fantasy! But 'because' of the film dedication and a few minor events that did happen in real life, it's all too easy for some folks to see the movie and feel that it's a sort of 'true event' documentary when in fact the movie is just that, a movie based on 'conjured' events!
That said, I enjoyed the movie. As a fictional movie! Particularly the music! Although my first love is playing classical piano, I've never abandoned my secondary love of the guitar and those high E string lead tones [I don't know who the guitarist was and if anyone does, let me know!] are literally haunting! BTW, the soundtrack that is offered for this movie is ==NOT== the same music in the film! Nor is it 'identical', as one poster suggested in another website, to what he termed a "Pink Floyd rip off" piece. The 'original' music for the K2 movie was by Chaz Jankel and has 'not' been released for whatever unknown reasons!
Final word on the whole, as one Amazon reviewer put it, "brotherhood of the rope" [sic], well, let me quote well known and world class mountaineer, Doc Ed Viesturs, from his "No Shortcuts to the Top" [with David Roberts] tome [?, 2006], page 37, when he rightly says, and my own noting of those 'lines' and 'bottlenecks' of climbers at Everest, K2, et al, where 'some' of these folks have very deep pockets but negligible mountaineering experience come out with, 'Ohhh, it's just a personal challenge ... and it's not like I'm all alone ...', but as Doc Viesturs realistically observes, "The fact is, money can't buy you a summit." Amen!
Doc Tony
Movie Review: A Great, Great Movie
Summary: 5 Stars
This came on television late one night. It has what few movies do - a great story. Everything supported the plot, which is dynamite. Parts are perfectly cast. Acting is transparent. Well-drawn characters. Jaw-dropping conflict. Everyone I know who has seen it reacts the same way - astonished that it isn't more well-known. Movie Review: great movie
Summary: 5 Stars
Fast service and great price. Had this on VHS but wanted it on DVD.Movie Review: Fantastic Movie
Summary: 5 Stars
K2 is in my personal top-5 of all time. I'm an armchair mountaineer, so I like the story and scenery, as well as climbing action (most of which is pretty accurate, with just a few petty mistakes). The very good story is a character study within an action movie, and it stars Michael Biehn, a very under-appreciated actor who was also great in The Terminator, Aliens, and The Rock (he was even pretty good in the really horrible Navy SEALS). Matt Craven is quite good as the best friend. Among mountain action movies, K2 is better than Cliffhanger (which is very good) and WAY better than that stupid Vertical Limit a few years ago.Movie Review: DECENT ADVENTURE STORY FOR ARMCHAIR CLIMBERS...
Summary: 3 Stars
This is essentially a buddy movie clothed in mountaineering garb. It is a story about two climbers: one, a Seattle based attorney, the other, a physics instructor. They are a mismatched pair of friends who are brought together because of their love for climbing. The story line is about the ultimate test that their friendship endures while high on K2, the second highest mountain in the world but the most perilous to climb.
The rock climbing scenes that take place in the first fifteen minutes of the movie are terrific to watch, even though they may not be technically correct. After all, it's a movie, not a documentary. The scenery is spectacular and the cinematography is excellent.
These friends decide to grab an opportunity to climb K2 with an expedition that lost two of its team members to an avalanche on Denali. The attorney has no problem going to K2, but the physics instructor leaves behind his weeping wife and child. Yet his friendship with the attorney and his own desire to climb K2 compel him to leave his distraught family.
There are a number of scenes in the movie that seem to be taken from real life. While on expedition to K2, the porters leave them stranded, refusing to go any further on the mountain, as they have portents of doom. They also want more money. One scene has the attorney burning rupees in defiance of the porters' strike. World class mountaineer Jim Wickwire did the same thing, when he climbed K2, and under similar circumstances.
In another scene, a number of climbers fall into a crevasse only to be saved at the last minute by the physics instructor, as he digs his ice axes in and grips the road. The film also include a scene that shows the expedition leader succumbing to high altitude sickness, necessitating his descent of K2 as soon as possible.
Animosity on the mountain between the climbing leader and the attorney over who will be part of the first summit team is also reminiscent of real life expeditions. It is here that the attorney's friendship with the physics instructor becomes strained, as he lays claim to be on the first summit team and does not include his friend, even though they had been climbing partners for ten years. So much for the brotherhood of the rope.
After the first summit team is finished off by the mountain, the two friends summit, but on the descent the physics instructor falls and is seriously injured, breaking his leg. As you can imagine, this is really bad news, as it is tantamount to a death sentence, especially when you are in the death zone and without oxygen.
Since this is a buddy movie, the attorney comes up with a plan to get his friend down K2. I won't tell you what it is, but I will give you a hint. The plan used is to be found in Joe Simpson's book "Touching the Void".
Interestingly enough, the movie is dedicated to two mountaineers of renown: Seattle attorney, Jim Wickwire, and physicist, Lou Reichardt, both of whom were among the first Americans to summit K2 in 1978. This film seems to be loosely based upon some of their mountaineering exploits. It is a moderately enjoyable film that should appeal to armchair climbing enthusiasts everywhere.
Summary of K2
Michael Biehn plays a Seattle attorney who talks his friend, a physics instructor (Matt Craven), into joining a party with plans to climb the tallest and least accessible mountain in the world, K-2. Biehn's arrogant character immediately bumps noggins with the tour's leader (Raymond J. Barry) and the latter's strong-willed girlfriend (Patricia Charbonneau). But when various disasters begin to strike at the group, cooperation ensues, followed by assorted acts of heroism, friendship, and self-sacrifice under almost unimaginable conditions of lethal distress. Based on a play that examined the view on human values from a perch far above the world most of us know, K-2 surrounds that essential drama with extraordinary location footage. Director Franc Roddam (Quadrophenia) succeeds very well at turning a thoughtful piece into a fine action movie--and vice versa. --Tom KeoghAction & Adventure Video
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