For anyone who hasn't seen this, I'd strongly recommend it. It won't be playing in the major cinemas (unless it gets nominated for Best Picture <img src="images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> ) but it may be playing in the art houses or second-run cinemas around town.

For those who haven't heard, it's a British "docu-drama" - a documentary using professional actors to recreate the events, interspersed by "talking head" narration by the real participants, Joe Simpson and Simon Yates. A very few reviewers found the narration to be boring, but most, like me, seemed to have been impressed by the contrast between the "stiff upper lip" of the interviews with the actual re-enactments (Simpson bawling his eyes out and screaming obscenities at the mountain as he lay dying at the bottom of the crevasse, followed by him sitting in the interview room and saying matter-of-factly "I thought I'd be stronger than that.")

For those who really don't know what I'm talking about, "Touching the Void" is one of the case studies in Laurence Gonzales's book "Deep Survival". Joe Simpson and his climbing partner, Simon Yates, were attempting a very risky climb of a remote mountain in Peru called Siula Grande, in 1985; on the descent, Simpson fell and shattered his right leg below the knee, at an altitude of 19,000 feet. Yates attempted to rescue him, but was eventually forced to cut the rope and leave him for dead. Against all odds, Simpson spent the next three days - hypothermic, frostbitten, starving, dehydrated and in excruciating pain - crawling down off the mountain and back to his base camp

Of course, you can argue - as some of us did with Aron Ralston - that they were taking unreasonable risks and insufficient precautions. But - like Ralston, IMO - they were fully aware of the risks and were prepared to accept them.

Anyway, my vote is - if you get a chance, go and see this movie. It was well worth the money to me.

I saw it. This is a must see movie.

An video interview with Joe Simpson can be seen through the link below. He's the chap who fell down the gully and author of the book. He also helped in the filming. The link was posted a week or so ago.....I still reccomend it <img src="images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/hardtalk/3500727.stm

Sounds great. I'm going to see it when it comes out at our tiny local cinema on the 8th.

saw it at the llanberis film festival recently. Amazing film, will never listen to "boney m" without a cold shiver!!

a lot to be learnt from it, but above all is the guys courage for actually doing what he did, going deeper into that crevace for me was the hardest thing.