The Alpinist
I don't have much to say about The Alpinist that hasn't been said. Marc-Andre Leclerc was an inspiration to me before the movie came out and the movie gave me a closer look into his life and legacy.
He was an interesting figure, just so very intensely deeply inspired to climb big faces. His life story as I've seen it was so focused on climbing that it made for a straightforward movie. Man grew up an outcast, found peace in the mountains, found a woman who he loves, climbs his goals, and ultimately loses his life in an avalanche. There's little character development or change, he appears in the movie to have mastered his craft at such a young age, which he carried around with a goofy wisdom. I don't think The Alpinist will become a mainstream box office success like Free Solo or even The Dawn Wall, not because the climbs aren't as impressive, but because their protagonists appeared to struggle and grow more on their quests. Marc appears on film to be so chill about his ascents on the bleeding edge of alpinism that there's nothing else we can do that just watch him work.
And The Alpinist gives us plenty of opportunity to watch him climb. I knew there was free solo footage of Marc in this film, but I wasn't prepared for the sheer quantity of absolutely fucking nuts footage of him rock, ice, and mixed free soloing. There's a ton of footage of Marc soloing, in which he's always moving slowly, smoothly, and precisely. Even when his crampon points ping off the edges he was standing on during an overhanging mixed route he just calmly and slowly placed them back on and kept climbing. I feel like I barely have enough experience to know how hard that mixed climbing is, but the thought never occurred to me that I'd be sitting in a movie theater watching someone free solo mixed on big mountains, and I appreciate that I've gotten that opportunity.
Marc-Andre seems like a hard public figure to connect with, and there's some discrepancies in the order of his climbs according to the movie and Wikipedia, but I think his blog as a firsthand source is an interesting read.
marc_leclerc
Brette Harrington is another inspiration who gets screentime in this film, but that's enough writing for me tonight. The Alpinist is a climber's movie, if you're a climber, go watch it.