It’s strange how things change over the years. I mean, now that I think about it, it’s not that strange at all, but you know what I mean. The first climbing documentary I ever saw was probably the best one. However, Touching The Void is not your classic climbing documentary, and that’s exactly why I decided to check it out. The one I watched next was a pureblood. And that’s the one we’re going to be talking about today. Meru is a highly immersive, gripping, and surprisingly easy-to-watch climbing documentary. It documents the efforts of three of the world’s best climbers to summit Meru. You see, Meru is an unconquered mountain in the Indian Himalayas and a dream of many climbers. To get on top of it, you have to go through this merciless gauntlet of challenges.
And if you get one of those challenges wrong, you die. Correction: not only might you die, but you might also jeopardize the lives of the others in your group. Even further correction, you might survive the ordeal, but your friends might not. I guess that’s the worst outcome. The documentary Meru offers a unique look into the lives of three professional mountaineers. Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin, and Renan Ozturk are all highly intelligent, driven, humble, and, most importantly, eloquent. This is what really makes the difference because they’re able to tell you what they’re going through or what they went through. What they were thinking at certain times and why they decided to push on. And, to me at least, this was eye-opening. I really wanted to get to know people who are willing to risk it all for a summit.
To sleep hanging from a flimsy portaledge, some 18000 feet or 5500 meters off the ground, on a side of a mountain. A mountain that might send a lot of trouble your way at any moment. As someone who had a problem with heights, this was quite an experience. Now, to get back to that sentence, “risk it all for a summit”, it turns out that these people are not actually crazy. The more you listen to them, the more you realize that they’re simply driven to do these things, but with the utmost respect for the safety of the expedition. This is something I did not realize before. Meru takes a rather unusual approach when it comes to the narrative and the way the story is told. It remains pure, without any emotional manipulation or anything like that.
This is something I greatly appreciate, as I instantly wince at the mere appearance of emotional milking. This doesn’t mean you won’t feel anything or that the documentary is a robotic repetition of events. On the contrary, exactly because of its rational and balanced approach, you’re able to fully immerse yourself in the adventure. And to fully realize what’s going on here. Now, you might be thinking that Meru is a documentary that’s going to be straightforward. You got three guys climbing a mountain, and that’s it. However, don’t be fooled by its deceptively simple structure. We will get a lot of twists and turns, strange and bizarre backstories, and lots of crazy footage. Well, now that I think about it, maybe I should’ve opened with this.
Meru is a visually spectacular documentary, and it still is, after more than ten years. Just imagine how much filming techniques advanced during that time. Now you have all kinds of drones and equipment that can help you make those money shots. Back then, you really had to work for them. Additionally, the cameras they’re carrying with them on these expeditions are top-notch. This means you’ll be able to feel like you’re up there, with them, in the clouds. And since there are three of them, they’re able to document one another with movie-like precision. I know this is relatively a small thing, but I greatly appreciated the overall progress slides. There’s this huge mountain, and then they use a red line or lights to point out where our trio is now and how the climb is progressing.
Toward the end, we’ll even get some truly astonishing shots of all three of them from afar, making their way up the mountain like little ants. Since Jimmy Chin is also a photographer and cinematographer, it was quite difficult to find good shots. Not because there weren’t many, but exactly the opposite, there were so many of them that I simply could not decide which one to use. Finally, if you’re looking for more climbing documentaries, do check out The Dark Wizard, Free Solo, and The Dawn Wall. They’re a good starting point as I’m sure you’ll quickly run into more of them.
Directors: Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi
Appearances: Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin, Renan Ozturk, Jon Krakauer, Jennifer Lowe-Anker, Grace Chin
IMDb Link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2545428/
