Everest

Baltasar Kormákur’s film of the 1996 disaster does not adapt Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air, though Kormákur told the Los Angeles Times it was one source among other books. Krakauer told the paper it was total bull, objecting most to a scene where Anatoli Boukreev asks at his tent for rescue help and his character pleads snow blindness: “I never had that conversation… no one came to my tent and asked.” Kormákur replied through his publicist: “They were not malicious. They were helpless.” The story leans on Rob Hall’s and Scott Fischer’s teams. Cinematographer Salvatore Totino describes shooting in Kathmandu, Lukla, Namche Bazaar and Tengboche with 75 Sherpas carrying gear. Scenes above the icefall were shot at Val Senales, Italy, base camp exteriors on Cinecittà’s backlot in Rome, and the Hillary Step and summit against greenscreen on the 007 Stage at London’s Pinewood; for Hall stranded in the storm, part of a set was tented, chilled and filled with real snow. Kormákur’s Icelandic RVK Studios is among the producers, and the film opened Venice in 2015, out of competition. A good fit if you will sit through the long base camp stretch, including Hall persuading Fischer to cooperate against overcrowding, before the storm. Not for anyone wanting a verdict on blame, which Kormákur says he leaves to the audience.