| Free Solo | |
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| Edited by | Bob Eisenhardt |
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Running time | 100 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $2 million[2] |
| Box office | $29.4 million[3] |
Free Solo is a 2018 Americandocumentary film directed byElizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi andJimmy Chin[4] that profiles rock climberAlex Honnold on his quest to perform the first-everfree solo climb of a route onEl Capitan, inYosemite National Park inCalifornia, in June 2017.[5][6]
The film premiered at the45th Telluride Film Festival on August 31, 2018, and also screened at the2018 Toronto International Film Festival, where it won thePeople's Choice Award in the Documentaries category.[7] It was released in the United States on September 28, 2018, and grossed over $28 million at the worldwide box office.[8]Free Solo received acclaim from critics and numerous accolades, including winningBest Documentary Feature at the91st Academy Awards.[9][10]
ClimberAlex Honnold has been dreaming offree-soloing the 3,000 feet (900 m) rock wall ofEl Capitan inYosemite National Park, a feat no one has performed. His choice ofbig wall climbing route on El Capitan is calledFreerider, a route that was created byAlexander Huber in 1998, and which Honnold has completed several times withprotection equipment.Freerider isgraded at5.13a (7c+) in difficulty, and no climber has ever completed a big-wall free solo atsuch a grade of difficulty inrock climbing history.
Honnold is a shy loner who has lived and traveled alone in his van for several years, but recently he is sometimes joined by his new girlfriend Sanni McCandless. On one climb with McCandless, while she is feeding his rope through agrigri on his descent, she makes a mistake, and he falls, suffering somevertebral compression fractures. He considers breaking up with McCandless over the incident, but they remain together.
In the summer of 2016, Honnold andTommy Caldwell go climbing in Morocco to prepare for his El Capitan free solo. The film crew also prepares, discussing where to place cameras to best capture Honnold’s climb while minimizing distractions and interference, and also the ethical dilemma of documenting this climb, knowing Honnold may die on camera. Honnold accepts an offer to receive amagnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan in order to understand his brain's response to fear, and the results show that there is little activity in hisamygdala in response to intense stimuli.
In the fall of 2016, Honnold sprained his ankle on El Capitan whiletraditional climbing (using ropes and protection equipment) on the first section ofFreerider, the giantmulti-pitch slab known asFreeblast and graded at5.11b (6c). Not wanting to miss the chance to do the free climb that year, he only takes a brief break from climbing and resumes his preparations while his foot is still swollen. Around Halloween, Honnold and McCandless carve pumpkins with Caldwell and his wife and children. In an interview, Honnold says his family did not hug and the word "love" was not used in his household, as his father lacked the ability to form emotional bonds.
Honnold and Caldwellrappel downFreerider, and Honnold outlines his route, discussing the areas about which he is apprehensive. One section offers him two alternative pathways, which he calls "The Teflon Corner" (an internal right-angled section with a smooth slippery surface) and "The Boulder Problem" (a particularly intricate piece of the wall that has to be finished with either a jump or a wide "karate kick" stance). Both the crew and McCandless suggest abandoning the plan, and Honnold says he does not want his friends to see him die if he falls during the climb. News of the death of Swiss climberUeli Steck, with whom he had climbed, causes Honnold to reflect on his own risk-taking, but Caldwell comments on how little it ultimately seemed to affect him. When he finally decides to try to free solo El Capitan, he abandons the attempt after the slab section ofFreeblast, and filmmaker Jimmy Chin worries that the filming is putting unnecessary pressure on him.
After giving up on his plan to free solo El Capitan that season, Honnold and McCandless buy a house in Las Vegas. Then, on June 3, 2017, he again attempts a free solo climb ofFreerider. McCandless leaves just before he starts, expressing her apprehensions in an interview. The film crew watches nervously as he makes his way through each of the most difficult parts of the climb, and one cameraman turns away several times, as he cannot bear to watch. Honnold completes the free solo in 3 hours and 56 minutes. He later does an interview with a journalist in which he contemplates his future, and the future of free solo climbing.
Prior to filming, directorsElizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi andJimmy Chin struggled with the ethical ramifications and decisions behind creatingFree Solo, knowing Honnold could die on camera.[11] Ultimately, they decided to go through with the film and devoted some time to documenting its own production process, with Chin and his camera crew discussing the challenge of not endangering climberAlex Honnold by distracting him or putting any pressure at all on him to attempt the climb. According to Vasarhelyi, filming without endangering Honnold was achieved only thanks to careful planning and practice.[12]
The production team captured 700 hours of footage using 12 cameras.[13] This included cameramen on the ground, cameramen on the cliff face, remote trigger cameras, and a helicopter with a 1,000 mm lens to capture the 4k video.[14][13] The cameramen were able to so effectively capture Honnold’s climb from different vantage points because they were all experienced climbers themselves.[14] Wireless mics could not be used to record sound from Honnold due to his distance from the cameras,[12] so the filmmakers created a special recording device and had Honnold carry it inside hischalk bag.[12]
The film was made byNational Geographic Partners,[15] which at the time of the film's release was majority-owned by21st Century Fox, with the remainder owned by theNational Geographic Society.[16]
Free Solo premiered on August 31, 2018, at the45th Telluride Film Festival, and it was shown at multiple film festivals internationally, including at the2018 Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, after that.[8] It was released in theaters in the U.S. on September 28.[8]
The film grossed $17.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $11.1 million in other territories, for a total worldwide box office gross of $28.6 million.[17]
Its opening weekend,Free Solo earned $300,804 from four theaters, its per-venue average of $75,201 surpassing bothEighth Grade for the highest per-venue average of 2018, andAn Inconvenient Sequel (2017) for the highest-ever per-venue average for a documentary.[18] The film expanded to 41 theaters its second weekend, earning $562,786,[19] and then grossed $859,051 from 129 theaters its third weekend[20] and $1 million from 251 theaters its fourth weekend.[21] During its fifth weekend in theaters, the film earned $1.06 million from 394 theaters, bringing its total box office gross to over $5 million.[22]
On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, 97% of 159 critics' reviews of the film are positive, with an average rating of 8.2/10; the site's "critics consensus" reads: "Free Solo depicts athletic feats that many viewers will find beyond reason – and grounds the attempts in passions that are all but universal."[23] OnMetacritic, the film has aweighted average score of 83 out of 100 based on reviews from 25 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[24]
Peter Debruge ofVariety praised the pacing of the film, saying: "Apart from a slow stretch around the hour mark, the filmmakers keep things lively (with a big assist fromMarco Beltrami's pulse-quickening score, the nail-biting opposite ofTim McGraw's soaring end-credits single, "Gravity")."[25]Richard Lawson ofVanity Fair called the film "bracingly made" and felt the filmmakers properly conveyed the challenges and dangers faced by Honnold in his endeavors: "Free Solo's detailed, transfixing portrait of their hero will at least show some sort of barrier to entry, communicating to those eager wannabes that very few people indeed are built quite like Alex Honnold. And thank goodness, in a way, for that."[26]
Michael Hale ofSight and Sound praised the filming techniques and resulting effect, saying that an image reminiscent of Greek mythology is evoked as Honnold is captured scaling the immense wall of El Capitan.[27] John Doyle ofThe Globe and Mail commended the "texture" of film, specifically the tension and intensity as Honnold repeatedly risks death, as well as the relatability of the scenes with Honnold and his girlfriend.[28]
Sam Wollastan ofThe Irish Times wrote that the film effectively captures an amazing athletic feat, the emotional development of Honnold, and the budding romance between Honnold and McCandless.[29] Jane Mulkerrins ofThe Times also praised this emotional development arc, remarking on the duality of the film as it examines Honnold's preparation and climb alongside his relationship with McCandless: "[Free Solo] captures the death-defying climb with vertigo-inducing camerawork. We see Honnold getting ready for the climb… At the same time, the armour of invincibility he's built up over the years fractures when he begins to fall in love with Sanni.”[30]
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