Butler's Cinema Scene

“THE SUMMIT” My rating: C+ (Opens Oct. 25 at the Tivoli)

96 minutes | MPAA rating: R

When did narration in documentaries become a dirty word?

Ever since the rise of cinema verite back in the ‘60s, narration has been fading. Maybe by eliminating conventional narration, documentarists hoped to separate themselves from TV journalism, which relied heavily on a narrator’s voice.

Thing is, some movies need a narrator.  Like “The Summit,” an examination of the events of Aug. 1, 2008, when 11 climbers died on the slopes of K2, our planet’s second-highest peak.

Writer Mark Monroe and director Nick Ryan tell a complicated story from several perspectives (even people who were there can’t quite agree on what happened or who – if anyone – is to blame). Furthermore, the story drifts back and forth in time.

The film is screaming for a narrative voice to put things into perspective, to guide us, to explain the lay of the land. Without that “The Summit” becomes a frustrating example of inside baseball, with climbers talking in their own language and those of us on the outside scrambling to figure out what they’re saying.

The day began with perfect one-in-a-million weather conditions, but the ascent was crowded with several different parties of climbers from around the world (America, Serbia, Korea).  Some of these mountaineers had showed up with minimal equipment, figuring to use the ropes already marking the route.  This would prove fatal.

Early on a climber – he may have been delirious from altitude sickness – fell to his death. His colleagues kept on climbing (that’s what you do).

Things got really ugly when a huge chunk of snow and ice fell on the route, obliterating the rope-lined trail, blocking a narrow bottleneck. Climbers who were already at the summit discovered the mess when they descended.

The problem was getting past the blockage and down to a camp before nightfall. Humans rarely survive an unsheltered night on K2.

The climbers had to make choices. Do they plow ahead or turn aside to help their fellows?

“You have to save yourself on K2,” says one veteran. “ It’s the only way.”

One heroic (foolish?) climber attempted to rescue his fellow mountaineers and died in the effort.

“The Summit” offers a blend of talking-head interviews, original footage shot that day, and re-enactments so perfectly realized that it’s hard to tell what is what.

Much of the cinematography is breathtaking.  But on a narrative level this is a stop-and-start effort that threatens to dissipate audience interest even as things get more and more dramatic.

| ROBERT W. BUTLER