Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Brilliant and touching

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

I spent several winters snow camping, going into California's Sierra Nevada on skis, and adored it, but I'm afraid of heights and never gave climbing the briefest consideration. The lure was impossible to grasp. (Women climb a different life-and-death peek in childbirth.) But I love survival stories, and this went further to explain risk-taking than anything I've encountered. Simpson's honesty about fear makes it a spellbinding spiritual epic. He attempts the same route that his inspiration as a lad had failed to complete, and in his narration uses language with the same care as his climbing gear. I get it now. Or maybe I don't - but listening tuo a man who uses English with such power is not a voice I'll soon forget. It's a love story between man and mountain, the bond forged among climbing partners, conquering fear yet knowing when to stop; the awe of death and the horror of loneliness.... I'm so glad he followed his considerable wisdom to find a route off his inner mountain into another rewarding career, He's at the top of his game - as a writer this time, expressing his experiences of loss and grief and passion for life without a drop of sentimentality. It's poetic exactness with Shakespearean depth.(N.B. Improvement in the directing could (will?) make it one of the great documentaries. I wasn't sure at times which team we were following (a helicopter in the 1930's?).and something as simple as a notice saying "50 years later" would have helped. Or I was just being a moron! :o)

In this docu-movie, Joe Simpson shows how to tell a true story in a modern, breathtaking way. He gives a description of events from outside but also from the inside, climbing part of the mountain (the well-known Eiger) himself. He goes deep in the characters feelings, just by comparing their emotions with his own. A story about mountaineers and the man behind the climber.Pretty influenced by the other awarded Simpson's movie "Touching the void", "The Beckoning Silence" is again a great narration about the risk, the hope, and the fragility of life.If you want to understand what climb a mountain means you have to see it. If you want to understand what be human means you have to see it.

As a child it was the story of Tony Kurtz's attempt to climb the north face of the Eiger that first introduced Joe Simpson to the world of climbing. After his near-fatal accident in Peru, Simpson comes back to the story of Kurtz's mission and considers what he has in common with the climber who once inspired him. Using a mix of dramatic recreation and narration, Simpson tells the story of Kurtz's team and also attempts to do some parts of the original climb himself.I'm not a climber and indeed am not good at even basic heights so I am not target audience for Simpson's books or the film adaptations thereof. Watching people die or nearly die while climbing for sport or fun always seems to me to be a waste of life, just as any death in a high-risk sport or hobby strikes me. This doesn't mean I think it is stupid to do it (we all take risks) but just that I do have this in the back of my head while watching this sort of story. I imagine it is maybe down to the individual but certainly the main thing I got from Kurtz's story was confirmation that I'm not cut out for this activity and I cannot relate to Simpson, who takes it as an inspiration to do it himself.So the challenge with this is to make me, the casual viewer, buy into the adventure and be hooked by the story. It worked with Touching The Void and it works again here. Taking pretty much the same approach as that film did, The Beckoning Silence tells a fascinating and tragic story and does it in a way that will engage viewers even when the "why" issue is hanging around in the background. The recreation of the climb is good and avoids the hammy acting that some docu-dramas fall victim to. Simpson also goes to the Eiger for some of his narration but I'm not sure if something happened while he was there because the film makes very little use of this aspect and it could easily have done without it. Simpson's greater impact is as narrator to camera. He does well to bring his passion to the screen and convey it to the viewer – a big part of the film engaging me as it did.Overall then this is a good film that will appeal to the majority of viewers who like Touching The Void. Of course those that see climbing as a pointlessly dangerous pursuit may struggle to get past this but mostly the film does well to engage and draw the viewer into the world as Simpson sees it.

Mountaineer Joe Simpson, famous not only for his survival on Siula Grande in Peru, but for his subsequent books including Touching The Void, Storms Of Silence and The Beckoning Silence, takes a journey to the Eiger to re-trace the steps of Bavarian mountaineer Toni Kurz who along with his three companions Andreas Hinterstoisser, Willy Angerer and Edi Rainer attempted a first ascent of the north face of the Eiger in 1936. Although it's not the tallest mountain in the world (4,107 m) or the most difficult the Eiger has a calling to all mountaineers that is hard to describe, but an obsession it can definitely become. On the way up Hinterstoisser found the key to the mountain when he set across an 100' sheer black rock, allowing the rest of the team to climb safely across (later in memory of his brilliant climb it was called the 'Hinterstoisser Traverse'). Unbeknownst to them at the time though to get back across the traverse they should have left the rope in place. After Angerer was hit in the head during a rock/ice fall, they had to abandon the summit and help their injured friend down the face to the safety of the valley. After Hinterstoisser was unable to get back across the traverse they had no choice but to abseil down. When an unexpected avalanche hits them 'like a tsunami' Hinterstossier falls 2000' to his death. Above him Kurz and Angerer also fall from the face but were stopped from falling all the way by the rope secured into the side of the mountain. Angerer, the first of the remaining three to fall off the face, was strangled by his rope, Rainer's diaphragm was crushed by the weight of Kurz and Angerer's bodies and Kurz was left hanging mid-air unable to go up or down and at the mercy of the elements as he waited for rescue. A few hours later, in horrendous stormy conditions, rescuers arrived but they were unable to do anything at that time and told Kurz they would have to come back in the morning. He knew he was being abandoned and his heart breaking cries for them to stay would have lived with them for the rest of their lives. The next morning they came back and this is where the strength and human spirit is so evident in Kurz's determination to live.This is a brilliantly told true story which has added impact due to the similar circumstances of Joe Simpson's near death in the Peruvian mountains where he believes that he 'should have died on a rope.' Superb photography by Jeremy Hewson and unbelievable performances by Roger Schali (Toni Kurz) Simon Anthamatten (Andreas Hinterstoisser) Dres Abegglen (Willy Angerer) and Cyrille Berthod (Edi Rainer) who re-enacted the climb and it's outcome. This is not to be missed and you don't have to be a mountaineer to appreciate the strength of the human spirit, the determination to overcome all odds that is so clearly on display here and the total sadness of the outcome.