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Free Solo - Alex Honnold documentary


Captain Ron

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Hopefully I'll get a chance to see this in theaters. Missed The Dawn Wall last month and got home from a climbing trip Monday night too late to make the encore showing. Two big climbing docs in such a short time period. Like someone said above, watch Valley Uprising on Netflix if climbing is something that interests you.

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Why did I see this fucking movie? I've never had such a stressful movie going experience. I mean, I guess in a good way because it was a good movie but it's seriously terrifying.

His girlfriend is like every girl I've ever dated. Cute as fuck but infuriating. She falls in love with him as he is and promptly tries to change him in every way, tries to domesticate him. Tries to tame him.

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When the documentary First Ascent came out like 7 years ago,  alex free solo'd half some. He was such a dorky introvert then traveling in his van.  That documentary was amazing. If it's nearly that good,  I will watch this one. 

Not exactly the same thing but the red bull produced Mcconkey was amazing as well 

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The whole family is going to go see this.

My 10 and 12 year old are competitive climbers and have been at it for about 5 years now and those little shits can do some amazing things.

Saw the Dawn wall also here in Austin-good flick. Adam Ondra has also completed the dawn wall, solo in 8 days.

if you want a quick video of some crazy Adam Ondra/Chris Sharma shit :

 

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Caught this the other night at Alamo.

Very well done and engaging.  Not sure it would have worked as a film without the girlfriend, that made it much more effective in getting a sense of Alex's awkward personality.  And even knowing beforehand that he made it, you still hold your breath at some of those tricky moments of the climb.  Impressive feat of climbing and filmmaking.

Would recommend. And would his gf.

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Thanks for posting this, wasn't on my radar yet.
 
If you enjoy climbing/adventure docs go watch Valley Uprising and Meru on Netflix.
Those two were great. I could watch climbing documentaries all day and other than a handful of trips to the local rock gym, I am not a climber. This stuff is incredibly fascinating to me though. Dont see any showings in FW unfortunately, but may have to make a trip to Dallas to see it in theaters.
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  • 2 weeks later...

Saw it last night.  She's hot and head over heels for alex. Thought it was pretty funny in a way that he's getting injured suddenly during gf time. Alex will ultimately fuck that relationship up though,  he's just so awkward and socially inept at times.  Spock is probably best characterization for him on every level in life. He's funny at times though so he's not a complete bot.

The climbing sequences were awesome.  Gave you a rundown of the route difficulties and challenges. Great visuals.

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That was beyond awesome and after viewing, damn IMAX woulda had me needing a xanax to come down. Everybody involved, balls of steel. And that chick is so out of her element with him, loved the fridge scene with them ending up with the basic AF white small one. 

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Just saw this today in IMAX - FUCKIN' A. One of the best docs I have seen. The last 20 or so when they show him climbing El Cap is some of the most tense movie moments ever. My palms were sweaty. It's great! Beautifully shot, well edited, pretty much what a documentary should be. And in IMAX - WOW.

If you have any interest in seeing this, do yourself a favor and see it in IMAX this week.

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saw it in IMAX today as well.  had already seen in a smaller theater but IMAX definitely worth it.  was wondering what they’d have done if he took the plunge while filming... best guess is that the movie would still have come out but it’d be some kind of tribute to his life and less focus on el cap, and of course they wouldn’t show the fall.  

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Saw it in IMAX today. (This movie was made for IMAX!)   Love climbing docs, but I had to look away a few times even though I knew it would work out for the boy.  Incredibly shot and edited extremely well.  (Those cameramen also need wheelbarrows for their balls.) Only disappointment  was a no show from Chins wife.

 

.Jimmy+Chin+Chai+Vasarhelyi+2018+National

Edited by DallasGatr
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  • 5 years later...
On 12/11/2018 at 12:14 AM, bluto said:

That was beyond awesome and after viewing, damn IMAX woulda had me needing a xanax to come down. Everybody involved, balls of steel. And that chick is so out of her element with him, loved the fridge scene with them ending up with the basic AF white small one. 

I watched this on an airplane which was a bad idea because my anxiety during the climax was through the roof while going through turbulence and feeling caged.

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I watched this last night, it was interesting, and insane.  I hadn't seen free solo, I was actually more interested in the Greenland portion of this, but the rock climbing is pretty intense.  The Alex guy comes off as pretty dickish and not all that concerned about the people he's climbing with once they get to the big climb at the end, but then again, I don't have much knowledge about this stuff.  I found the science stuff pretty interesting and film work is pretty spectacular in a portion of the world we don't get to see very often.  

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So my thoughts on Honnold - you get what you see in Free Solo when they scan his brain - the guy is just wired differently than 99.999999% of the people on Earth. The guy just doesn't have the fear that most of us have. I think it comes off as being a dick because he's just not "normal." It's also what makes him the climber he is. He doesn't do this stuff if he was normal.

  • Hook 'Em 3
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