THE DAWN WALL REVIEWED
“The Dawn Wall” follows Caldwell and Jorgeson’s four day excursion to climb the Dawn Wall of El Capitan at Yosemite. Like most great journeys, it begins with a single step. The documentary follows the years spent in planning and development to those fateful days in early 2015. Thankfully, this film isn’t overly informative and focuses on the intangibles of such efforts. I guess that was for a public safety issue, but it works.
So, what does The Dawn Wall accomplish? Well, it’s less of a sports film and more of a character study. What does it take to give up so much of your life to dare something that could kill you? Whether it’s training in Middle East war zones or facing relationship struggles, the climbers push on. Motivation is a factor missing from a lot of our fiction and non-fiction narratives. After all, it’s hard to explain internal drive in a visual medium.
I appreciate that Red Bull is helping to fund documentaries like this. However, I’m not sure if that is enough to get movies like The Dawn Wall seen by a large enough audience. Oh well, I’ll take what I can get. Check it out.
FILM STATS
- 1 hr and 40 mins
- Not Rated
- Red Bull Media House / Sender Films
