Everest (1998): A

Some friends of mine asked me on Monday what my favorite IMAX experiences had been (we’ve met a couple of times to see movies at the Mall of Ga. IMAX over the years). It’s fitting, then, that my movie-a-week is one of the best- the 1998 documentary “Everest.” Before Hollywood took over the format, films like this were the centerpiece of IMAX presentation (this film is the second-highest-grossing IMAX doc of all-time). Twelve years later, they have yet top the experience of watching “Everest” on IMAX.

Sadly, DVD can’t capture the majesty and visual beauty of this film on IMAX. Maybe in time it’ll come close, but for now, watching it will simply have to inspire memories of what it was like then.

Thankfully, the story still inspires, and the sights, well, you’ll never forget them. “Everest” is a chronicle of the 1996 expedition to the summit that was memorably captured in the book “Into Thin Air.” But the written word can hardly do justice to what the filmmakers- directors David Breashears, Greg MacGillivray, and Stephen Judson- show us as the group of climbers and scientists try to make the summit. Sadly, eight climbers were killed in a blizzard that led to tragedy that makes the film even more extraordinary, and profoundly emotional. The score by Steve Wood and Daniel May captures this feeling memorably and sometimes hauntingly.

Even on DVD, the sights of the tallest mountain in the world- and the climbers trying to climb it- are remarkable. Climbing on ladders to go between crevices. The snow-filled terrain, and the ice that awaits them at one particular. The rocky area 3/4s of the way to the top. The violent wind. The night climb to the summit. The sun breaking the morning they make that final ascent. And finally, the majesty of the top when our three main protagonists- including a newly wed (whose wife was at base camp), the first Spanish woman to make the summit, and a second-generation Everest climber (his father was one of the first to make the summit)- finally make it. This is human triumph in the face of tragedy. There’s nothing like it. And if you ever get a chance to see this on IMAX, you’ll never forget it. Of course, the feelings inspired translates even on the small-screen.

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