Cerro Torre - Not a Hint of a Chance - DVD

Film: The 3000 meter high Cerro Torre in Patagonia is often called impregnable. Yet climbing prodigy David Lima, along with Peter Ortner, plans to take on the daring task of free climbing the fabled Compressor Route. Lima wants to be the first person to conquer Cerro Torre without any aid at all, equipped only with a hook and rope. To achieve this requires not only a lot of courage, but also perfect preparation and, above all, the right weather. And this threatens to make the already difficult undertaking fail again and again. There are major setbacks, followed by a first abort. But David Lima and Peter Ortner do not give in so easily...

Cerro Torre - Not a Hint of a Chance is a fascinating sports and nature documentary, which can inspire not only with breathtaking images. Also the story that is told here is really really exciting. It all starts with the legendary story of the first ascent by Cesare Maestri and Toni Egger in 1959, during which Egger lost his life. To this day, it has not been conclusively proven that Maestri really did climb the peak, as he claimed. In the following decades, the Cerro Torre has repeatedly claimed victims, but has also produced some very special success stories. The film derives its charm from the fact that it not only tells the story of David Lima's spectacular free-climbing attempt, but also lets other climbers have their say about the exciting history of this mountain.

The documentary is particularly intense when the nerves of those involved are on edge and the atmosphere is tense to the breaking point. Then, as a viewer, you really feel for Lima and Ortner and cling to your chair during the climbing scenes. The fact that director Thomas Dirnhofer, in addition to the interesting and gripping scenes, also incorporates some light-hearted scenes into his film, noticeably increases the entertainment value of Cerro Torre - Nicht den Hauch einer Chance. Thus, the film is not only for climbing freaks and extreme sports enthusiasts absolutely worth watching. Even viewers who may not necessarily be interested in documentaries will be perfectly entertained here. It is true that the images on the TV lose a bit of power and intensity compared to the big cinema screen. Nevertheless, the documentary can fully unfold its stirring effect in the home cinema. And for this there can then also only be one possible rating: Absolutely recommendable!

Picture + Sound: The image of the DVD presents the documentary in a good audiovisual implementation. The picture is absolutely clean, the image sharpness is in the quieter shots at a very high level, in shaky shots, on the other hand, there are slight dragging effects and also minor blurring. The colouring looks very authentic and thus underlines the good overall impression of the picture quality. The audio is available in a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix, which is dominated by the commentary in many scenes, but every now and then also provides an atmospheric surround feeling through well-captured ambient sounds. Good!

Extras: As a bonus, the DVD has a short but informative making of (approx. 7:22 min.), some webisodes about the production (approx. 15:35 min.), as well as the trailer and statements by director Thomas Dirnhofer (approx. 2:37 min.), David Lima (approx. 3:44 min.) and Peter Ortner (approx. 3:16 min.) to offer. A worth seeing addition to the main film.

Conclusion: Cerro Torre - Not a Hint of a Chance is a gripping documentary, which can captivate not only all climbing freaks with spectacular images and a rousing story. Exciting, entertaining and interesting - not only lovers of documentaries can access confidently. The DVD presents the film in good picture and sound quality and the bonus material is a good addition to the main film. For this there is a deserved: Absolutely recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp