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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Touching the Void
IFC Films


8.4

based on 34 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 23 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: Not Rated

Starring Nicholas Aaron, Richard Hawking, Brendan Mackey, Joe Simpson, and Simon Yates

This documentary follows the climbers Joe Simpson and Simon Yates as they set out to climb the west face of the Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes.

GENRE(S):	Documentary
WRITTEN BY:	Joe Simpson (book)
DIRECTED BY:	Kevin Macdonald
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: June 15, 2004 Video: June 15, 2004 Theatrical: January 23, 2004
RUNNING TIME:	106 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	UK

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Newsweek David Ansen

By the end of this white-knuckle movie, you stand in awe at the depth of man's will to survive. Touching the Void leaves you emotionally and physically spent, and grateful it was only a movie, not a mountain, you had to endure.

100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The most harrowing movie about mountain climbing I have seen, or can imagine.

100

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

An absolutely thrilling recreation, in documentary style, of a now-legendary story.

100

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

For audiences, two things keep the tension from becoming too excruciating: the presence of the survivors in front of us and the knowledge that in the grip of Macdonald's humane, lucid filmmaking, we're in the best of hands.

100

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Warms the heart while chilling the bones.

Dallas Observer Bill Gallo

One of Void's great strengths is that it doesn't say much about "voids." It simply shows us, in incredibly vivid detail, heart-stopping danger and the raw will to survive.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Something of a tour de force, this adaptation of Joe Simpson's nonfiction book about his climbing the 21,000-foot Siula Grande mountain in Peru, breaking a leg, and eventually making it back alive is remarkable simply because the story seems unfilmable.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

As a piece of inspirationalism about human stamina, Touching the Void is peerless, but what it doesn't--perhaps can't--explain is why people place themselves in such peril.

LA Weekly John Patterson

Breathtaking stuff that freezes the toes, harrows the soul and turns the viewer's seat into a foot-wide ledge over a yawning chasm.

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

Factoring in Mike Eley's breathtakingly vivid photography and a virtuoso sound mix that completely envelops the viewer, it's enough to make you never again want to poke your head into the freezer.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

Kevin Macdonald has a terrific tale on his hands, and his telling of it, very British in its matter-of-factness, can barely be faulted; yet the facts drop away, and it becomes impossible not to read the movie symbolically--as a journey to the center of the earth, or farther still.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Uses first-person on-camera accounts of the adventure by Simpson and fellow climber Simon Yates to backdrop newly shot you-are-there footage that brings home the awesome and harrowing aspects of their feat.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

Tells a tale of fortitude that comes not from muscle but from the ineffable, bungee-like sinew that is the human spirit.

Chicago Tribune Robert K. Elder

So well cast and well captured is Touching the Void that it suspends disbelief, making us feel as if we're actually watching Simpson's own icy version of Dante's "Inferno."

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Truth, they say, is stranger than fiction… and also potentially more nail-biting and harder to believe. Touching the Void is an extreme example of this.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

A stunning achievement, every bit the equal of the classic moun taineering book which inspired it.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

As sagas of endurance in the face of ridiculous odds go, this story is up there with Shackleton and ''Into Thin Air.''

Philadelphia Inquirer Don Sapatkin

Touching the Void is, indeed, about living, but not the exhilarating kind. It's about survival -- raw, real, by force of will.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

The story itself is so powerful and troubling, the moral geometry so vertiginous, and the photography so big that anything other than the natural sounds of snowfall and footfall is a Flat Earth Society intrusion.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

It's a gripping outdoor adventure and the movies' most inspiring epic survival story in years.

Village Voice Jessica Winter

Unexpectedly bridges genres -- it's a buddy movie, a horror story, a boy's-own adventure, and a near metaphysical meditation on the limits of human endurance.

Film Threat Rick Kisonak

Suffice it to say that MacDonald has made the finest mountain climbing movie you are likely ever to come across. The cinematography is awesome, the score by Alex Heffes terrific, the reenactments remarkably credible.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

The film, directed almost with fierceness by Kevin Macdonald, is a wondrous recreation of that physical adventure. The most profound element, the moral crux, is skimped, but I kept wondering, not so much about the actors who were playing Simpson and Yates, as about the cameramen who were photographing them on that icy face, possibly suspended while they were doing it.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

It's also mysterious in fresh ways. Like Hillary, Yates and Simpson climbed the mountain because it was there -- but what strange deity sent down a Boney M song to help Joe Simpson get home?

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Even for a sport already filled with horrific accidents and tales of unlikely survival, the mountain-climbing nightmare told in Touching the Void is astonishing.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Don't miss this harrowing movie if you're in the mood for adventure more thrilling than anything Hollywood has to offer these days.

San Francisco Chronicle Carla Meyer

Real acting replaces re-enacting, and amazing cinematography pits the limits of human will against the unruliness of nature.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

At its heart, Touching The Void contends with the physical and spiritual dilemma of facing the unknown and overcoming paralyzing fear in order to emerge reborn on the other side. But the film's appeal is even more fundamental than that: It's just one of those stories that catches the breath, no matter how often it's told.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Without really understanding what drove these two men to attempt the risky climb in the first place, it’s hard to extend the requisite sympathy for their plight. A void was definitely touched in this movie, and it was inside me.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Simpson and Yates give a good idea why individuals are drawn to extreme sports.

TV Guide Angel Cohn

Stunningly beautiful scenery and the nearly unbelievable true story of a mountain-climbing expedition gone awry to chilling effect.

The New York Times Dave Kehr

This is compelling stuff, but there is something deeply distracting in the use of recreated material.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

It's a nervy, quasi-documentary scheme that's often successful, perhaps more so than you'd expect for this kind of a hybrid endeavor. But Macdonald's technique eventually turns out to be as distancing as it is involving, paradoxically undercutting the reality as often as it enhances it.

Slate David Edelstein

It's true that the movie, arrested between documentary and drama, doesn't quite do justice to either medium: The actors playing Joe and Simon don't have anything like "lines" to simulate "drama," or even just "conversation," while the real guys often fall back on bland English understatement.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.4 (out of 10) based on 23 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Ali C gave it a10:
Touching the Void was very nearly a Sally Field-sponsored, Tom Cruise-starring Hollywood blockbuster (Tom wanted the part of Joe). Thank the lord it wasn't. One of the great cinematic experiences, and the best climbing film ever, this is also a powerful exploration of humanity, that cannot fail to move anyone who watches it. Joe Simpson is a deeply erudite and thoughtful person, and I guess we are all perversely fortunate that such a ghastly experience should happen to someone with his capacity for reflection and emotional expression. Life changing, shocking and profoundly moving.

Rory M. gave it a10:
Before watching the film I was put off by the fact that it was going to be a documentary. This, I thought, is going to be really boring. Hell was I wrong; the ‘talking heads’ structure was seamlessly integrated with highly believable re-enactments of their ordeal on the mountain face. Mixed in was the music that kept it all going thumping in the background and rising up to a higher level in moments of stress. Very cleverly filmed, at points of desperation the movements the camera makes, like moving with the head of the person in question, really makes you think the situation Is desperate. It portrays the moments of delirium very well especially at the climax just before Simon finds Joe. The end of the film is greatly moving and stirs you inside nearly to the point of crying. An experience worth your while. Superb.

amurabi m. gave it a7:
Drama? documentary? its biggest problem is that it can´t define itself.

[Anonymous] gave it a10:
Amazing movie...I can't believe it is a true story!

Mountain Lover gave it a10:
Absolutely Brilliant.

David F. gave it a9:
Gripping. I was on the edge of my seat.

Pat C. gave it an 8:
The definitive movie about expedition mountaineering, with thorough character exposition, personal motivation and cultural interaction has yet to be made. However, after enduring a legacy of inept features on the subject, some excruciatingly bad and even divergently insane, this film is clearly a step in the right direction. It is a powerful statement, if only by inference, of the burning conviction that emerges in mountaineers as they discover the rest of the human race is really missing out on the privilege of total actualization, where one can experience an intensity of living on the edge of death usually reserved for military operations, but without inflicting cruelty. And while the sport attracts its share of irresponsible goofballs, it is clear that Joe and Simon epitomize the best values of brotherhood and a willingness to cope with adversity in pursuit of a fulfilling experience. The film's honest realism, believable depictions of mountain action and stunning cinematography sets a new standard for movies about the most committing of all sports.

Touching the Void IFC Films

Touching the Void
IFC Films