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DVDfever.co.uk – North Face Blu-ray review Dom Robinson reviews
Metrodome Blu-ray: 
DVD:
- Cert:
- Running time: 126 minutes
- Cat no: MTDBD5461
- Year: 2008
- Released: April 2009
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 20 plus extras
- Picture: 1080p High Definition
- Sound: DTS 5.1
- Languages: German
- Subtitles: English for hearing impaired
- Widescreen: 2.35:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £15.99 (DVD), £19.99 (Blu-ray)
- Extras: Making North Face, Visual Effects of North Face, Deleted Scenes, Interview with Philipp Stölzl and Kolja Brandt, The Myth of the Eiger North Face, Timeline of attempts on the Eiger Mountain, Cast and crew biographies, Theatrical traile, UK Exclusive trailer
- Vote and comment on this film: View Comments
Director:
- Philipp Stölzl
(Baby, Morituri Te Salutant, North Face)
Producers:
- Benjamin Herrmann, Gerd Huber, Danny Krausz, Rudolf Santschi, Boris Schönfelder, Kurt Stocker and Isabelle Welter
Screenplay:
- Christoph Silber, Philipp Stölzl, Rupert Henning and Johannes Naber
Original Score :
- Christian Kolonovits
Cast :
- Toni Kurz: Benno Fürmann
Andreas Hinterstoisser: Florian Lukas
Luise Fellner: Johanna Wokalek
Edi Rainer: Georg Friedrich
Willy Angerer: Simon Schwarz
Henry Arau: Ulrich Tukur
Emil Landauer: Erwin Steinhauer
Elisabeth Landauer: Petra Morzé
Albert von Allmen: Branko Samarovski
North Face tells the true story of two men who attempted to be the first to climb that side of the Eiger mountain in 1936, and it really evokes the look of the 1930s, just prior to World War II. There’s the odd mention of Hitler, but not much so it doesn’t dominate preceedings.
Naturally, there’s a bit of artistic licence used here and there, but as I didn’t know of the story before watching the film that didn’t affect anything untowardly and helped flesh the story out a bit. I’m talking mainly in terms of events that get us to the mountain as it doesn’t really mess around with what the men got up while climbing, although there were just a couple of alterations that I noticed when I looked up the film on Wikipedia and checked out links to those who went up.
The basic premise is that Toni Kurz (Benno Fürmann) and Andreas Hinterstoisser (Florian Lukas) want to be the first two Germans to successfully make the climb. What I also didn’t know prior to watching was that several others are trying to be the first to get to the top, too. Hence, it’s rather a race, although is it one that anyone really wants to win given that if problems occur and bad weather kicks in, it won’t do any of the contestants any favours?
As it begins, we see that Hurz – the older and wiser one – is smitten by Luise (Johanna Wokalek), a girl from his childhood who’s now a city news reporter and photo journalist, who goes with her boss, Henry Arau (Ulrich Tukur), to see them tackle the challenge.
Early on, we see the two going up a day early to store some provisions and equipment in a gallery window by the railway tunnel through the mountain, called the Jungfraubahn, which is a space they’ve found whilst planning the route in order to get ahead of everyone else when the race starts. That said, it drags a fair bit early on prior to the climb, and I didn’t really get the reason why all the potentional contestants set up their tents three days before the actual climb. Why not just get there the day before?
And when Arau comments, “I wish it would finally get underway”, I thought, “Yes, me too.”. For those interested, they finally set off around 45 minutes into the film.
Along the way, they meet up and effectively team up with some of the competition in Edi Rainer (Georg Friedrich) and Willy Angerer (Simon Schwarz), who are following the path of the two leads, a path that’ll partly crossover with, but not copy, that of two previous men who failed to complete the climb – Mehringer and Sedlmayer. We also learn about the now-famous Hinterstoisser Traverse, a roped section which you’ll see how it comes about but which becomes an essential part for anyone who tries to follow in their footsteps, literally.
Other random observations are that it does make you feel nervous watching them climb, unsure as to whether they’ll make it, there’s some humour from Arau as well as noticing the juxtaposition of the climbers freezing in a snowstorm on the Eiger while all the reporters and spectators sit by a log fire in the nearby hotel. And, as things start to go wrong and it looks like they’re not going to make it, Arau wants to head back to Berlin while Luise wants to stay and report on anything that might happen, even though Arau says it wouldn’t be newsworthy. These days, the BBC would be wasting our money by stationing a reporter in every square mile of the planet just in case anything might happen, so there’d be someone to watch this all the time.
There’s something that happens at 1hr 40mins which is completely ridiculous, which I can’t describe here as it would spoil the film – although I can safely say that it involves Luise, but it flies in the face of anything sensible and, as such, is rather an annoying and lazy plot device. Overall, however, this is certainly worth a watch as it’s a piece of class film-making once the climb gets underway.
North Face on Blu-ray has exceptional picture and sound. The film is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen and looks as highly detailed as you’d expect a high-definition picture to look which, in layman’s terms, is like being able to watch on a larger screen but with the definition increased accordingly so it’s not just a case of blowing up what you were last watching on a 32″ screen which just results in getting a not-particularly-great picture. For the record, I’m watching on a Panasonic 37″ Plasma screen.
I’m not sure which sound formats the disc includes, since I only have access to hear films in DTS 5.1 and Dolby Digital 5.1, which this disc has (my setup defaults to DTS, but it’s part of the Blu-ray audio spec that DD5.1 should be included to), and it was a screener that I received so it didn’t state anything specific on there. However, unless you’re hiring the Royal Albert Hall to watch this in, you can set this disc nice and loud to wake up the neighbours, particularly during the deafening snowstorm!
The extras are as follows:
- Making North Face (17:47): Chat from key cast and crew members about how the film was made, with the director kicking things off by talking about how the film was made, and then all the leads go into depth (as much as you can with just 2 or 3 minutes apiece) about various aspects of it, in a well-chaptered supplemental (8 splitting up the running time, including a piece of B-roll footage). Dialogue is in German with English subtitles.
- Visual Effects of North Face (2:18): How ‘green screen’ was cleverly used, even though it’s seamless in the movie.
- Deleted Scenes (6:07): Six of them, all set before the climb itself – and you really don’t need to eek that part out any longer than it is, so there’s nothing here that urgently needs to be put back into the film, just might flesh things out a small amount.
- Interview with Philipp Stölzl and Kolja Brandt: The director and cinematographer’s thoughts as a series of text pages. Rather odd that it’s not an actual interview in the flesh.
- The Myth of the Eiger North Face: Again, more info in text format.
- Timeline of attempts on the Eiger Mountain: More text, starting with the first attempt in 1858, onwards.
- Cast and crew biographies: Does what it says on the tin, again in text form.
- Theatrical trailer (2:31): In an approx 2:1 ratio, and strangely within the 4:3 frame, so it sits tiny and orphaned in the middle of my TV.
- UK Exclusive trailer (1:20): Shorter, but shown properly. Done to advertise this DVD.
I’m rather surprised that so much of the extras is text-only, which doesn’t seem to signify what Blu-ray is about.
The disc menus have the same short piece of the theme going round over and over again with a snowy background and some shots from the film just about in the background. Subtitles are in English only – and enabled by default without being turnoffable – and there are 20 chapters throughout the film which is okay, but a few more wouldn’t hurt.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL 
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.