It's that story that tells us about the great challenges we are living through the great mountain climbing around the world. It may be the Shark's Fin Award on Mount Meru is the final prize, where the film revolves around three competing climbers struggling to find success through that sport. It is a series of challenges that turn into mania and loss as they try to climb the mountain.
What drives these men? "Because it's there" merely scratches the surface. "Meru" may not answer the question completely - likely nothing can - but it is a thrilling, harrowing attempt.
John Long, a brilliant climbing-literature author of Anker's generation, explains the addiction of extreme alpinism as going to a place where you know you're already dead.
A triumph of editing and narrative beyond "Are you kidding me?" visuals, Meru is a climbing story with context; biographies are woven in incrementally.
A film about a climb more daredevilish than Philippe Petit's tightrope walk. Brilliantly filmed by the climbers who are as good at cinema as in climbing up the face of a mountain.
Chin and Ozturk capture both the astonishing views from the top of the world and soul-searching moments inside a cramped tent dangling from the side of the mountain like a used tea bag.
Are these guys nuts? Are their egos needy of self-affirmation? Or is there some higher purpose in such inexplicable endeavors? Do some people just have a genetic need to live on the edge?
