The Wildest Dream
The Wildest Dream
| 06 August 2010 (USA)
The Wildest Dream Trailers

Uses astonishing visuals to tell the intersecting stories of George Mallory, the first man to attempt a summit of Mount Everest, and Conrad Anker, the mountaineer who finds Mallory's frozen remains 75 years later.

Reviews
minigonche

"For a couple of minutes, I entertained the idea of not telling anybody". Maybe the mystery was better, maybe not knowing if George had reached the top or not was better for Conrad. Although I'm not sure if there is more evidence in favor of George not making the summit, I find beautiful that the strongest evidence in favor of his successful ordeal, is the missing picture of Ruth. How times have changed.As with many interviews with great climbers, experience the humility and almost alien way mountaineers think. Follow Conrad's respectful mission to uncover one of the greatest mysteries in mountaineering, was Mallory the first human on the top of the world?

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intelearts

I find it hard to agree with one of the other reviewers here who was left unmoved and disconnected by this brilliant attempt to capture the first attempt by the West to conquer Everest. The level of research, the history connection through the letters, the original film that was shot in the 1920s, the memories of relatives, and the extensive recreation by two professional climbers, all coupled with simply stunning photography, and voice-overs by Liam Nilson and a cast of the best of British voice-over really makes for an exceptional and honestly involving climbing documentary.For anyone interested in adventure, exploration, or climbing you could do far far worse. National Geographic have put the highest production values on this, and for my buck, it more than works.

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Cambridge Film Festival

THE WILDEST DREAM tells the story of George Mallory's lifelong obsession with conquering the summit of Everest, culminating with his doomed third expedition in 1924 and the suggestion that he was indeed first to the top. With a stellar cast of voices including Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes and the late Natasha Richardson, the film blends the personal accounts of relatives, re-enactments, testimonies of historians, black-and-white films and photographs from Mallory's life and the correspondence between him and his wife. This creates a compelling piece that is part history, part mountaineering adventure and part love story. The atmospheric cinematography is a work of art (and an achievement in its own right given the challenging terrain), with vistas of the billowing clouds and snowcapped peaks below Everest, and the 'prodigious white fang' (as Mallory describes it) of the mountain itself. Mallory is brought to life with a poignancy that reveals the man behind the myth, whether as a tiny figure perched on a glacial rockface with the stars glittering above, or in his letter to his daughter where he describes himself as a 'greedy daddy' for craving cake and tea parties. Running parallel to this story is the modern-day expedition led by Conrad Anker, one of the mountaineers who found Mallory's body a decade ago. In his attempts to recreate Mallory's last expedition, additional angles emerge, providing insights into the psychology and dangers of climbing at high altitudes (particularly in 1924-style hobnail boots and gaberdine jackets). This is a compelling portrait of a man who proves that – as he says through the voice of Ralph Fiennes – 'there's no dream that mustn't be dared', even if the journey to the top is a one- way ticket.Cambridge Film Festival Daily

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Arthur Mullen

Conrad Anker is the steely-eyed hero of the film... The man who discovers Mallory's body takes 8 years to return to the ogre that is Everest to attempt to close the circle on that climber's third and final attempt to summit. To make possible the fulfillment of Mallory's promise to his wife. Its an intensely personal quest for Anker. The man has married his best friend's widow, adopted her three children, and cannot fail. And there is a moment that it seems Anker too may slip into the void. Get lost in the clouds. A planned but organic symmetry between Conrad Anker and George Mallory's climbs emerges, filmed in breathtaking detail with great voice acting.

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