The filmmakers worked hard to be fair to all of the people involved, which I really appreciated (though I do wish we'd heard from someone from the South Korean team or at least a knowledgeable person from South Korea). The footage and photos they were able to get from participants is amazing. The story of this tragedy is very compelling, as are the personalities who pursue such a weird, treacherous goal. But the filmmakers use of recreations is not great. They cut in their recreations, which sometimes use actors and sometimes actual participants, so seamlessly that it's hard to tell what is original footage and what is their recreation. The latter is obviously selecting versions of the truth to present, so I wish those scenes had had a visual cue to indicate they are a storyline chosen by the directors.
Also, there are superhuman mountain athletes in this story who save lives, protect other climbers, die under bad orders, and haul other people's stuff. These are the Sherpa guides, and the film does expose the weird ways that we've all been trained to disappear these men from tales of feats of mountaineering. The filmmakers even persuaded (paid?) them to reenact what must've been a thoroughly traumatic event. If any client (who are mostly white male Westerners) did half of what Pemba Gyalje Sherpa did on K2 that year, he'd be treated like a god. Instead he's treated like a semi-invisible valet. That strange prejudice and media blindness was my big takeaway from this movie. (I know he was recognized for his heroism that year, but I still think he has not gotten his due as a phenomenal climber.)
Also, there are superhuman mountain athletes in this story who save lives, protect other climbers, die under bad orders, and haul other people's stuff. These are the Sherpa guides, and the film does expose the weird ways that we've all been trained to disappear these men from tales of feats of mountaineering. The filmmakers even persuaded (paid?) them to reenact what must've been a thoroughly traumatic event. If any client (who are mostly white male Westerners) did half of what Pemba Gyalje Sherpa did on K2 that year, he'd be treated like a god. Instead he's treated like a semi-invisible valet. That strange prejudice and media blindness was my big takeaway from this movie. (I know he was recognized for his heroism that year, but I still think he has not gotten his due as a phenomenal climber.)