The Dawn Wall - No Spoilers

[rachelmanija]

A documentary about Tommy Caldwell's attempts to climb the Dawn Wall of Yosemite, and also about a whole lot of other fascinating things, all of them better encountered unspoiled. I highly recommend not looking up anything about this movie, Tommy Caldwell, or anything related to either of them.

I liked this even better than Free Solo, and I loved Free Solo. It makes a good companion piece to Free Solo because Alex Honnold does his big climb without ropes; if he falls, he dies. Tommy does his big climb with ropes; if he falls, he goes back to the beginning and starts over again. And those climbing methods and outcomes are also the central metaphors of their respective movies. Tommy falls, and falls, and falls; he starts over, and over, and over.

Free Solo inspired me to take up bouldering, where you climb without ropes; if you fall, you fall. (But on to a mat, so you don't get hurt. Usually.) I watched The Dawn Wall after, in the SAME WEEK and in fact a three-day span, I broke three bones in my foot falling badly while bouldering, and was wrongly diagnosed with having had a heart attack while on what I thought was a routine checkup, and didn't find out that it was a test error for over two weeks. (Those were completely unrelated incidents; it's a long story). It was the perfect time to watch a movie about falling, and surviving, and going on.

I'll put up a spoiler post separately. Please don't spoil the movie in comments.

The Dawn Wall is available on Netflix and possibly other places as well.

Comments

[minoanmiss]

I'm really glad you had this movie, especially now, as you point out.

[scioscribe]

I'll have to watch this! I just watched Free Solo because of your post about it and am definitely in the mood for more stunning vistas and acts of human strength and achievement. And I'm very glad you had this movie in the middle of a particularly hellish week.

[rydra_wong]

A documentary about Tommy Caldwell's attempts to climb the Dawn Wall of Yosemite, and also about a whole lot of other fascinating things, all of them better encountered unspoiled. I highly recommend not looking up anything about this movie, Tommy Caldwell, or anything related to either of them.

I was SO THRILLED when I realized that non-climber friends (or friends who are climbers but not yet fully-fledged climbing geeks) would be able to encounter this story unspoiled.

[ivy]

Did "The Dawn Wall" make you think about top-roping as a hobby? (I like it better than bouldering, though bouldering is a lot more accessible to me.)

No spoilers

[mildred_of_midgard]

First I wanted to say that yes, I liked this one better than Free Solo, even though the actual climb in Free Solo was intrinsically more exciting to me. Dawn Wall felt more like a professionally made action film, while Free Solo felt more like a home video. I liked the way DW handled the media circus, just enough brief clips to keep the pacing exciting, without making you sit through too many long excerpts of of socially awkward climbers stammering. ;)

I had put the book on my "maybe" list a while back, but now that I've seen the movie, I'm going to have to buy the book and start reading.

I also want to say that I'm not much of a watcher of things, but the two climbing documentaries I've watched recently, both at your suggestion, have left me in a substantially better mood after watching them while wretchedly sleep-deprived and unable to enjoy most of my usual activities. Thanks!

[cadenzamuse]

Watching this unspoiled was SO GOOD!

Also, having watched both films and read both books, I enjoyed "The Dawn Wall" more as film but Alone on the Wall more as book.