[Note: This review of "Samsara" initially appeared with reviews of "Finding Farley" and "First Ascent: Alone on the Wall" -- the second of four sets of reviews for The Union newspaper.]
In the world of extreme sport, with new degrees and variations of extreme cropping up year after year, one feature surfaces again and again: doing something that’s never been done before.Everybody and his blind cousin Eddie has climbed 29,000-foot Mt. Everest.
Meru is only 21,000 feet high, but this little peak, not too far from Everest, has never been topped.It’s sheer wall, called “Shark’s Fin,” is twice as tall as Yosemite’s El Capitan and more than a couple miles higher.
Making films about extremes deserves to be more than competent.Such films deserve to be better than the obvious draw of documenting extremes. “Samsara” does justice to an extreme that’s never been successfully mastered.Everybody knows that success is more than giving the best you can and then some.Success is more than just coming back alive.
The filming of “Samsara” benefits from the fact that the film is made by the three climbers.It benefits from the story they make of their quest and the way the weather is almost a character in their story.Not incidentally, the filmmakers were smart keeping it only 20 minutes long.
“Samsara” refers to the “center of the universe.”Maybe there’s no way to reach the top of the center.