The winner of 2018’s Best Documentary Feature Oscar is an odd glimpse at the man who free-climbed the 3000-foot high El Capitan mountain wall in Yosemite National Park on June 3, 2017, in just under four hours. It is an incredible personal achievement, described as the “moon landing” of rock climbing, and his intimately personal experience is documented in this film.

Jimmy Chin’s and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi’s film is offhandedly personal, capturing the enigmatic climber Alex Hannold in many casual moments, and decidedly harrowing, capturing Hannold as he climbs El Capitan without any ropes or safety features. Some of the shots looking down, arranged beforehand so that the camera crew could have a modicum of safety, are terrifying. The climb itself is presented in bits and pieces, and thus fails to generate the excitement that a scripted, edited feature film would have sustained.

The odd part is Alex Hannold himself. At one point he is described as having less brain response to fearful stimuli than others, which could well explain his ability to climb without fear. But he also doesn’t seem to care much about anything, including his girlfriend at the time; he seems almost disassociated from his own life. I found it difficult to root for the guy to complete his chosen task, especially as it doesn’t seem to mean a lot to him, apart from the fact that nobody else has done it.

Someday someone will make a Hollywood movie about this, and someone with charisma and relatability will be cast as Alex Hannold. It will be a good movie about one man’s will to personally conquer difficulty, danger and fear while making a statement about the power of humanity. This is not that movie. This is the real story about a robotic guy who could so something else no one else has ever done by himself, just because he could. ☆ ☆ ☆. 17 May 2019.