Hacker Cinema
The Dawn Wall
2017 · Film · documentary · 101 min
Directed by Peter Mortimer, Josh Lowell
In an unbelievable story of perseverance, free climber Tommy Caldwell and climbing partner Kevin Jorgeson attempt to scale the impossible 3000ft Dawn Wall of El Capitan.
4 positivefrom 4 commenters
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4 comments on Hacker News
I love documentaries, and these are my favourites. All very worth a watch.
- The Crash Reel
- McConkey
- Buck
- Apollo 11
- Carts of Darkness
- The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia
- Samsara
- Baraka
- Brooklyn Castle
- Spellbound
- Drew: The Man Behind the Poster
- Crumb
- The Jinx
- The Art of Flight
- King of Kong
- Indie Game: The Movie
- Capturing the Friedmans
- OJ: Made in America
- The Barkley Marathons
- The Seven Five
- Murderball
- Unbranded
- Gringo: The Dangerous Life of John McAfee
- Big River Man
- Hoop Dreams
- Word Wars
- Free Solo
- Long Shot
- Meru
- Being Elmo
- All This Mayhem
- Jiro Dreams of Sushi
- The Cove
- Project Nim
- Alone in the Wilderness
- Behind the Curve
- The Dawn Wall
- Grizzly Man
- 13th
- Winnebago Man
- Man vs Snake: The Long and Twisted Tale of Nibbler
- Get Me Roger Stone
- Icarus
- 13th
- Koyaanisqatsi
- The Thin Blue Line
- An Inconvenient Truth
- Oklahoma City
- Virunga
- The Staircase
- Evil Genius
- Undefeated
- Betting on zero
I find rock climbing or other sort of "adventurist" movies like that really enjoyable and interesting. If you haven't seen it The Dawn Wall was also pretty good and features Honnold at one point. It's not free soloing but it's interesting in other ways.
If you're looking for good climbing autobiographies, try Tommy Caldwell's "Push" or Dierdre Wolownick's "The Sharp End of Life." Caldwell's book is well-written and shows deep insight, perhaps due to the severe hardship he experienced. If you liked "The Dawn Wall" (one of my favorite films), you'll like the book.
Wolownick's book might be my favorite climbing memoir. Wolownick is Alex Honnold's mother, but she's not cashing in on his success; this is her own story about finally embracing her own life after years of self-sacrifice in an unhappy marriage. She is a writer first and foremost, and she tells a beautiful story about life. The climbing scenes are gripping and relatable because she is such an ordinary person--which makes her accomplishments all the more extraordinary.
I would also highly recommend The Dawn Wall: https://www.dawnwall-film.com/. I watched it and Free Solo at around the same time, and The Dawn Wall is a much better movie in my mind