The first time I watched "Freehand Rock Climbing", I felt that it was an alternative documentary.
Thanks to so many precious and unpainted lenses, for me, the image value of many documentaries is far higher than the recorded story itself. Every frame and every second shows a moment of miracles. The camera To preserve what may be fleeting or about to disappear, making it eternal in another sense. This film captures the majestic views of Yosemite National Park and El Capitan—the collision of hard rock and soft clouds, the silhouette of tree branches under the moonlight, the dawn and dusk of El Capitan...but the main thing is the climbing feat. story record.
Climbing without rope protection is a spectacle in itself. Even if I know the biggest buying point of the film before watching it, I still feel incredible. It goes against the instinct of self-protection possessed by normal people. The fear of helplessness and the unknown is far greater than the sigh of the climber's own courage. It was not until the end of the story when Alex stood on the top overlooking El Capitan that he could feel the meaning of the documentary for more than 100 minutes and the ultimate value of his own indescribable crazy pursuit.
The story itself is very simple, but the real record greatly enhances the story itself. It was a long foreshadowing before the final climb to the El Capitan. I didn’t use too many long shots to tell a story and shoot a landscape like most documentaries. In the early stage, I used a lot of lively material to tell Alex very jumpingly. Cox's own character and his own experience, he strongly emphasizes the influence of perfect family education on his character, his emotional experience, and thinks that he has lost part of normal human emotions. All his experiences and memories seemed destined in his life, as if he was born for it. There is no narration in the picture, most of which are vaguely narrated by Alex himself with a slightly nasal voice, telling his own story intermittently, which does not make the whole film feel jumpy, but the real thing comes naturally, without deliberately provocative, Use your own words to tell your own story at will, not to show off deliberately to increase the viewing point of the movie, and to let the audience feel the part that he did not express. People who are so real and full of self-contradiction will give up halfway, laugh shyly in front of the camera, and have disputes with the filming staff... It is truly a precious individual life.
This film reminds me of the documentary "Human Planet" that I watched a long time ago. It tells about the different living conditions of peoples in many different regions of the earth, from the developed city life to the harsh primitive life in the jungle. There are great pursuits that may or may not be realized in individuals. It is undeniable that human beings themselves are a miracle beyond imagination, but I, living in "a square inch", can't really perceive their pursuits all over the world. By the end of the film I can't fully understand the real reason for Alex's obsession with unprotected climbing El Capitan, but it's undeniably a supreme goal for him, and all he can show is what he does meaning. However, for every independent life, there is such a thing or goal, either on the surface or in the subconscious, that allows you to perceive that this is the full brilliance of your life, the meaning of your life as a human being, Make you paranoid about it, thinking that this is what you were meant to do, even if no one but you can understand it.
What people rely on to maintain life, make you feel that you are not biologically "alive", this world has no meaning, and the meaning is given by everyone.
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