It's a good doc with a lot of details about the climbing disaster on the descent of the first ever Matterhorn climb. 7 people were connected with multiple ropes. 4 fell and the rope to the 3 remaining broke and they therefore couldn't do anything to save them from falling. We learn quite a bit background info about the people and their motivations and lives. The first 50 minutes are great, probably even a 8/10 quality documentary and I really enjoyed it. The recreated shots from the mountain are amazing. They really outdid themselves with how well they recreated the climb and how great the drone/helicopter footage looked. It was spectacular.
Overall it's only a 6,5/10 documentary because it's just too long. They got too many talking heads here and they were overly focused on any and all theories about the disaster even ones that appeared decades later. They try to really stretch the story to 1:30 hour, but it's just that we only have 2 people who saw what happened and they retold the story in 1865. So before any sound recording. We have just a few details. It's an interesting disaster, but it's just not enough for this long a documentary as they explore loose alternative theories with little to no evidence. It's fine if you just mention it, but spending half on hour on it is too much. The bad second half makes the whole product weak.
For example, they go into a full conspiracy theory about how the local guide may have cut the rope or the English climber did it. But these theories are complete and utter nonsense that don't belong in a documentary. They tested the rope and it couldn't even hold a single falling man. It doesn't matter if the rope was cut or not. There is no chance in hell it could hold 4 people. Someone cutting it to save themselves won't change anything as the rope was going to 100% fail anyhow. They should have used the higher quality rope they had with them. If they used that they likely would have fallen to their death too? The documentary never explores this. The logic is that if 4 people fall down a mountain 3 people can hold them up if they have a strong rope. I'm not sure I believe this one bit. The weight of the force would be extreme and either the rope would break, which the documentary does mention, or all 7 would die, which the documentary doesn't even mention. There is a great documentary here if they just hire a proper editor. It's worth a watch, but you will feel like it's 30 minutes too long and wasted your time at the end.
Overall it's only a 6,5/10 documentary because it's just too long. They got too many talking heads here and they were overly focused on any and all theories about the disaster even ones that appeared decades later. They try to really stretch the story to 1:30 hour, but it's just that we only have 2 people who saw what happened and they retold the story in 1865. So before any sound recording. We have just a few details. It's an interesting disaster, but it's just not enough for this long a documentary as they explore loose alternative theories with little to no evidence. It's fine if you just mention it, but spending half on hour on it is too much. The bad second half makes the whole product weak.
For example, they go into a full conspiracy theory about how the local guide may have cut the rope or the English climber did it. But these theories are complete and utter nonsense that don't belong in a documentary. They tested the rope and it couldn't even hold a single falling man. It doesn't matter if the rope was cut or not. There is no chance in hell it could hold 4 people. Someone cutting it to save themselves won't change anything as the rope was going to 100% fail anyhow. They should have used the higher quality rope they had with them. If they used that they likely would have fallen to their death too? The documentary never explores this. The logic is that if 4 people fall down a mountain 3 people can hold them up if they have a strong rope. I'm not sure I believe this one bit. The weight of the force would be extreme and either the rope would break, which the documentary does mention, or all 7 would die, which the documentary doesn't even mention. There is a great documentary here if they just hire a proper editor. It's worth a watch, but you will feel like it's 30 minutes too long and wasted your time at the end.