K2

K2 (1991)

Runtime: 104 minutes

Directed by: Franc Roddam

Starring: Michael Biehn, Matt Craven, Raymond J. Berry, Luca Bercovici, Patricia Charbonneau

From: Paramount/Miramax/Trans Pacific Films

Here's a film I watched on Netflix Instant, one where it's the only way to see it in North America unless you import the foreign DVD or have it on VHS. The Letterboxd review is below:

This is another film that comes from discussion in a messageboard thread. I faintly remember it being released way back in 1991 but I had never seen it before. For what I presume are the nebulous “rights issues” (several studios came together to make this) this has never received a Region 1 DVD or Blu-ray release, making it difficult to see... unless you have Netflix Instant. Talk of the upcoming star-studded Everest film in the aforementioned messageboard thread inspired discussion of this motion picture again & I figured it was finally time to check it out.

To clarify, K2 is a popular name for a mountain known by several other monikers-Chhogori, Ketu or Mount Godwin-Austen-and it is the second-highest mountain in the world at over 28,000 feet (over 8,600 meters) and is infamous for being one of the most dangerous mountains anyone could ever attempt to climb. This story is loosely based on a tale of how 2 men were the first Americans to scale the mountain in the late 70's. The story told here is of Taylor (Michael Biehn), a charming A-hole lawyer and Harold (Matt Craven) , a family man although he unfortunately doesn't spend enough time with his wife and young child. Through some circumstances they get added on to an expectation to climb K2 and as it should go without saying various things go wrong.

The fact that you get a lot of arguing and bickering, it sometimes wore me down in a bad way. Climbing such a mountain is stressful, sure, but some of the characters were antagonistic to each other long before they reached K2. There are also no shortage of cliches. Yet, I can still say that this is a solid 3 star affair for a few reasons.

The cast is uniformly fine in their roles. The character of Taylor is a brash cocky jerk but I still laughed at his behavior so it did not rub me the wrong way. Once the serious drama hits and the characters have to face some tough decisions, the actors perform pretty well. Plus, I know that Everest will be full of CG while this movie was all done “for real” and everything you see done actually happened and it wasn't from a computer. It is shown that climbing mountains is quite difficult and it can be deadly. The scenery was quite pretty too.

It is unfortunate that this hasn't had a Region 1 disc release. The scenic views would look great on Blu and even though this is not a must-see it's still fine and deserves more of an audience.