Free Solo is a movie about a solo rock climber by the name of Alex Honnald. He takes rock climbing to a whole other level by not using any ropes, carabiners, or backpack. All that he has on his body is a bag of chalk, used to grip the rocks better, clothes, and climbing shoes.
This movie was a documentary of his life and the struggles and journey that he went through to get to be able to climb the granite wall of El Capitan. This wall is located in Yosemite National Park, in California and is known in the world of rock climbing. As it says on Yosemite's website, "El Capitan is 3,000 vertical feet of sheer rock granite, El Capitan is a beacon for visitors, a muse for photographers and one of the world's ultimate challenges for climbers".
Alex Honnold takes on this challenge and has always wanted to climb this wall for a long period of time. He said in the movie that every year he would say "this is the year" but would then visit it and climb it with ropes and say, "this is NOT the year". He lives out of his van that has everything he needs and travels across the world with his friends, and girlfriend of two years. In the movie they visited Morocco and took on the High Atlas Mountains, to help Alex train and become physically fit and ready to take on something that no one had ever done. Many times during the movie he went through hardships, falling twice while rock climbing and injuring his back and heel.
Both times he got back up and decided to keep pursuing his dream. He was ready to pursue this dream in the fall of 2016 and decided around 4 A.M. when he started climbing that it wasn't the right time. He didn't feel prepared and "bailed". He then trained some more and decided to conquer this dream of his in the summer of 2017. His friends, who included Jimmy Chin, wanted to create this documentary and to show people the dedication and dreams of Alex.
They wanted to capture how brave a person can really be. It was hard for them to shoot because they didn't want to interfere with his adventure and focus, especially since he wasn't hooked up to a rope. Any sudden movements they made could be detrimental to his life and they didn't want that burden on their life. But, they ended up getting the shots that they needed and made a kickass movie!
I think that this movie shows how any person can achieve whatever they put their mind to, and to make sure that you don't doubt yourself in the process. Most great stories don't start out with you sitting at home... they start out with an adventure you were on. What I learned and why I liked this movie so much is that you can't take life too serious, and you should take risks that make you feel invincible. I recommend this movie and it is playing at The Loft Cinemas in Tucson; it is only eight dollars for students (wink wink).
