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Alex Honnold is a climber, but not the usual kind: he climbs alone on large, extremely dangerous walls. Free soling is a form of climbing that involves climbing a surface alone and without the aid of any protective equipment. There is practically no margin of error in free solo ascents; any mistake can be fatal. Many professional mountaineers have died alone, and while this may prevent some people from continuing the practice, it hardly hurts Honnold. He understands the risks intimately, but still advances, partly because the solo makes life more immediate. It's the thrill of the climb that keeps him alive.
The documentary by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin Free Solo tells the lonely climbing of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, a 3,300 foot granite slab that has been a popular site for years. Armed with a team of professional climbers and cinematographers, Chin and Vasarhelyi intimately capture Honnold's various solo ascents and the trials take place before the great ascent. Free SoloThe images of climbing cause fear and wonder, not to mention terror, and some large shots highlight the obvious suicidal danger of Honnold's raison d'être. As a subject of interview, he is very convincing when he plunges into the machinations of the solo, in the setting up of the feet, in the complicated movements of the hands to ensure stability, in the many obstacles specific to certain climbs, in its risk assessment. In general, Free Solo excels every time he focuses on Honnold's process and actual climbs, which also showcases Chin and Vasarhelyi's film craft. (Free Solo is one of the rare recent memory documentaries to use, quite rightly, drone cameras, primarily to capture certain angles that no-one on the ground could secure alone.)
Sadly, Free Solo suffers when Vasarhelyi and Chin psychologize Honnold or try to explain his willingness to climb into death. It is understandable that filmmakers would want to examine Honnold's psyche, knowing that his behavior of Spock and his oddly casual approach to the solo raises questions about his mental stability or lack thereof. Yet every "answer" he attributes to him (or attributes to himself) feels good and is not convincing. Honnold mentions his father, who was emotionally unavailable to Honnold's mother but also stimulated his son's interest in rock climbing. He describes his "dark soul" as a child and his "bottomless pit of self-hatred". We talk about being a loner at school. Yet none of these explanations is as convincing as an MRI diagnosis that simply concludes that it requires more stimulus than most people. Similarly, Free SoloThe fixation on how the solo affects Honnold's relationship with his girlfriend feels transported from a more banal film. At best, this material is not interesting, and at worst it's a distraction.
While the psychological analysis fails to captivate, Free Solo becomes interesting when actively questioning the ethics of filming Honnold on his ascents. Vasarhelyi and Chin correctly identify the nausea-like voyeurism of filming such stunts, since their subject could fall to his death at any time. Their worries only worsen when Honnold expresses his concern about being filmed on El Capitan after an anxious race. (His filming consciousness affects his confidence in the climb.) As a result, Honnold El Capitan's solo climb, a disappointing section of the film, is naturally circumscribed to ensure his safety. Chin and Vasarhelyi continue to cut off Honnold from the field cameramen, who provide nervous commentary to the spectators, constantly reiterating the danger that Honnold faces every time he overtakes a new pitch. It's a pointless effort to explain the issues, but it makes sense if one considers that a more personal method could fatally disturb Honnold. It's easy to imagine a version of Free Solo which follows exclusively the ascent of El Capitan, which would be based entirely on the physical prowess of Honnold. In the state, however, Free Solo still has a lot to offer in the "at your fingertips" department.
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