Biehn Season, Vol. 2: 2. K2 (1991)

Director: Franc Roddam

Starring: Michael Biehn, Matt Craven, Raymond J. Barry

Biehn Season 2, the second draw pulls out a tale of rock clambering derring-do and shed-loads of snow. Oh, and one rather bloody big mountain…

What’s going on with that poster, eh? Anyone would think it was Chris ‘Epic’ O’Donnell and this was Vertical Limit. It’s not… Very loosely based on the first two American climbers to reach the summit (Jim Wickwire and Lou Reichardt), K2 tells the story of Harold and Taylor, best pals who share a mutual passion for scaling humongous peaks. When a billionaire-funded expedition to Pakistan loses two climbers in a freak avalanche, the pugnacious Taylor muscles a place on the team for family man Harold and himself. All goes swimmingly until a combination of revolting Sherpas and bad weather ensure that neither the ascent, nor the descent will be anywhere near textbook. One thing is certain; the tilt at the Himalayas will change both men…

This is one of those films I have to watch if it’s on, can’t help meself. Snow setting, for starters, I’m a sucker for the melty stuff. A mountain range, I mean come on, is there a finer sight on planet Earth than a sweeping rocky vista? And rock climbing is ace, all that crampon action and the fingering of crevices, all very Zen. Is that an oxymoron? It’s hardly relaxing when sudden death lurks every inch of the way. I must’ve seen K2 at least three times over the course of a couple of years way back when and each time it was different. Saw it on VHS with a Hans Zimmer score (though it credits Chaz Jankel), then on telly with two or more extra scenes, then on tape again with Chaz Jankel music (but one Zimmer cue) and the first half hour of the film re-cut. I reckon the ‘Jankel’ version works best simply because it gets to the climbing quicker and moves the soap opera back. Do we need to see Harold (Matt Craven) under pressure from the wife, Cindy (Julia Nickson-Soul… yeh, ex-Mrs David now), to spare her and the little ‘un some of his climbing time? Nope. Do we need to see Taylor (The Biehn) operating as a sleazy lawyer? Nyet. Everything you need to know about these characters happens on the mountain.

"Hey, Taylor! Did you know you've grown a tail?"

I cannot stress enough how great it is to watch one of these shot on location. If they were doing K2 today there would be a ton of green screen wizardry going on. Even seeing it again (and this looks like the first VHS version I saw, only with approx 10 minutes missing thanks to a shit upload) I was going, ‘whooo, that’s bloody dangerous, innit’. Nowadays, no fear factor; they’re on a stage. Granted, you know it’s not Biehn, Craven et al doing the hairy stuff but then there’ll be a couple of close-ups with a long drop behind them and you’re thinking, one foot wrong = one dead actor. Good feeling. Obviously, not the thought of actors plummeting to their death is a good feeling… actually I can think of a few actors I’d like to see plummet but none are in this. There’s nothing terribly spontaneous about the screenplay; pretty much what you’d expect to happen in this film happens. Sliding into fissures, avalanche, oedema, food shortage, catastrophe, death, windy tents, Sherpas going on strike, giant robots… Hah! Got yer! Only joking about the windy tents.

Stagecoach's new Himalayan bus service drew some surprise...

It’s all a bit stop-start, to be honest (as I’m sure the real thing is). No sooner do the crew get trekking they’ve stopped again for some reason, usually due to revolting Sherpas. I should probably stop referring to them as Sherpas – these blokes are just regular porters really. This results in a funny moment when an exasperated Taylor starts burning their wages in the hope of shifting them. When they see that money going up in flames, those porters perk up like startled meerkats, most amusing. Then Dallas (Luca Bercovici) remarks to Taylor, “Think I’ll nominate you as Ambassador to Pakistan.” When the porters aren’t revolting, they’re dancing – edited down in the ‘Jankel’ version, spoilsports. And when there’s neither dancing nor revolting to distract you from the mundane, there’s a spot of dead dude canoodling as a special treat. In amongst all of this is team leader billionaire Claiborne’s oedema drama (got a nice ring to it that – oedema drama), nursemaided by the tomboy-ish Jacki (Patricia Charbonneau). The fact that they’ve got to get Claiborne (Raymond J. Barry) off the mountain before the rarefied air kills him adds another dramatic beat; he’ll be taking the last jelliwopter out of Dodge leaving Taylor & Co stranded without aid.

Pink parka... you wear it well, Mike

K2 only gets cracking in the last forty minutes. Roddam knows this hunk of rock is his saviour; the film finally shakes off the staccato rhythm and we get blokes versus Nature and all she can chuck at them. Harold & Taylor’s run at the summit, plus the perilous return journey is compelling stuff. The hazardous setting does most of the work for them but it’s well played by the actors, especially when Harold takes a spectacular tumble and breaks his leg. The Biehn is loving every minute of this, total opposite to The Art Of Bore. This is 1991 though and he’s come off a few top movies. His enthusiasm shines through, he’s in his element tromping through the snow. Biehn does some of his best work in the personal scenes with ‘H’ after the fall, when he has to dig deep, displaying the torment of either staying with his friend and dying or saving himself (“I want some nobility, goddammit!”). Look at the moment Harold tries to pass on his wedding ring for Taylor to take back to Cindy; Taylor reacts as a vampire would to a crucifix, nearly.

"One day, someone will make a great movie of this book..."

I don’t know what Roddam thinks he’s doing with the Dallas character, he veers too close to painting him as a villain. Dallas has got personal issues with Taylor, he doesn’t like him. Quelle surprise; Taylor is without doubt a ginormous twat. But anyway, the script has them butting heads at every opportunity, it’s quite wearying. Eventually, with four of them just below the summit, the ailing Claiborne back at base camp decides only two can go on. With Dallas in charge, he obviously picks himself and his regular climbing mate, Takane (Hiroshi Fujioka). Seems logical to me, especially as Taylor starts whining on – “but I’m the best climber…” – that’s not winning any fans. But as far as Roddam is concerned it’s job done, Dallas cemented as a bastard and a little later, when disaster strikes the summit attempt, I think the audience is supposed to be at least half pleased at Dallas’s fate. Not really. Matt Craven does okay; I don’t think ‘H’ specifically grows as a character as the summit draws near but he certainly learns a damn sight more about his friend. Sometimes it feels more like he’s there only to complete Taylor’s arc. But maybe that’s the point, maybe that’s why Taylor takes him; ‘H’ is his salvation. That and a big fuck-off mountain.

The loving couple - pictured in happier times...

The music’s a funny one to examine. Me, personally, I prefer nothing on the soundtrack bar the shrieking of the wind, the shouting of the climbers, ice being skewered by crampons and the sound of cams biting rock. It’s all there on the screen, you don’t need any musical punctuation. I’m not saying either score is bad; both Chaz Jankel (he was in The Blockheads) and Hans Zimmer (he was in The Buggles!) come up with some decent tunes. As big a fan of Zimmer as I am, I’d have to say Jankel’s music fits better. It’s quieter, there’s less of it, he kind of riffs on Pink Floyd, principally Shine On You Crazy Diamond – it’s rather good. Zimmer goes bigger, a lot of crescendos. Maybe a couple of the more triumphal scenes, I think, require a loud statement. Jankel isn’t all that keen and when he finally pulls one out (in a manner of speaking) to finish the movie he sounds almost reluctant to do so. Nice lyrical guitar on both scores though.

"Top of the world, ma!"

Conclusion: Good one for Mike, but K2 really only begins to rock on Harold & Taylor’s two-man slog and subsequent descent, all the other theatrical bollocks just slows down the momentum. For sure though, K2 is no Vertical Limit…

Oh, yeh, how’s this for a coincidence… Taylor’s reading a copy of Sun Tzu’s The Art Of War. How mad is that? So, like the film The Art Of War, Bly spouting about sacrificing an agent in the field, Taylor’s applying it to mountain climbing here.

 

Trailer: http://tinyurl.com/6ej3cl6

Movie link (‘Jankel’ version): http://tinyurl.com/6abgm8o

 

Cheers, folk

ThereWolf, July 2011