7 - Heroes and Quests

Heroes and Quests
by Marc-Olivier, Sébastien & Patrick

These blogs are going to discuss the different aspects of being a hero. In most cases a hero is a regular person who performs an extraordinary act. There are three phases of being a hero. They are separation, initiation and return. The first blog will discuss the film Touching The Void Directed by Kevin Macdonald. The second blog is about the documentary Man on A Wire Directed by James Marsh. Both of these films portrayed a hero. The final blog is about reflection and analysis. We hope you enjoy reading these blogs.

1-Touching the Void

Touching the Void is a movie directed by Kevin MacDonald and produced by John Smithson in 2003. This United-Kingdom product of 106 minutes carries us in Joe Simpson and Simon Yates attempt to climb the Siula Grande in Peru.

 In 1985, the two adventurers decided that they would climb this enormous mountain of about 6 344 meters of height. They first had to travel to Peru and after they had to walk miles and miles to reach a good spot to install their camp. Nobody had ever reached the top of the mountain. There was no rescue and absolutely no margin for error. They had some good experience in climbing. They finally started to climb the mountain. Everything went well in their climbing before reaching a great amount of snow at the top part of the mountain. They finally achieved to reach the top after some minor obstacles like the wind and darkness.

They had planned to descend via the north side of the mountain but that ended up as a bad decision. The descent was very difficult and they faced many obstacles. It was dangerous and steep. There were many crevasses that made their path complicated. They didn’t know what they would hit further and they ran out of gas. They knew they couldn’t survive a long time without gas so they accelerate their descent. Their bad luck wasn’t over. Joe slipped and had a bad landing that broke his right leg. They found a very clever way to continue moving on. They tied two ropes together and descent Joe slowly till the end of the rope. Then, Simon was reaching Joe and they kept doing that over and over. Suddenly, Simon didn’t have the signal of Joe to untie the ropes so that he could cross the tie through his equipment and continue the descent. He waited an hour and a half without any news from Joe. Joe couldn’t give the signal because he was hanging in the air over a crevasse. About to fall and tired, Simon decided to cut the rope. Joe fell in the bottom of the crevasse. Simon descended and saw the rope in the crevasse but he decided to move on without Joe that he believed dead. He finally reached the camp. Joe had survived and was stuck in the crevasse. He decided to go the bottom of it where might be an exit. It was a successful decision. For the rest of the descent, Joe crawled between the crevasses and he was completely frozen, he was dehydrated and he was starting to become crazy but he never gave up. For three days, Joe crawled and tried to reach the base camp. He finally reached it and screamed till Simon heard him and the impossible  happened they, both survived this miraculous adventure.

This movie is an alternation between a fictive representation of the events and an interview made with the two survivors and the one that stayed at the camp. We follow what happened throughout the movie with the comments of the guys saying what they felt and what they thought.

This week topic is Hero and Quests. Heroes are regular people like you and I, placed in extraordinary situations. Simon and Joe were ordinary people but were considered as heroes after they had survived to their adventure in Peru. Some people don’t recognize the hero or disdain him and that is what happened with Simon when people criticized him because he cut the rope. All heroes technically follow the same pattern. They all go through a circle explaining that they all live a separation (from their regular world) before living their adventure (initiation) and then come back to their regular world with a certain experience. It’s exactly what happened to Joe and Simon. They leaved their own little world for Peru. They walked miles and miles to reach their starting point (separation). They lived their adventure that became almost a disaster and they both survived (initiation). They came back to regular life and even continue climbing. They have growth from this.

2-Man on wire

The documentary film Man on a Wire is about a tightrope walker named Philippe Petit. He was raised in France with strict parents; therefore, he liked to push the rules to the limit. At seventeen he built a tightrope in the back garden. As he became better and better, he built higher and longer tightropes. He, also, started juggling and performing stunts while on the tightrope.  His tightropes looked exactly like the professional kind you’ll see at a circus.

Because he wanted to push the limit, he wanted to tightrope across places people would never imagine. The first place he tried to do this was at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, June 1971. It was a very successful event. Many pictures were taken and people were amazed. The next time he tried a big event was in 1973 near the Sydney Opera House in Australia. His friends and he rigged the tightrope wire at night. He walked and performed in the morning hours for everyone to see. These events were illegal and he was arrested. 

The main focus of this documentary is about how Philippe and a group of his close friends wanted to rig a tightrope across the two towers of the World Trade Center. Philippe would, again, perform early in the morning. He visualized this idea for many years before the twin towers were finished being built. This documentary tells a detailed story of Philippe and his friends quest to achieve the impossible event of Philippe tightrope walking a quarter of a mile above the ground.

This film was made by The British Broadcasting Corporation, with Nick Fraser as Executive Producer, and Discovery Films, with Andrea Meditch as Executive Producer. The British Broadcasting Corporation or the BBC is similar to Canada’s CBC or the United States PBS. All of these communication stations are partially funded with government money. Discovery Films is an independent film company which wins awards. Man on a Wire was directed by James Marsh, Produced by Simon Chinn and Executive Producer was Jonathan Hewes. This film was based on a book called To Reach the Clouds by Philippe Petit.

Philippe stopped at nothing to succeed at his dreams. No matter what he needed to complete this quest; almost as if it was an obsession. As a young person he did not want to conquer the universe he wanted, as a poet, to conquer beautiful stages. He believed that walking on a tightrope was framed with death. During the documentary, just before stepping on the wire he stated “Probably the end of my life. I could not resist it and I did not want to.”

The main concept we covered in class was that heroes are regular people who achieve incredible goals. Philippe spent many years and many trips back and forth from France to New York City to plan this performance. Again, it fits the pattern of heroes because he had a separation from his world to go to New-York, he lived his moment on the wire and it changed him, but he still believes it was the right thing to do.  He believed “If I die, what a beautiful death” it was an exercise of his passion. He was an amazing athlete and performer who wanted to have a stage like never seen before. His talent was not only as a tightrope walker but as a visionary. He could see the impossible and convince other people to help him achieve it. This is the characteristic of a true artist and hero.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zegboN3w1Dw (To watch! What is a hero?)

3- Personal reflection

Touching the Void and Man on Wire are quite emotionally strong movies. They document events that seem almost impossible that they could have occurred. But they are very real. In order to succeed at their established goal, both Joe Simpson and Phillippe Petit, the heroes of these stories, had to go through their own unique and difficult journey. The obstacles that they must overcome are terrifying and put their skills and determination to the test. 

In both documentaries, a dream to conquer the unknown and undiscovered pushes the hero to leave on his quest. In Man on Wire, Phillippe Petit’s dream almost seems like an obsession. He already dreams up his “Coup” before the Twin Towers are even built. All that he does, he does with his goal in mind. This shows that the most important thing to do is to dream about what you want, and then to strive to achieve these dreams, because once you accomplish them, it will bring such joy and exhilaration that it will change your life forever. Petit says, “I cannot just calmly recall the adventure”, “I have to relive it truly”, showing just how significant and overwhelming his experience was. His life was forever different after having crossed the tight rope between the two tallest buildings in the world (at that time), another step had begun.

 This is similar, but not completely the same in Touching the Void. Joe Simpson achieves his initial goal of getting to the peak of the Siula Grande, and feels great accomplishment, but that is not where his real journey begins. Only once he injures himself badly during the descent down the treacherous mountain, and then falls into the perilous crevasse, does his adventure truly start. The whole religious allegory in the crevasse, which could be referred to as the Valley of the Shadow of Death, makes us wonder about religious belief, life and death. Who would we turn to in our time of despair? What would we think about? Joe turns out to be a complete atheist, and feels abandoned and alone. He gives up on life, and the only thing that drives him forward towards getting off the mountain is the thought of not wanting to die alone, but with someone at his side. This demonstrates that people really need one another, they are not meant to be left alone, mostly during such difficult times. The fact that Joe makes it to almost the base of the mountain is just amazing and awe-inspiring. Human determination should not be underestimated. It is what made Joe and Phillipe’s goal and dreams possible. One must first dream, and then do everything in order to make it possible. Patience is often necessary, as some things may take a lot of time to do.

Following your dreams and passions will bring feelings of great joy and accomplishment in your life. Going away from our safe, ordinary, every-day lives and going somewhere or doing something that requires you to take risks and live in the moment is how these heroes think is the best way to feel alive.

To be a hero requires determination, perseverance and hard work. It can also entail a bit of luck and a strong belief in achieving the goal. Joe Simpson in the film “Touching the Void” had such a strong desire to live. He walked down a mountain with a broken leg. In the documentary “Man on A Wire” Philippe Petit showed how dreams can become a reality. He performed an amazing feat. Both of these men are heroes in their own right. No one has ever done a task as extraordinary as they have.