Bonington: Mountaineer

U.S. Premiere
The simple title of this film belies the scope of British climber, mountaineer and adventurer Sir Chris Bonington’s life — a life replete with epic triumphs and dire tragedies. A sub-title, The Story of One of the World’s Most Famous Mountaineers, beefs up the skeletal title a little. Which is enough because it mirrors Bonington’s penchant for modesty. Beyond a chronicle of his many impressive achievements in a rarefied world of almost superhuman challenges, this film provides a trenchant sense of Bonington’s eminently human life. In and among all the first ascents and new routes, it is that humanness that may stand out, and stay with you, the most. That and reveries of a bygone adventure era in the ‘60s and ‘70s that somehow had far fewer players than today but just as many characters.