The Wall – Climb For Gold is the perfect documentary for climbing enthusiasts interested in the mindset of Olympians…
…or so I would think that is their target audience.
The 90-minute film follows 4 Olympic hopefuls in Women’s Sport Climbing : Brooke Raboutou of USA, Miho Nonaka of Japan, Shauna Coxsey of Great Britain and Janja Garnbret of Slovenia.
Personally, I have watched the Olympics from qualifications to the finals so I already knew who was going to take home the Gold Medal.
So how is this climbing documentary going to offer more than what we already know of the results?
Truth be told, climbing documentaries are starting to gain mainstream appreciation. From Alex Honnold’s free solo adventures to Tommy Caldwell’s “The Dawn Wall”, these climbers have become celebrities in their own country, being invited for multiple interviews and raking in 100,000s to millions of views on Youtube.
Windfall Films, the producer of this film “The Wall – Climb For Gold”, is no stranger to filming award-winning documentaries. Hence, this film will be nothing short of A-class cinematics.
So is it a Yay or a Nay? Let’s do a recap on what’s the story about:
The Story – “It’s Just You And The Wall”
The movie opens with all four of the main characters on the outdoor rocks. All had the same thought about their mentality when it comes to climbing. To them, it is just their mind and the wall that determines how far they can go in their performance.
The film follows a timeline format, starting with the World Championship Qualifiers in 2019 in Hachioji, Japan. The arena is filled with tension as this is one of the only events that will determine the participant’s eligibility to qualify for the Olympics. All participants are put to the test of combined events of speed, lead and bouldering in the sport’s first ever debut in the Olympics.
For context, speed climbing is often regarded as a different discipline from lead and bouldering. You will witness many speed climbers only focus on speed alone and not compete in lead and bouldering, and vice versa. This is why 2022 Olympic’s format was very interesting to watch because most of these climbers had to train a discipline that they are unfamiliar with.
We also get a glimpse of the upbringing these climbers had. With the exception of Brooke Raboutou who hails from a family of world-class climbers, the rest had started climbing seriously on their own. It is no denying that they are all talented in the sport, being gifted with strength and flexibility as well as the determination to be on top.
Qualifying For The Olympics
The film shows clips of the climbers’ performance as well as the audience reaction. Janja makes a slip during speed climbing but manages to recover her podium position for lead and bouldering to qualify for a placing. Shauna did significantly well on speed and and bouldering but fell off early on the lead. She still qualified for the Olympics.
Akiyo Noguchi became Japan’s top representative, winning silver in the combined events. However, because Japan gets two placements as the Olympic host country, Miho Nonaka was given a place.
Then came Brooke Raboutou. Only the top 8 from the combined events can qualify for the Olympics and she was in 9th place. However, the top 8 had 4 Japanese climbers in which only 2 can join the Olympics. The USA climbing team waited with bated breath to know if Brooke qualifies. Natalia Grossman has a small cameo being the supportive best friend for Brooke.
Brooke does qualify and she is all smiles again. Everyone is in high spirits as they head back to prepare for the Olympics.
However, the most character development I saw through the film was Shauna and Janja. Shauna has had some major injuries throughout her climbing career and she decided to go for a knee surgery months before the scheduled Olympics. Many claim that it would take some time for her knee to achieve optimal performance and may not heal in time for the Olympics.
Janja’s focus seem to wane in some of the 2019 Bouldering World Cup and Lead World Cup events after the World Championship. She was slipping off holds early in the climb and more devastatingly, in front of a home crowd. When everyone thought she was super human, on that day, her performance was not what fans would have known her for.
Then the pandemic hit and sent everyone into a frenzy.
No one knew how long they would be in lockdown for and whether the Olympics would be postponed. It was a setback that no one is prepared for.
More surgeries. With no gym, no training, and no motivation. Some contemplated if they should carry forward with the Olympics.
The Olympics Day Has Arrived
The Olympics finally arrived in 2021 and we are brought forward to this timeline. Tensions are high again.
For Shauna, it will be her last game before she retires from competition climbing. Her injuries have put her in a difficult spot, but she achieved a commendable 10th place in the Olympics. There was however, disappointment and sadness when panning to her father, who was sitting at home watching the live telecast of the results.
Brooke, Miho and Janja were now in the Olympic finals. Brooke had many near-tops in the bouldering sections, often falling off before she could match the hold long enough. She was starting to look worried.
Lead was the last discipline and the climbers are exhausted, having only one hour breaks in between each event. Brooke goes first. As she inches up, she slips in the middle of the route, costing a podium finish.
Janja climbed and got around the last few holds but could not hold on for long and slipped. Was it enough for the gold? The moment of truth came as Seo Chae-Hyun, Korea’s best lead climber stepped forward. She had topped lead routes previously and might put Janja’s position in danger.
Atlas, Seo did not get pass Janja’s last hold and Janja took home the gold. Miho and Akiyo followed as runner-ups. The Japanese climbers were happy that they could make their home country proud.
Janja received a hero’s welcome at the arrival gates of the Slovenian airport. And as promised in the earlier segment, she allocated a special section for her Olympic medal.
Verdict:
For me, it’s a yay!
“The Wall – Climb For Gold” was paced pretty well where none of the dialogue gets dragged longer than it should. Most of the dialogue were insights into their training regime and some of their non-climbing lives. I felt bad for Shauna because there was no way she could go back to her glory days with the amount of surgeries she had done.
The only thing I wished they showed more was Miho Nonaka. Miho is the only non-English speaking climber in the whole film (Janja still spoke some English), but there was not much screen time about her life other than her life as a rebel child. She also started climbing rather late at 9 years old compared to the other climbers.
The cinematic effect does go well with this documentary and I can’t help but root all the climbers knowing that they had sacrificed so much to fight for the one placing in the Olympics. We can only hope for them to compete again in the 2024 Olympics, vying for the top spot in climbing once more.
You can watch “The Wall – Climb For Gold” on Apple TV.
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