Just got back from the film. Kevin McDonald, the director, has done a helluva job in maintaining interest given that narrative drive is powered by unanswered questions and the key question here - did he survive? - is answered as soon as Joe appears in that dramatic close up within the first few minutes.
I assume McDonald is betting on the fact that almost all viewers already know the outcome - a tribute to Simpson's own story-telling powers and the longevity of the tale itself.
More wonder is added to the experience by the plain way Simpson relates it to camera -there are large sections where he doesn't even mention the leg, as though he's forgotten it's horrendously mangled. I don't know the man but this seems no disingenuous self effacement, simply his character coming through. And the absolute essence of that character, for me, is not courage but pig-headedness, stubborness, psychotic inner drive, whatever - an overwhelming compulsion to keep 'doing something', to not accept what Fate had dealt him. I don't how many men Fate could have picked on, 10,000? A million? And he'd have got it right every time like shooting fish in a barrel - not one would have got off that mountain. But fate met his match first time here when he picked on Joe Simpson. If you need inspiration (and who doesn't?) and a sense of wonder at what a human being can achieve, see this film.
