FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1997 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ** 1/2
FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN is a movie with a broad appeal. Viewers interested in skiing or in World War II will certainly find this documentary fascinating, but it speaks to a much wider audience. It is a humorous, touching and historically revealing picture. The best documentaries take you to places and events you cannot get to on your own. FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN is a new documentary now in theatrical release about a group of fun loving and courageous men of whom I'll bet you've never heard.
As the storm clouds were brewing over Europe in the late 1930s, the US saw the need for an elite group of soldiers who could fight on the snow capped mountains where the battles might rage. They sent out a call for the best skiers and mountain climbers, who came from all over the globe to join the 10th Mountain Division. The narrator (Steve Kanaly) said the goal of the division was "to turn mountain men into mountain soldiers."
The film starts with the skiers showing off their stuff in vintage clips from before the war. The weakness of the film is that too many of these are the classic funny falls that ski buffs might like, but of which others will quickly tire. Luckily the film is much more than this. The old clips have aged surprisingly well and some of the shots are spectacularly beautiful. Most are in the oversaturated color of that era's film stock, but some of the clips are in black and white. I expected most to be in black and white, which turned out not to be the case.
When the men joined, they expected action, but what they got were heavy doses of training. One exercise that lasted 6 weeks in 30-below-zero weather was so strenuous that in one day alone 100 men were hospitalized with frostbite.
Since these men liked the harsh mountain conditions, they threw themselves into their work with gusto. They divided their time between inventing ways for troops to cope in cold environments and training regular troops for mountain fighting.
The 10th Mountain was a fun loving group who ignored military hierarchies. They were a bunch of mountain men on the greatest lark of their lives. They loved to sing songs with crazy lyrics. The film shows them clowning around as well as inventing implements for soldiers in mountain terrain.
Directors Beth and George Gage interviewed about two dozen of the men. These interviews are interlaced with the old footage. The balance between interviews and old films is about right.
In late 1944 after years of training and just when the men were despairing that they would never get to fight, the call came to move out. First they went from their Rocky Mountain home in Colorado to a hot and dusty town in Texas. This made no sense to the men, but the army was known to make decisions which made little sense to the grunts. Soon, however, their moment came, and they were called upon to save the war in Northern Italy.
The Germans had established a position high atop the Italian mountains. Since our soldiers had not been able to dislodge them, the Germans had stopped the advance of our troops in the region. When the 10th Mountain Men arrived, they studied the topography of the region, looking for a weak spot. Finally, they decided the only way was to scale Riva Ridge at night. This meant they would have to climb 2,000 feet of shaley rock in the darkness.
When they got to the top, they engaged in a battle where many men from both sides were slaughtered. The interviews with the veterans are poignant. Each had a best friend who was killed. Equally touching are the scenes of the captured German soldiers, since by then their recruits were from their junior high and high schools.
The 10th Mountain saw little war service. Not too long after they took the ridge, the war in Italy was over. "We came in late," said one of the mountain soldiers. "We fought like hell. We did our job, and we went home. That's the way a war should be fought."
At the end, the veterans came home and got rich forming the ski industry in the United States. As one pointed out, in 1943 Aspen had only two buildings. One of the veterans, Bill Bowerman, went on to coach track star Steve Prefontaine (see the recent movie PREFONTAINE as well as the about to be released PRE) and to co-found Nike.
Of the film's three parts -- training, war, and ski industry -- only the first two are interesting. The last part of the film drags, but the whole movie is so short that this is not a significant problem.
The end of the movie is good as the septuagenarians climb Riva Ridge one more time in celebration of the battle's fiftieth anniversary. One of the old soldiers put his current life in perspective. "People ask me if I've retired," he says. "I say yes. I retire every night and then I get up at 5:30 or 6:00 in the morning."
FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN runs 1:12. It is not rated but would be PG-13 for the wartime scenes. The film would be fine for kids say nine and up. I recommend this enlightening picture and give it ** 1/2.
**** = A must see film. *** = Excellent show. Look for it. ** = Average movie. Kind of enjoyable. * = Poor show. Don't waste your money. 0 = Totally and painfully unbearable picture.
REVIEW WRITTEN ON: January 24, 1997
Opinions expressed are mine and not meant to reflect my employer's.
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