Retro mountain film, set evocatively in the place and time of the bergfilme heyday, Germany in the Thirties: two uncommitted soldiers in Hitler’s army, but committed mountaineers, join the pre-Olympics push to conquer “the last problem of the Alps,” the north face of the Eiger, alias “the Wall of Death.” Though the fact-based events don’t escape the sameness of mountain-climbing movies, they are smoothly laid out in palm-dampening detail, and torturously stretched to an operatic agony. With Benno Fürmann, Florian Lukas, Johanna Wokalek, and Ulrich Tukur; directed by Philipp Stölzl. (2009) — Duncan Shepherd
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