I'm wondering if part of it is contextual. I mean, you're talking about a short sequence in a film aimed at an action-movie audience, 99% of whom don't know anything about climbing (and so are very limited in their ability to judge what's difficult or dangerous) and who don't want to have the plot stopped for five minutes while it's explained to them. And who expect the protagonist to have superhero physical powers anyway.
They don't understand what the ropes do and whether or not harnesses spontaneously fall apart like in Cliffhanger, so roped climbing is too confusing. But huge leaps and swinging about on big holds looks impressive.
(At the bouldering wall, I regularly see teenage n00bs who point at the slab and explain confidently to their friends, "This is the easy wall." Me doing a V4 on the slab: not impressive. Me doing a V1 on the roof: super-impressive OMG SPIDERWOMAN.)
I've seen incredibly exciting climbing films, and ones that work for non-climbers too (I have inflicted enough of them on friends and family to test this). But they do tend to invest some film time in communicating to the audience why something is difficult or dangerous or skillful or important. Which you can't do if it's your credits sequence.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2012-01-20 04:52 pm (UTC)They don't understand what the ropes do and whether or not harnesses spontaneously fall apart like in Cliffhanger, so roped climbing is too confusing. But huge leaps and swinging about on big holds looks impressive.
(At the bouldering wall, I regularly see teenage n00bs who point at the slab and explain confidently to their friends, "This is the easy wall." Me doing a V4 on the slab: not impressive. Me doing a V1 on the roof: super-impressive OMG SPIDERWOMAN.)
I've seen incredibly exciting climbing films, and ones that work for non-climbers too (I have inflicted enough of them on friends and family to test this). But they do tend to invest some film time in communicating to the audience why something is difficult or dangerous or skillful or important. Which you can't do if it's your credits sequence.