--- title: "Touching the Void: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/touching-the-void/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/touching-the-void" critics_score: 80 critics_reviews: 16 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Touching the Void (2003): what the critics said Critics' score 80 from 16 reviews: 15 positive, 0 mixed, 1 negative. The reviews are almost unanimous. Fifteen of sixteen critics are positive, and the praise clusters on the same thing: Kevin Macdonald’s mix of interviews with the real climbers and reconstructions shot on location, which most critics find makes an already known story tense and physically convincing. Several single out the climbing sequences, the camerawork on the mountain and the sound design, and note that the plain, unadorned telling makes the ordeal harder to watch rather than easier. The reservations are mild and scattered. A few critics find the opening slow, and some feel the film shows little interest in what happened after the climb, preferring existential questions to the public argument. The one dissent is The New York Times, which finds the film disappointing, a psychological encounter session rather than the spiritual quest it might have been, never delivering the transcendence it promises. Otherwise the spread is narrow, from warm to admiring, with the American press a little cooler than the British. ## RogerEbert.com — Roger Ebert Fi1m's normalised score 95/100 (inferred from the text). 6 February 2004. The film is an unforgettable, harrowing experience that functions more like a horror movie than most actual horror films, with its account of extreme human endurance and suffering. Ebert singles out the director's brutal directness and simplicity in presenting the story without added suspense or drama. [Read the review](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/touching-the-void-2004) ## Evening Standard — Will Self Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 10 April 2012. The critic praises Kevin Macdonald's dramatised documentary for powerfully capturing the real-life mountaineering ordeal and its Greek-tragedy elements of hubris and survival. He highlights the effective mix of reconstructions and interviews that conveys the story's emotional and physical intensity beyond a standard documentary. [Read the review](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/blood-on-the-rocks-7437263.html) ## Los Angeles Times — Kenneth Turan Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 6 February 2004. The quasi-documentary succeeds in making the impossible seem real through a nervy hybrid approach using both actors and the real climbers. Director Kevin Macdonald's veteran documentary skills help recreate the legendary Andes climb in a way that feels authentic and compelling. [Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-feb-06-et-touch6-story.html) ## Screen Daily Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 12 September 2003. Festival review. An extraordinary survival story becomes an exceptional documentary that is as dramatic as fiction but with greater emotional charge. Macdonald focuses tightly on the mountain events with authentic, nailbiting reconstructions filmed on location that convey vivid desperation and claustrophobia. [Read the review](https://www.screendaily.com/touching-the-void/4015007.article) ## The Guardian — Philip French Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 14 December 2003. The critic praises the film's understated approach to the mountaineering survival story, highlighting its physicality and beauty in depicting the climbers' ordeal. It singles out the combination of reconstruction and interviews for creating a visceral, existential experience. [Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2003/dec/14/philipfrench) ## The Times Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 11 December 2003. The critic calls the film an utterly gripping piece of documentary filmmaking that ranks among the most harrowing reconstructions of survival ever made. They single out the mix of real interviews and dramatic reconstructions as a stunning creative achievement that captures the climbers' ordeal with intense power. [Read the review](https://www.thetimes.com/travel/inspiration/ski-holiday/touching-the-void-78ddg9j9xf0) ## Variety — Todd McCarthy Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 4 September 2003. Festival review. Oscar-winning documentarian Kevin Macdonald adroitly blends first-person accounts with tense, you-are-there reenactments of the 1985 Andes ascent. The potent result captures the awesome and harrowing aspects of physical ambition and survival through strong camerawork, editing, and music. [Read the review](https://variety.com/2003/film/awards/touching-the-void-2-1200539593/) ## Sight and Sound — Richard Falcon Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). Macdonald's gripping documentary recreates the climbers' extraordinary survival tale with dramatic reconstructions and interviews, proving as powerful as his earlier work. The film excels through its focused, clutter-free style and authentic spectacle that captures the immediacy of the near-incredible story. [Read the review](http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/review/1080) ## Empire — Ed Halliwell Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). The docudrama blends survivor interviews with reconstructions to explore ethics, psychology and human endurance on the mountain. It builds from a slow start into a gripping account of physical and mental disintegration. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/touching-void-review/) ## Slant Magazine — Ed Gonzalez Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 8 January 2004. Macdonald intercuts interviews with impressive simulations that preserve documentary illusion, and his location photography of the mountain is outstanding. The director seems uninterested in the public fallout of the events, focusing instead on existentialism. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/touching-the-void/) ## The AV Club — Scott Tobias Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 20 January 2004. Macdonald's documentary skillfully recreates the climbers' near-constant brush with death through ingenuity and luck. The film's appeal lies in its fundamental grip as one of those stories that catches the breath, no matter how often told. [Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/touching-the-void-1798199252) ## The New Yorker — Anthony Lane Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 12 January 2004. The film grippingly recounts the climbers' harrowing ordeal with impressive on-location camerawork and suspense despite the known outcome. It explores survival, moral choices, and the void in a sober, matter-of-fact style that contrasts with the extremity of the events. [Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2004/01/19/hanging-on-4) ## Time Out — WH Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 10 September 2012. Macdonald's absorbing adaptation of the bestseller recounts the desperate Andean climb and survival, fascinating climbing enthusiasts while offering broader meditations on human endeavour and facing death. Visually and aurally striking, it resembles a nature documentary at times with the mountain as antagonist. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/touching-the-void) ## The New York Times — Dave Kehr Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 23 January 2004. The critic calls the semidocumentary disappointing for treating the climb less as a spiritual quest than a psychological encounter session. It reconstructs the 1985 Andes expedition with staged sequences but fails to deliver on notions of purification and transcendence. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/23/movies/film-review-on-a-mountain-deciding-when-you-have-to-let-your-partner-go.html) ## Collider — Rhianna Malas Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 13 October 2024. The critic calls it the prime example of survival documentaries and the survival genre overall. They single out the organic true-story structure, with its clear A/B plot of separation and desperate struggle, and the effective use of reenactments with strong sound design and close-ups to convey the cold, tension, and physical deterioration. [Read the review](https://collider.com/touching-the-void-documentary-survival-thriller/) ## Eye for Film — Angus Wolfe Murray Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 11 December 2003. The film is a spectacular achievement that captures an incredible true story of courage and determination through a mix of talking-head interviews and dramatized reconstruction. The reviewer singles out the authenticity and quality of the climbing sequences as among the best and most convincing ever filmed. [Read the review](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/touching-the-void-film-review-by-angus-wolfe-murray) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/touching-the-void.md