Beyond the Edge is a 2013 documentary film that recounts the first successful summiting expedition of Everest in 1953. What makes this film stand out is that there is no single voiceover that drives the film but it is narrated in sound clips from interviews given by Sir Edmund Hillary, the expedition leader Colonel John Hunt, as well as Hillary’s son, the Tenzing Norgay’s son, narrators portraying Hillary and Hunt, and even from more modern mountaineers looking back on the history of Mountaineering. As the name of the film suggests, the atmosphere of the film is that of which is trying to press on the audience the concept of extremity, and uses reenactments as a means to do this.

At the beginning, there are dramatic shots of a windswept Everest and an awed portrayal of Edmund Hillary looking up upon it. Also the beginning and interwoven throughout the film are newsreel shots from the original expedition. The first newsreel shot shows the Everest team arriving in Kathmandu, from there reenactments of the expedition and the life of Hillary. Further there is portrayal and narration of the trek to Everest. The preparation process is also recounted; including the gathering of supplies, recounting the members of the expedition, and other logistical details.

The film focuses mostly on Hillary. He is portrayed as an underdog, he unlike the other expedition members in an outlier. The other members of the expedition are portrayed as being British gentleman, while Hillary comes from a much different world both figuratively and literally; being a beekeeper from New Zealand and educated in a public school. The focal point of the film really becomes clear in the first fifteen minutes of the film, it glorifies Hillary, and goes so far as to state that he alone was the person capable of summiting Everest. This was rationalized because he was the only person from New Zealand. The documentary claims that the mountains of New Zealand, far apart from that of Europe and the rest of the world, most closely resemble the Himalaya and thus have prepared Hillary above other climbers for the challenge of summiting. Tenzing Norgay is not completely ignored in the film, he is mentioned and portrayed all throughout the film, but rather as an afterthought then an equal rope mate to Hillary. It is a stretch to say that only a New Zealander could have accomplished this, many people since have summited Everest without ever having climbed in New Zealand. However, this is a film produced out of New Zealand and the first ascent is no doubt a matter of great national pride there.

The Nationalistic drive behind the expedition is not limited solely to New Zealand. It recounts that the British Empire as a whole did not just want to make the summit first but needed to. This was the decline of the once vast empire, still hurting badly and recovering from World War II and there was nothing that could possibly elevate national moral or destroy it completely then the success or failure of summiting Mount Everest. It also highlighted the necessity of needing to succeed then in 1953. Failing for the ninth time was not an option, the year before a Swiss team had nearly succeeded in summiting, and there were already other foreign expeditions that were planning to swoop in the next year. If the British expedition failed that year all of the effort of 1953’s expedition and that of the past ones would be in vain, the glory would fall to others. Britain needed this in the win column.

The film also recounts the mentality and method of climbing the mountain. Much like the British expeditions of the 1920s were filled with post World War I method of laying siege to the mountain and military like organization; the 1953 expedition was colored by World War II. The siege method was very much still in employ and also Colonel John Hunt was viewed much in the same way as he was as a British officer – his word was an order to be fallowed out. It was Hunt’s decision of who would climb the mountain, and who would be on the summit teams. There is a slight undertone of criticism towards this suggesting that maybe at the heart of it there should have been a less authoritarian approach as well as a more minimalist approach.

There are tangents in the film that go onto to explain past expeditions to the mountain as well as that of the progression of mountaineering equipment. It covers everything so that anyone who has no understanding of mountaineering may understand the magnitude of this expedition, its differences and the significance of its success, and why there had been no successes before.

It overviews the dangers of the icefall, the effects of being in high altitudes on the body, as well as the pure tedium and monotony of the idle hours spent in camp.

Quite a bit of attention is paid to the development and advancement of bottled oxygen and its part in who was to be on the two summit teams. The film presents that the first summit team was selected largely due to the fact that they were trying for the first time a closed-valve bottled oxygen system. The problem with the system was that the only person who could really work it was its creator Tom Bourdillom thus he was automatically picked for the first summit team, along with Charles Evans. The choosing of Hillary for the second team again was presented in a way that showed Hillary as an underdog and the addition of Tenzing as an afterthought. It was presented that Tenzing was only selected because he only agreed to work on the team if he had a chance to summit Everest.

In spite of its over glorification of Hillary the film is a decent documentary about the first ascent of Everest. While there were a couple of facts in the film that were not necessarily true, or at least open to speculation (such as it was claimed that Hillary had to help Tenzing walk up to the summit and that Tenzing was incapable of walking at that point under his own power) it largely presented the ascent in a light that anyone regardless of knowledge of mountaineering can appreciate the magnitude of this ascent. It does seem to be a little overdramatic at times, with epic music playing all throughout in the background and the dramatic reenactments, but then again it is a film and it does have to attract a wider audience.