The Wildest Dream

Packing four cases of Champagne and 70 tins of foie gras and sporting the latest gabardine jackets, British climber George Mallory’s 1924 expedition set out to conquer Everest. In 1999, American mountaineer Conrad Anker found Mallory’s body still preserved in the icy ‘death zone’ close to the summit – could Mallory have been the first man on top of the world’s highest peak? Bridging the years, this doc follows Anker and his team back to the mountain to assess the possibility, while archive footage and thespian voiceovers piece together the Englishman’s biographical details. It was made for National Geographic and it shows – meat-and-potatoes direction, obvious music – but those limitations aside, it is a fascinating story, and the HD footage from the slopes proves awe-inspiring. The landscapes look staggering on the big screen, but one suspects this is destined to be a demo disc in TV showrooms.