Letter to the editor: 'Free Solo' movie is astonishing

There’s something odd about Alex Honnold’s brain. He’s the subject of “Free Solo,” the best movie thriller you’ll see in years, even more so because it’s real life, not Hollywood. Technically a documentary, “Free Solo” tracks the motivation and physical skills of a man driven to climb the 3,000-foot granite face of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park … with no rope.

No one else has done it. I’m betting no one else will, mainly because of what the movie reveals about Honnold’s MRI scan. Skipping the science, let’s just say Honnold doesn’t experience fear like we do. After seeing the movie and considering the length of time Honnold is fingertips and toeholds away from certain tragedy, try not saying you’ve witnessed the most perfect athletic performance ever.

But “Free Solo” is more than an edge-of-your-seat thriller. The behind-the-scenes look at Honnold’s life is achingly intimate. So are the bonds he has with fellow climbers and photographers who struggle with knowing they may be filming their friend’s death. Add an uncommon love story that gives viewers hope for the emotionally awkward Honnold, and you have a movie far better than anything the praise-me-worship-me Hollywood crowd will soon award themselves for.

Forget op-ed politics for a day. Go see “Free Solo.” If you’ve never been there, enjoy the cinematic visit to astonishing Yosemite. Most of all, feel the breathless excitement of letting a man with no fear take you far beyond your own.

Robert Szypulski

Penn Township, Westmoreland County