A Book and a Movie

The Revenant and Into Thin Air (a written real account of one of the deadliest summits of Mount Everest), are a must-watch and a must-read, for the duo will make its viewers and readers appreciate the creature comforts that most of us inhabit, and have come to take for granted.

In a classic case of the grass being greener on the other side, the mere mention of mountains, snow, water bodies, forests, and a strong breeze is certain to evoke longing and smiles in those uninitiated to the book and the movie. Not so much after they’ve read the book and watched the movie, for both carry the disturbing knack of making their viewers and readers cower in terror of mother nature itself. Mountains turn into oxygen-thin death traps, forests into homes of killer bears, and the snow and breeze together forever remind one of flying boulders.

Both have mastered the one trait that makes any movie or book great - of compelling the viewer and the reader to not watch or read, but to experience, sometimes so much so that it seems like a 3D-induced reality. It’s hard to not buck Leonardo up while he froths at the mouth during his teeth-clenching attempt to extricate himself from his grave, or to not implore one of the characters in the book to turn back as he drags himself to the edge of a 3000-feet vertical fall in his cold-induced delirium.

Despite the horrors that both inflict on the unprepared viewers and readers, their beauty lies in giving them a hard choice between craving the horrors that lie ahead, and revisiting those they left behind. In that, they turn even the most sadistic viewers and readers masochistic.

All memorable movies and books leave us with something. These two leave us with an appreciation for those little, easily ignored and derided things in life: walking to the bathroom barefoot without having to worry about falling off a cliff, venturing out of home without the fear of a grizzly bear drilling a canine-long hole in the neck, walking ten steps without pausing to catch breath, breathing without an oxygen mask, being absolutely certain about the existence of what the eyes see, and not having to choose between one of the two friends' lives. Most importantly, they leave us with a near-death-experience while shielding us from having to undergo one firsthand - perhaps a near-NDE.