Whenever I think of the astonishing Himalayan mountain climbers known as Sherpas, I’m reminded of the famous quote about how Fred Astaire was a great dancer, but Ginger Rogers did everything he did backwards and in high heels. In much the same way, the often-unsung Sherpas have spent decades hauling gear up and down Mount Everest and other (literally) breathtaking peaks as wealthy adventurers from around the world attempt to check the world’s highest summit off their bucket lists.
It’s only relatively recently that Tenzing Norgay has been fully celebrated for being one of the first two people to summit Everest, alongside New Zealander Edmund Hillary. Tenzing gives the less-heralded climber the full hero treatment in this appealing and often thrilling portrayal of a man with a movie-star smile who demanded that his skill and experience earn him a place as a full and equal member of a mostly British climbing expedition.
We meet Tenzing (Genden Phuntsok) in 1953 as a seasoned climber being recruited to join the support team for yet another expedition of foreigners, this time led by John Hunt (Willem Dafoe). Known for previously getting closer to the summit than almost anyone else, Tenzing knows his value. But he also fully understands the danger. As a child in the 1920s, his eyes were opened to the glamour of climbing by a chance encounter with George Mallory, a man whose own attempt at Everest led to his death. Having lost his beloved wife, Tenzing knows that every time he leaves home to attempt the climb one more time, there’s always a chance he won’t return to his children.
Tenzing fleshes out the man through flashbacks to formative moments in his life, from his childhood separation from his family when they left him to seek work, to his youthful romance with the local girl who would become his wife, to his quest to become accepted by the Sherpa climbing community, despite being shunned for his different ethnicity.
I must say that Tenzin Dalha, as the young adult version of Tenzing, is absolutely charming. His scenes with Thinley Lhamo, who plays Tenzing’s childhood sweetheart and eventual wife Dawa, bring a delightful exuberance to the film. For a story about climbing Everest, I was surprised to find myself most emotionally engaged in the scenes where young, poor Tenzing woos Dawa with big dreams, stumbles his way into his first climbing gig with gumption and creativity, and leans on Dawa as his emotional rock as they build a life and family together.
Jumping back to the 1953 expedition, we see that Tenzing’s openness, enthusiasm, and skill have made him a respected, in-demand support climber with more experience and smarts than many of the foreigners he encounters.
As the two non-Brits on Hunt’s team, Tenzing and fellow outsider, the Kiwi Edmund Hillary (Tom Hiddleston), develop a bond built on mutual respect during the climb. They seem the obvious pair to make the first summit attempt, but politics come into play. It is, after all, a British expedition, so a British duo naturally gets the first shot. Yet, refreshingly, no one on the expedition team is portrayed as an alpha asshole. When the first pair fails, John Hunt recognizes that Tenzing and Hillary have the best chance of success. Despite being dangerously late in the climbing season, he gives them the go-ahead for one final push toward the summit.
Genden Phuntsok as Tenzing is outrageously handsome. (Looking up photos of the real Tenzing Norgay, you can’t help but think that his good looks alone could have made him an international celebrity.) Phuntsok brings a quiet confidence and strength to the man: He’s a guy you’d completely trust to be at the other end of your tether. The always-appealing Tom Hiddleston, perhaps like Hillary himself, seems more than happy to share the spotlight with this unknown (to me) actor, letting him shine. As portrayed, neither man is driven by ego, but by a shared respect and awe for Everest. The mountain herself becomes a sort of noble character in the film, commanding reverence rather than conquest.
Shot in Nepal and New Zealand, it’s unsurprising that the cinematography of Tenzing is gorgeous. The film gives us a sense of place and the spirituality of a region that most of us will never get to experience in person. By portraying a successful climbing mission for a change (instead of one of the many, many deadly climbing disaster movies about Everest and other peaks), the film almost captures the magic of the ascent for lowly sea-level dwellers like me. (For me, it just takes one scene of a fall into a crevasse to quickly remind me that mountain climbing has always been a hard NOPE.)
The bigger triumph, though, is finally giving Tenzing Norgay his rightful place in the spotlight, not as someone else’s supporting player, but as a mountaineering legend in his own right.
