The 100 Best Mountain Films
by victor-335 | created - 03 May 2012 | updated - 22 Sep 2013 | PublicA personal selection about mountain films, with climbers, hikers, skiers and professional alpinism from the silent movies to present.
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1. Der Berg ruft! (1938)
95 min | Drama
The Italian mountaineer Carel wants to be the first man to stand on the top of the Matterhorn. Since the climb is very difficult, he agrees to try it together with the British mountaineer ... See full summary »
Director: Luis Trenker | Stars: Luis Trenker, Herbert Dirmoser, Heidemarie Hatheyer, Peter Elsholtz
Votes: 262
2. Les étoiles de midi (1959)
78 min | Documentary, Adventure, Drama
A group of mountaineers embark on high mountain climbing and photographing. In the evening, at the refuge, they also recount some of their most perilous climbing adventures.
Directors: Jacques Ertaud, Marcel Ichac | Stars: Roger Blin, Pierre Danny, Pierre Rousseau, Lionel Terray
Votes: 24
3. Mort d'un guide (1975 TV Movie)
101 min | Drama
Veteran Chamonix mountain guide Michel Servoz (Pierre Rousseau) and the young aspiring guide Patrick Falavier (Jeane-Pierre Marry) attempt to climb the west face of the Dru in the ... See full synopsis »
Director: Jacques Ertaud | Stars: Pierre Rousseau, Georges Claisse, Victor Lanoux, Jean-Pierre Mary
Votes: 65
4. The Challenge (1938)
Approved | 76 min | Adventure, History, Romance
Dramatization of the first climbing of the Matterhorn in 1865.
Directors: Milton Rosmer, Vincent Korda, Luis Trenker | Stars: Robert Douglas, Frank Birch, Geoffrey Wardwell, Moran Caplat
Votes: 203
5. Fight for the Matterhorn (1928)
117 min | Drama
This Alpine thriller is based on the story of English climber Edward Whymper who vies with Jean-Antoine Carrel, an Italian mountain guide, to conquer the Matterhorn.
Directors: Mario Bonnard, Nunzio Malasomma, Luis Trenker | Stars: Luis Trenker, Marcella Albani, Peter Voß, Alexandra Schmitt
Votes: 61
6. The Holy Mountain (1926)
100 min | Drama
Diotima meets Karl in the mountains where they fall in love and have an affair. When Karl's friend, Vigo, meets her, he mistakenly believes she is in love with him. Karl then believes that she is betraying him with his friend.
Directors: Arnold Fanck, Leni Riefenstahl | Stars: Leni Riefenstahl, Luis Trenker, Ernst Petersen, Frida Richard
Votes: 921
7. North Face (2008)
Not Rated | 126 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
A secretary at a Berlin newspaper in 1936 gets to write about two Alpinists, as she knows them well. She later gets to report on and photograph her friends' and other Alpinists' climbs of the dangerous Swiss Eiger north face.
Director: Philipp Stölzl | Stars: Benno Fürmann, Florian Lukas, Johanna Wokalek, Simon Schwarz
Votes: 16,436 | Gross: $0.71M
8. Touching the Void (2003)
R | 106 min | Documentary, Adventure, Drama
The true story of two climbers and their perilous journey up the west face of Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes in 1985.
Director: Kevin Macdonald | Stars: Simon Yates, Joe Simpson, Brendan Mackey, Nicholas Aaron
Votes: 38,112 | Gross: $4.59M
9. Berge in Flammen (1931)
98 min | Drama, War
Shortly before the First World War, an Italian and an Austrian take part in a mountaineering expedition together. Not long afterwards they find themselves fighting on different sides. The ... See full summary »
Directors: Karl Hartl, Luis Trenker | Stars: Luis Trenker, Lissy Arna, Claus Clausen, Luigi Serventi
Votes: 154
10. The White Hell of Pitz Palu (1929)
75 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A man climbs a 12,000-foot mountain to search for his wife, who was lost on their honeymoon. Another couple makes the dangerous climb with him.
Directors: Arnold Fanck, Georg Wilhelm Pabst | Stars: Gustav Diessl, Leni Riefenstahl, Ernst Petersen, Ernst Udet
Votes: 1,109
11. Storm Over Mont Blanc (1930)
93 min | Adventure, Drama
In the Mont Blanc Observatory works Hannes. The only contact to the outside world is a pilot and Hella over the morse-code-radio. As Hella climbs the mountain with her father, the father ... See full summary »
Director: Arnold Fanck | Stars: Leni Riefenstahl, Sepp Rist, Ernst Udet, Mathias Wieman
Votes: 272
12. 4628 Meter hoch auf Skiern - Besteigung des Monte Rosa (1913)
Short, Documentary
Director: Sepp Allgeier | Stars: Arnold Fanck, Hans Rohde
13. The Ascent of the Matterhorn (1912)
13 min | Documentary, Short
Director: Mario Piacenza
Votes: 20
14. Scream of Stone (1991)
105 min | Drama
Two famous competitive climbers make a bet on who can climb Cerro Torre, one of the most dangerous mountains in Argentina and the world, first. As the day of the climb approaches, their increasing competitiveness becomes destructive.
Director: Werner Herzog | Stars: Vittorio Mezzogiorno, Stefan Glowacz, Mathilda May, Al Waxman
Votes: 1,477
15. The Climb (1986)
PG | 90 min | Adventure
Based on the true story of the 1953 assault on Nanga Parbat, a treacherous Himalayan Peak.
Director: Donald Shebib | Stars: Bruce Greenwood, James Hurdle, Kenneth Welsh, Ken Pogue
Votes: 118
16. Nanga Parbat (2010)
104 min | Biography, Drama
Drama about the tragic Nanga Parbat expedition by the two Messner brothers in 1970, on which Reinhold Messners younger brother Günther died.
Director: Joseph Vilsmaier | Stars: Florian Stetter, Andreas Tobias, Karl Markovics, Steffen Schroeder
Votes: 1,921
17. The White Tower (1950)
Approved | 98 min | Adventure
A group of people come together in the Swiss Alps to climb a previously unconquered mountain, revealing their inner selves in the process.
Director: Ted Tetzlaff | Stars: Claude Rains, Glenn Ford, Alida Valli, Oscar Homolka
Votes: 1,018
18. The Mountain (1956)
Approved | 105 min | Adventure, Drama
Selfish Chris Teller pressures his older brother, a retired climber, to accompany him on a treacherous Alpine climb to loot the bodies of plane crash victims.
Director: Edward Dmytryk | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Robert Wagner, Claire Trevor, William Demarest
Votes: 2,254
19. The Conquest of Everest (1953)
Not Rated | 78 min | Documentary, Adventure
Documentary that covers the famous and successful expedition of the Everest conquest by Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary, the first climbers to reach its peak.
Director: George Lowe | Stars: Meredith Edwards, John Hunt, George Band, Tom Bourdillon
Votes: 881
20. Everest Unmasked (1979)
52 min | Documentary
Legendary high-altitude climber Reinhold Messner pushes himself to the limit in achieving the first successful summit without the use of supplemental oxygen.
Director: Leo Dickinson | Stars: Reinhold Messner, Peter Habeler, Eric Jones, Leo Dickinson
Votes: 95
21. The Wildest Dream (2010)
PG | 94 min | Documentary, Biography
Uses astonishing visuals to tell the intersecting stories of George Mallory, the first man to attempt a summit of Mount Everest, and Conrad Anker, the mountaineer who finds Mallory's frozen remains 75 years later.
Director: Anthony Geffen | Stars: Conrad Anker, Susan Robertson, Robert Macfarlane, Peter Gillman
Votes: 2,728 | Gross: $0.87M
22. Where Eagles Dare (1968)
M | 158 min | Action, Adventure, War
Allied agents stage a daring raid on a castle where the Nazis are holding American brigadier general George Carnaby prisoner, but that's not all that's really going on.
Director: Brian G. Hutton | Stars: Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood, Mary Ure, Patrick Wymark
Votes: 62,934
24. Into the White (I) (2012)
R | 104 min | Action, Biography, Drama
World War II: After an aerial battle over Norway, British and German airmen find themselves stranded in the wilderness. Finding shelter in the same cabin, they realize the only way to survive the winter is to set aside the rules of war.
Director: Petter Næss | Stars: Florian Lukas, David Kross, Lachlan Nieboer, Stig Henrik Hoff
Votes: 22,367
25. The Heroes of Telemark (1965)
Approved | 131 min | Action, Drama, History
Norwegian resistance tries to stop German efforts to produce an atomic bomb component during World War II.
Director: Anthony Mann | Stars: Kirk Douglas, Richard Harris, Ulla Jacobsson, Michael Redgrave
Votes: 8,069
27. Karakoram (1937)
38 min | Documentary, Short
Account of the first French expedition to the Himalayas, which attempted to climb the hidden peak (Gasherbrum I) in 1936, from the preparations for the trip to the end of the ascent. After ... See full summary »
Director: Marcel Ichac | Stars: Pierre Allain, Jean Arlaud, Jacques Azémar, Jean Carle
Votes: 9
28. Osterskitour in Tirol (1940)
21 min | Short, Sport
Directors: Guzzi Lantschner, Harald Reinl | Stars: Heinrich Harrer, Heli Lantschner, Trude Lechle, Dori Neu
29. The Great Leap (1927)
112 min | Adventure, Comedy
A young Italian girl living in the Dolomites falls in love with a member of a tourist party skiing on the nearby mountains.
Director: Arnold Fanck | Stars: Leni Riefenstahl, Luis Trenker, Hans Schneeberger, Paul Graetz
Votes: 160
30. The Blue Light (1932)
85 min | Drama, Fantasy, Mystery
When the moon is full, young men die attempting to reach the mysterious blue light in the mountains.
Directors: Leni Riefenstahl, Béla Balázs | Stars: Leni Riefenstahl, Mathias Wieman, Beni Führer, Max Holzboer
Votes: 1,390
31. The Eiger Sanction (1975)
Approved | 129 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
Classical art professor and collector Dr. Jonathan Hemlock, who doubles as a professional assassin, is coerced out of retirement to avenge the murder of an old friend.
Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Clint Eastwood, George Kennedy, Vonetta McGee, Jack Cassidy
Votes: 22,347 | Gross: $1.53M
33. K2 (1991)
R | 104 min | Adventure, Drama, Sport
A U.S. climbing team, funded by millionaire Clairborne is determined to conquer K2.
Director: Franc Roddam | Stars: Michael Biehn, Matt Craven, Annie Grindlay, Elena Wohl
Votes: 7,226 | Gross: $3.11M
34. Five Days One Summer (1982)
PG | 108 min | Drama
Sir Sean Connery stars in Fred Zinnemann's haunting tale of incestuous love set against a magnificent background of the Swiss Alps.
Director: Fred Zinnemann | Stars: Sean Connery, Betsy Brantley, Lambert Wilson, Jennifer Hilary
Votes: 1,331 | Gross: $0.20M
35. Malabar Princess (2004)
94 min | Drama
A man leaves his 8-year old son with his father-in-law who lives near the glacier where the boy's mother died.
Director: Gilles Legrand | Stars: Jacques Villeret, Jules-Angelo Bigarnet, Michèle Laroque, Claude Brasseur
Votes: 681
36. Pura Vida (2012)
8 min | Documentary, Short, Music | Completed
Musical warriors on a mission to expand the cultural landscape of Australia... A short musical documentary that follows the adventures of the 1st Pura Vida Latin Music Festival, a ... See full summary »
Director: Rafael Florez | Stars: Martín Buscaglia, Gloria Martinez, Ivan Ordenes, Frank Madrid
37. The Art of Flight (2011)
PG-13 | 80 min | Documentary, Adventure, Sport
Two years in the making, this film gives snowboarder Travis Rice and friends the opportunity to redefine what is possible in the mountains.
Director: Curt Morgan | Stars: Travis Rice, Mark Landvik, John Jackson, Nicolas Müller
Votes: 8,024
38. Nanga Parbat (1936)
Documentary
An 8,000 meters high mountain in British India took the lives of four German climbers and six bearers, when they were driven away by a snowstorm, 400 meters short of reaching the peak, in 1934.
Director: Frank Leberecht | Stars: Willi Merkl, Willi Welzenbach, Alfred Drexel, Uli Wieland
39. Nanga Parbat (2010)
104 min | Biography, Drama
Drama about the tragic Nanga Parbat expedition by the two Messner brothers in 1970, on which Reinhold Messners younger brother Günther died.
Director: Joseph Vilsmaier | Stars: Florian Stetter, Andreas Tobias, Karl Markovics, Steffen Schroeder
Votes: 1,921
40. 127 Hours (2010)
R | 94 min | Biography, Drama
A mountain climber becomes trapped under a boulder while canyoneering alone near Moab, Utah and resorts to desperate measures in order to survive.
Director: Danny Boyle | Stars: James Franco, Amber Tamblyn, Kate Mara, Sean Bott
Votes: 401,519 | Gross: $18.34M
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