Recent history has been much kinder to Tenzing Norgay, than in the immediate aftermath of his shared summit of Mount Everest with Edmund Hillary, on May 29, 1953.
 |
| With Everest's summit in sight, Tenzing Norgay (Genden Phuntsok, far left) and his comrades — from left, Edmund Hillary (Tom Hiddleston), John Hunt (Willem Dafoe) and George Lowe (Benjamin Hoetjes) ponder their next move. |
Director Jennifer Peedom’s engaging new film aims to correct that. She succeeds quite well, thanks in considerable part to Luke Davies’ respectful screenplay, based on a story co-written with Peedom, and inspired by Ed Douglas’ 2003 biography, Tenzing: Hero of Everest.
The film opens as 9-year-old Tenzing (Samdrup Dorje Lama) pauses, while herding his Tibetan family’s yaks, to gaze with wonder at the nearby mountain: Chomolungma (“Holy Mother,” or the Goddess of the Summit). Dire circumstances soon force his family to relocate to Nepal, where — as a “foreigner” — he grows up shunned by the locals with whom he toils.
The one bright spot is a brief encounter with British mountaineer George Mallory (Johnny Flynn), who treats the boy with unexpected gentleness and — as a result — inspires him to become a Sherpa.
(Although a warm and charming scene, it’s a fabrication of Davies’ script. There’s no documentation that Norgay and Mallory ever met, and their respective timelines don’t match.)
Peedom subsequently cross-cuts between the 1920s, as young Tenzing meets Dawa (Choeden Sherpa), the girl who will grow up to become his wife; and three decades later, starting with a pivotal encounter that ultimately encourages Norgay to join Hunt’s expedition.
This portion of the film acknowledges another of the saga’s little-known key players: Jill Henderson (Caitríona Balfe, exuding perception and intelligence), then Honorary Secretary of the Himalayan Club, and living with her husband on a tea plantation in Darjeeling. By this point, in late 1952, Norgay (Genden Phuntsok) has become a valuable asset to climbing expeditions; she encourages him to join the British team preparing for a climb in early 1953.
He demurs, both because he promised his young daughters — Pem Pem (Kyipu Bhuti) and Nima (Pasang Bhuti) — that his two recent attempts to summit Everest with a Swiss team would be his last; and also because he knows that the British, unlike the Swiss, would refuse to make him a “full expedition member,” as opposed to merely “head Sherpa.”
But Henderson can be quite persuasive, Pem Pem understands her father’s heart, and Norgay’s reputation speaks for itself. Hunt (Willem Dafoe) grants the desired “expedition member” designation. Hillary (Tom Hiddleston), one of the team, visibly approves the choice.
