The Mountain Within Me
Polly Steele’s inspirational documentary traces the astonishing story of Ed Jackson as he overcomes impossible odds to supercharge his life.
Image courtesy of Dogwoof Releasing.
Polly Steele’s inspirational documentary initially looks set to make its impact through the remarkable tenacity and determination of one man, Ed Jackson, but ultimately provides us with two heroes, the other being Ben Halms. Jackson was a successful rugby player who at the age of twenty-seven in April 2017 suffered a spinal cord injury when diving into a shallow private swimming pool; Halms was a paratrooper who underwent comparable serious injury when his parachute failed to function properly. Both men's lives had been disrupted by a near fatality that might have meant that from then on life would offer little for either of them. But in the event both went on to achieve great things.
There have been many documentaries on mountaineering themes and that's an aspect that certainly plays a major role here since, despite the severity of his accident, Ed Jackson only one year later would be involved in climbing Snowdonia even though he was still using crutches at the time. This endeavour was undertaken as a fundraising exercise through the not-for-profit organisation known as M2M (Millimetres to Mountains) set up by Jackson with the former English International rugby player Olly Barkley. The specific aim of the climb was to provide money for a spinal injury rehabilitation unit in Nepal. However, it would be as a beneficiary of M2M that Halms would encounter Jackson, a meeting which would lead to both of them being involved in an attempt in 2022 to climb Himlung Himal in the Himalayas. In each case taking on challenges like this brought a sense of positivity into their lives. Furthermore, involvement in the charity M2M which offered a programme that would help those suffering physical or psychological trauma would supply a further sense of purpose crucial to enabling Ed Jackson to build a wholly worthwhile way of life along with his supportive wife, Lois.
Given that Ed Jackson’s earlier life had included a decade playing rugby, I had thought that The Mountain Within Me would to some extent cover this period too. In the event, however, it actually starts with climbing in the French Alps and then shows Ed’s marriage to Lois rather than being a fuller bio-pic that unfolds in chronological order. We do have Ed himself talking direct camera together with similar contributions or voice-overs from Lois and from Ed's parents, Mark and Sarah, and here there are times when there is a strong sense of talking heads not necessarily helped by brief intercuts supposedly relating to what is being said. But, save for establishing Ed’s very positive outlook as being a crucial way in which to confront life, the film in essence starts with Ed describing his accident and then follows on from there. It is personal in an intimate way when with great honesty Ed and Lois describe the strain they experienced in their relationship when the accident transformed Ed himself and changed their way of life for the future. But, in following through by detailing the increasingly strong mountaineering challenges chosen by Ed, the film essentially becomes a piece centred on mountain climbing with the attempt to ascend Himlung Himal providing the most detailed instance of that. When that segment is completed and the film switches to a later climb in the French Alps undertaken with Leo Houlding one may wonder at first if this final section will be an anti-climax, but in fact it proves to contain some of the most breath-taking footage in the whole film. At this point though one might slightly question Jackson's expressed belief that when embracing these various challenges his attitude is to accept risks but to avoid being reckless.
Sensibly the film also finds time late on to touch on the benefits experienced by Ben Halms while Jackson himself, an extraordinary man who seems humble in spirit, readily declares that overall he feels lucky and grateful in life - and he says that as somebody who has twice been close to death. The Mountain Within Me is a very competent if hardly exceptional example of the mountaineering documentary but, even allowing for other such works involving disabled or handicapped climbers, it is the spirit of men like Jackson and Halms which makes this piece stay in the mind.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Featuring Ed Jackson, Ben Halms, Lois Jackson, Sarah Jackson, Mark Jackson, Evie Fane de Salis, Isabel Murton, Emma Harrison, Leo Houlding, Tomas Souto, Pete Bishop-Ponte, Kim Small, Neil Barua.
Dir Polly Steele, Pro George Chignell, Ph Stuart Luck, Ben Pritchard and Beetle Campbell. Ed Sabrina Burnard, Music Donna McKevitt.
Dog Star Films/Universal Pictures-Dogwoof Releasing.
89 mins. UK. 2024. UK Rel: 23 August 2024. Cert. 12A.
