Directed by: Peter Andrikidis
Produced by: Anthony Buckley
Writing credits: John Misto
Cast: Craig McLachlan, Tom Long, Anthony Hayes, Jodie Dry, Simon Burke, Joe Manning, Nadine Garner, Andy Anderson, Andrew McFarlane, Tony Barry, Penne Hackforth-Jones, John Gregg, Tina Bursill, Tiriel Mora, Richard Carter, Wayne Pygram (as Col Langdon), Sam Isaacs, Steve Vella, Steve Rodgers, Christine Jeston, Don Hany, Elizabeth Maywald, Scott McLean 
Originally shown 03/20/2002

SYNOPSIS AND REVIEWS:

Heroes' Mountain manages to avoid the traps of producing a film based on a major real-life event. 

It's difficult to produce a film based on a major real-life event and avoid the traps of making it cheesy, clumsily sentimental or exploitative. It's especially difficult if the occurrence is as well-known as the July 1997 landslip that caused the collapse of the Bimbadeen and Carinya lodges at NSW's Thredbo ski resort, resulting in 18 deaths. That degree of difficulty only increases when the miraculous tale of Stuart Diver's survival, after 65 hours buried under the freezing rubble, is added to the story.
Commendably, the team behind Heroes' Mountain has met the challenge and avoided the traps. They've recognised that this account of a disaster needs no emotional embellishment and that, to tell this story well, they don't need harrowing scenes of devastation.

Instead, they've created a quietly moving and gripping telemovie that evokes the horror of the tragedy but is primarily concerned with paying tribute to the professionalism, courage and dedication of those who arrived on the scene after the landslip.

A sense of impending doom is manifest from the outset as John Misto's script, based on the book Survival by Stuart Diver and Simon Bouda, economically moves between the occupants of the ill-fated lodges. There are ominous rumbling noises, doors jamming and portentous trickles of brown water in the snow as we're introduced to Stuart and Sally Diver (Craig McLachlan and Jodie Dry), Mike and Mim Sodergren (Andrew McFarlane and Christine Jeston), and Madonna (Elizabeth Maywald) and her young daughter, Lillie (Olivia Houston).

Fifteen minutes into the film, the earth starts to shake, buildings crumble and the drama shifts to the horror of the scene confronting the rescue workers who arrive in the icy depths of night. The live powerlines lying in waterlogged mud. The leaking gas pipes. The stillshuddering mountainside threatening to give way again. The cries for help coming from beneath the debris.

The approach adopted by Misto, director Peter Andrikidis (Grass Roots, My Husband, My Killer) and director of photography Joe Pickering (who also worked on Grass Roots and My Husband, My Killer, as well as Changi) is lowkey, not exactly matteroffact, but a coolheaded documentation of the course of events. Some of the time Pickering's cameras sit back and depict the activity at the site in wide shots, as though they were recording news footage.

As befits the thematic thrust, Heroes' Mountain looks like a team effort onscreen. There's a notable absence of flashy star turns as the ensemble of actors brings admirable depth to supporting roles. 

Tina Bursill and John Gregg, quietly heartbreaking as the parents of Sally Diver, anxiously awaiting word of their daughter's fate as encouraging news about their soninlaw filters to the surface. Penne HackforthJones and Tony Barry as Stuart Diver's distressed but resolute parents. Anthony Hayes, Nadine Garner, Tiriel Mora, Terry Serio and Andy Anderson as rescue workers. Tom Long as the cryptic and fiercely determined Paul ``Feathers'' Featherstone, the first person to establish contact with Stuart Diver and the one who helps talk him through his ordeal. 

And McLachlan, who spends most of his time on screen in the dark, wet and motionless, with a camera tight on his face, having to convey the ski instructor's grief and fortitude in rasping whispers.

There's no doubt about who the heroes of the title are: as in the accounts of the September 11 horrors in the United States, it's the emergency teams that mobilise into action and rush to the site, risking their lives to rescue others as a matter of course. At the same time, though, the film takes an angry swipe at some perceived miscreants: the holidaymakers who blithely carried on skiing the next day, the lodge owners who refused to accommodate the rescue workers.

Also slated for a serve are the scummy members of the media who are depicted as unscrupulous vultures: ignorant, callous, misinterpreting complicated decisions and blackening the reputations of those who deserve only respect.
Overall, though, Heroes' Mountain is a tribute rather than an attack. John Misto, who's had experience with dramatising reallife disasters on Day of the Roses: The True Granville Story, makes particularly effective use of the laconic, Aussie patois: black humour, gruff understatement, the let's-get-on-with-it-mate attitude. There's no grandstanding and no big, emotive speeches.

As a result of the emotional lid being kept on tight, in the moments when feelings erupt to the surface - when a stoic rescue worker crumples into tears, or when Stuart Diver is lifted from the earth to sounds of cheering around the mountain and the country - they're very moving. And while it's not a film that sets out to elicit tears, at a few critical moments, its celebration of the strengths of the human spirit makes it hard to keep a dry eye. (A Salute to Heroes by Debi Enker, March 7 2002, from The Age )
 

Memories are revived of the days Australians joined in prayer for the life of a young ski instructor they'd never met. 

The story of the 1997 Thredbo landslip that killed 18 people and saw one man rescued after being entombed for 65 hours is still fresh in the memories of many. It would be a foolish filmmaker to fiddle too much, and Columbia TriStar and Anthony Buckley Films have wisely played it safe: Heroes' Mountain is a straightforward, intelligent dramatisation of a strong story. News footage is blended, sentiment restrained and the mood well balanced. 

After a pleasant opening of family holiday images, and some fun-in-the-snow play that introduces Sally and Stuart Diver (Jodie Dry and Craig McLachlan), the atmosphere changes almost stealthily until the earth moves, and everything spins out of control in a series of fractured images. Diver and his wife are deep in rubble, Sally still alive until rising water sees Diver go through the unspeakable pain of having her drown by his side. 

Then the rescue; the agony of the Diver parents (Tony Barry, Penne Hackforth-Jones, Tina Bursill and John Gregg), moments of deep emotion, flashes of laconic humour and-finally-the exhilarating scene where Diver is lifted into the light. 

There are no surprises in a good production, but a couple in the performances, particularly from McLachlan who works most of the film using only muscle movement and facial expression. As rescuers, Anthony Hayes (unforgettable in Changi) has a marvellous moment with little Olivia Houston, as does Tom Long with McLachlan. Crowe, Pearce, Jackman et al are OK. For the future, let's watch Hayes, Long and (never thought I'd say it)  Craig McLachlan.  by Gerri Sutton at Who.com . B+