‘Everest’ Film Review: Goddess Mother of the World Decides Who Lives and Who Dies

Taking middle-aged tourists, amateurs to death-zone level mountaineering, up the world’s most spectacularly gigantic mountain (Everest), when some clients were already spitting up blood and exhibiting other signs of major stress, was more than a little foolhardy.

Mount McKinley just got its real name back. Denali. Meaning “The Great One.”

Mount Everest’s real (Tibetan) name is Chomolungma, meaning “Goddess Mother of the World.” That’s a sight more poetic than the British surveyor it was secondarily named after. Too bad Obama can’t go over there and shake things up.

Mount Everest is a microcosm of the troubles of the world—respect for the divine mountain goddess went missing, and the highest mountain on the planet is now littered with trash, dead climbers, empty oxygen tanks, and human feces.

The last straw was the commercialization of Everest with guided, bucket-list tours to the top. At least in the past you had to be a hard-man of great grit to get up there. Now you pay your $65,000.00, and up you go.

Josh Brolin as Beck Weathers in "Everest". Jasin Boland/Universal Studios