THE DARK WIZARD Review: Dean Potter Climbed Every Mountain. And Then Found New Heights.
As a young child, I dreamed of climbing a mountain. Dean Potter dreamed of falling.
The Dark Wizard
The first episode of the series debuts Tuesday evening, April 14, only on HBO Max. Subsequent episodes debut every Tuesday evening. I've seen all four episodes.
My mountain-climbing dreams only came true on the silver screen -- most memorably in Clint Eastwood's The Eiger Sanction (1975), Renny Harlin's Cliffhanger (1993), and Kevin Macdonald's Touching the Void (2003) -- until Free Solo (2018), directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, took things to a whole new level, showcasing Alex Hannold as he made plans to climb El Capitan in Yosemite National Park in the Western U.S. Watching that gripping documentary was a mesmerizing experience for me.
Long before Free Solo, however, filmmaker Peter Mortimer has been documenting the climbing experience in a series of films and TV shows. Our own Ryland Aldrich described The Dawn Wall, co-directed by Josh Lowell and Peter Mortimer, as "adventure documentary at its finest." That film revolved around an expedition to climb the aforementioned El Capitan.
Over the years, Mortimer has also frequently worked with fellow climbing enthusiast and filmmaker Nick Rosen -- including The Alpinist a few years ago. Together they have made a new four-episode series that features spine-tingling real-life climbing and extreme sports, this time revolving around one pioneering individual whose life and exploits and tangled relationships merit multiple hours.
For a casual viewer of climbing, such as myself, watching The Dark Wizard has been revelatory because it tells the story of Dean Potter, who was making solo climbs up treacherous mountains, years before Alex Hannold came on the scene. Rather than focus solely on his climbing feats, or his turn toward highlining, BASE jumping, free BASEing, and, eventually, wingsuit flying -- all of which looks extremely extreme to those of us predisposed to stick close to earth -- the filmmakers use their time wisely to explore what could possible have made Dean Potter an iconic person, as well as possibly a warning sign to others who might be tempted to duplicate his exploits.
To do so, they employ common documentary tactics: an abundance of archival footage, a plethora of photographs, interviews with friends, family members, and others who knew him. Yet the interviews are far more penetrating than hagiographic gushing about his personality and his feats. Instead, all the interview subjects are willing to peel away layers.
It's clear that they too have wondered over the years about Dean Potter's inner life, and what made him into a daredevil who never considered himself a daredevil; he just kept pushing because something within him kept pushing him forward, even if it cost him longtime friendships and romantic relationships.
Even as he kept pushing himself to reach for new heights, he grew increasingly frustrated, it seems, by his own limitations, which he rarely was willing to acknowledge to others. His competitive nature, which pushed him to break speed-climbing records in his youth, propelled him along a path that grew increasingly dangerous and led to his increasing isolation, as he obsesses over people he considered to be rivals and/or enemies, when they were simply locked into their own parallel obsessions.
By diving very deeply into the personality of one individual, The Dark Wizard also comments on the personality traits that may have contributed to incredible feats that no one had ever done before. And, as one interview subject says, 'should never be done again.'
The series more than justifies its length. Set aside some time and watch all four episodes for some spectacular climbing enlightenment and entertainment.
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