Every once in a while, I come across a movie that I feel like was made just for me, everything about it, just reflects something that resonates deeply inside of me. It just so happens two of these movies in recent years have been documentaries. The first was Free Solo, which came out in 2018 and won best documentary. It was the story of Alex Honnold climbing El Capitan in Yosemite without a rope. The story totally engrossed me, and it had me totally inspired. Not necessarily to rock climb giant cliffs without a rope, but to find something to love in life and chase a dream. I did go rock climbing a few times after too but with a rope. This new film is a documentary about two volcanologists in love, not only with each other, but with their work, and they love what they do so much that it is intoxicating and beautiful, and the images in the movie are must see!
Katia and Maurice Kafft met in a park, and they slowly fell in love, and it just so happened their passion was the same, volcanos. They were both in the small group of people who studied volcanos, but they looked at the science in different ways, which helped to make them an even better match. Katia liked to look at the bigger picture, and she wanted to see the view of the volcano, whereas Maurice was more detail oriented. He wanted to see every inch of the volcano. Through their study, they initially focused on red volcanos, which were the ones that did not have violent eruptions, but eventually they realized the danger of gray volcanos and wanted to help others. So they started to create more material on gray volcanos based on their study. While working from the 1970s to the 90s, they took countless hours of footage, and tons of photographs. Not to mention the writing they did, the lectures they spoke, and interviews they gave. For volcanologists, they were famous, but they just wanted to study the volcanos, they did not want the fame. Both of them were also content with the fact that they would probably die studying volcanos, they were not careless in their study, but they knew the terrain they were studying. They spent two decades working and spreading knowledge before they were taken in an eruption.
There are two aspects of a film like this that really draw me into it. First is the visuals, and this documentary is jam packed with stunning visuals, and what is more impressive is that the footage was taken between the 70s to the 90s, and it is still amazing. Neither of them were trained in cinematography, but if some of these shots were taken for a normal movie, it would win an Oscar. There are the shots of the molten lava flowing into itself showing the working of tectonic plates. There are rives of lava flowing down the side of the volcano, and massive explosions that are equivalent to atomic bombs going off. They were truly fearless of the volcanos, and this helped lead to shots that seemed other worldly. They would stand on the edge of the volcanos as lava was bursting up, and it is unbelievable that they were not getting hit or burned by the lava, and shots like this are made even cooler when they occur at night, and they are wearing the lava suits, so it is just two astronaut like outlines facing an inferno in an alien landscape.
These shots were not just taken for beauty, but they were taken for knowledge, they would go back and examine all of the shots to see what was occurring. They examined lava boiling up to see what they called lava glass, and they explained how the plate tectonics caused different types of flows. They even took the time to create a film specifically about gray volcanos to show governments the dangers of the eruptions. They saw that there were countries that did not know how to handle volcanos, and that did not know how to handle the potential eruptions, and since the creation of their film, they convinced multiple countries to evacuate areas that were in the blast zone and save lives. A truly lasting legacy.
The other thing I look for is passion. These two people clearly had passion. They were totally enamored with volcanos. Both of them would have been perfectly happy not doing all of the media and producing all of the publications. This is not to say that they did not want to share their knowledge, it is more to say that they would have been perfectly happy traveling from place to place observing volcanos and gathering their own data. It is very similar to Honnold, who would have been perfectly fine climbing El Cap without a camera recording him, in fact he has climbed many a big mountain face without a rope on and no cameras to be found. The issue is that the camera and the papers, allow for them to continue to fund their passions, but this is what differs them from many other people.
It seems like many other people have a job, and the money they get from their job, then they use it fuel their passions. The truly lucky people are the people like Alex Honnold and the Kaffts who get to do their passion as their work, and even the real work they do, the media tours and the writing, and the movie making is just about spreading the joy and knowledge of their passion. It just seems like such a great thing to be so in love with your job, and then being able to take that love and spread it to others.
To be honest, I know very little about volcanos, and I would not have even considered them an interest, but that did not prevent me from being totally enthralled with this documentary, and it made me feel like I needed to go and witness an active volcano. Lava and volcanos sound like mythical creations. They are literally mountains that explode, and liquid fire pours out of them. It sounds like a creation that would be found in hell, but they are able to show that these destructive forces are something beautiful, and although they cause vast amounts of destruction, they also create things a new, and they give birth to new life. For example, volcanic soil is the most fertile soil in the world, so it leads to the growth of many new crops. They can be the cause of new islands forming, so although they have destructive tendencies, they also have the chance to make something beautiful. Watching lava pour down the face of a mountain like it is water is both terrifying and amazing. Also knowing that Earth is capable of creating an explosion equivalent to multiple times the blast of an atomic bomb is a fact that is amazing, but also scary.
This was one of the best things I have seen all year, and it was definitely the best documentary I have seen. The footage is timeless, and their story is one to look upon with admiration. Two normal people studying one of the most powerful creations on earth for the pure love of it. They loved it so much that they knew that one day it may cause them to cease their lives on Earth, and this did not sway them. They embraced this life, and they did ultimately end up as a sacrifice to the Earth, and although it was sad, it was also comforting, because they died doing what they loved the most, and they died together. Truly a powerful film. Go watch it now on Disney+. 4.5 Stars!
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