Legal Quandary

Mystery of the Nile

This is what happens when you combine a good script, awesome music, amazing scenery, and good film editing. The movie chronicles Pascuale Scaturro and his team's source to sea journey down the Blue Nile. While quite a few people have attempted this trip, they've all either given up or died along the way. Crocodiles, whitewater rapids, and people with guns are just some of the dangers the team faces along the way.

The Team:
- Scaturro is a geophysicist and adventurer extraordinaire. He's a special kind of crazy if you ask me, but makes for a good story.
- Gordon Brown, the "safety kayaker." Like Lance Armstrong, but in a kayak. And he doesn't leave the kayak - he's hard core about kayaking "every inch of the river." There's one scene where everybody gets out of the rafts and rappels down this cliff because they can't go over the waterfall (duh). Gordon rappels down the cliff too - in his kayak. Apparently he also made the trip with an IMAX® camera on his kayak. Those things are HUGE. And heavy. Freaking insane. His arms and chest are absolutely beautiful arms though. I guess kayaking for a living will do that for you.
- Dr. Mohamed Megahed, an Egyptian hydrologist who is studying the effects different changes in the environment are having on the river. Damming, deforestration, etc., all change the water and impact Egypt's farmland. He seems like a sympathetic guy, but they do the best they can to portray Mohamed as a wuss. I wonder how he felt about that.
- Saskia Lange, a journalist, writing about how the river influences religion, particularly Christianity. She seems to genuinely love interacting with all the people of different cultures along the way.
- Myriam Seco, a Spanish archeaologist. She takes the team to visit different pyramids, as well as a Nubian ghost town. Through her you also get a sense of how important the river has been throughout history. It's not as boring as my description makes it sound though - promise.
- Michel L'Hullier, the team photographer. He seemed to have the most fun of any of the team. There were several times throughout the movie where I wondered how many cameras got lost along the way. I also have to add that he was pretty easy on the eyes.

If you're at all into IMAX® movies - go see this one. One of the best I've seen. It's done by the same people who did Everest, but I like Mystery of the Nile better. But that might be because when I went to see Everest at the IMAX® in Denver, the projector broke. I ended up watching it on DVD a couple years later. Not the same experience at all.

posted by Legal Quandary at 03:35