Solo (1972) User Reviews

A Nice Learning Tool For Film Students

[Figaro14 · 8/10 · 8 September 2006]

I continue like this this very short film by Mike Hoover. It's really more of a poetic documentary. It is completely wordless and really makes us feel the joy that this filmmaker gets from mountain climbing. The film incorporates nearly every basic film technique taught in film school and its a great learning tool for beginning film students. I especially like the way Hoover uses time compression so skillfully. We forget that his climb up the mountain actually a series of climbs compressed into about 9 minutes) and his descent (about 30 seconds long) is all created with skillful editing. It's too bad that Pyramid films which owns the rights to this couldn't have struck a new print before transferring this to DVD! The DVD transfer looks really bad. It appears to be simply a copy of a video dup of the original 16mm.

Great Film

[thomas-1204 · 9/10 · 3 January 2009]

This film was shown to us by our 7th grade teacher in 1978. I had already been climbing for several years and was immediately drawn to the fantastic climbing footage, the attention to the environment and the simple plot line that makes it an extremely interesting movie to non-climbers as well. The film was later shown in our College Film Class as an example of a simple story line with very captivating cinematography.

It clearly shows some highly technical climbing, some basic moves in awesome terrain, and a huge range of landscape footage and beautiful alpine views. It also clearly shows how awesome hiking and climbing can be when done for the fun of the outdoors.

The simple plot line effectively draws in outside viewers, while also telling a deeper message of environmentalism and compassion. And it does it in a very short film with good music and exciting footage.

Great movie - I strongly recommend it.

And here is how it really happened

[liquidlightpro · 16 February 2013]

The movie Solo is one of the greatest movies of all time. I know because I live with the person whom was Mike's partner Tom Cochrane. In reality Tom made the movie with Mike as partners and won an Oscar for his camera work. The movie was filmed over a period of five years. Mike was taught to climb by Tom and they used Mike as he had a better camera look. Tom split the Hollywood scene because Mike got caught and busted for running off with the camera truck they used to make the movie. Since Mike was the only one around at the time it was released they needed a person to put on as the producer and well he got the credits. The reason pyramid films could not make a new print is that Tom has the only original left sealed up on a film canister at his house in Santa Cruz. Not sure what condition it is in. The then owner of Pyramid films was very unhappy that Mike took credit for the movie without giving Tom more credit. Heck the script was written by Tom in college for his thesis. None the less I do not think there has been any other movie that has won as many awards as it has. Tom and I are making a move called water, I hope it does not take another five years. I keep telling Tom that talkies were invented a long time ago, but he insists that a good movie doesn't need anything but music to set the mood.

Solo was an inspiration for many movies.

A man, a mountain and a frog.

[x-15a2 · 5/10 · 30 August 2004]

This is about as good as a movie with 1 actor and no dialog can get. If you think that 1 actor and no dialog cannot be the recipe for a good movie, you can use Solo as your prime evidence!

But... if you miss the early '70's and need a quick hit, find a copy of Solo to view. I promise that it will have you running back to the present almost instantly!

There's a message in this movie, somewhere, hidden, deeply hidden and (apparently) forgotten...

I wonder what does happen when you put a tree frog in a cold mountain stream?