Masters of Stone 5
2000 · 55 min · Trad, Big Wall, Free Solo · NC514
The fifth installment of Eric Perlman's Masters of Stone series, released in 2000, back when the series was about as close as American climbing came to a film franchise. Dean Potter climbs the Crackhouse, walks highlines, and free solos. Steph Davis solos. Dan Osman solos and jumps off things. This is a period record as much as a climbing film: the roster is the point, and the appeal is watching a generation of American soloists at work. For Potter specifically it is early evidence, a climber already moving between rope, highline, and open air inside a single film, years before that combination made him famous.
Review
A period record more than a film, and I say that with affection. Eric Perlman's fifth Masters of Stone installment, from 2000, gives you Dean Potter on the Crackhouse, on highlines, and free soloing; Steph Davis soloing; and Dan Osman soloing and jumping off things. The roster is the point.
This is for climbers who want to see the generation that made soloing footage normal before it was normal. It is also for anyone tracking Potter's career, because this is early evidence of him moving between rope, highline and open air inside one film, years before that mix made him famous. Skip it if you need a story. There is none, and the segments do not connect.
What works is the density of what it captured. The people in this film are the ones later documentaries are about, and here they are, doing the things in real time. What it gets wrong is everything about form. The pacing is dated, the music is worse, and the transfer from the DVD era shows.
The Death Consequence, the HBO Max portrait of Potter, is the film that explains what you are watching here. It has the interviews, the arc, and the ending. Masters of Stone 5 has none of that and is still worth fifty-five minutes, because nobody in it knew yet how the story would go.
