‘The Dark Wizard’ review: Anyone who enjoyed ‘Free Solo’ needs to watch HBO’s new doc

The Dark Witch it starts with a dream about falling.

Dean Potter, once one of the world’s most famous climbers, is always talking to the camera about the same recurring dream he’s had since childhood.

“When I was a little boy my first memory was a dream of falling,” Potter said. “I always wondered as I got older, you know, if it was a prediction of my death. But I feel very strong – I need to go into the unknown and that fear.”

This dream is mentioned repeatedly throughout Peter Mortimer and Nick Rosen’s four-part HBO documentary. It’s both a moving episode of Potter’s obsession with pushing the envelope and part of the mystery surrounding his character.

The Dark Witch he does a fascinating – and often very depressing – job of exploring this mystery, from Potter’s childhood and rising world to his persistent struggle with mental health, in endless detail.

What The Dark Witch about?

Over four episodes, the docuseries focuses on the life, achievements and complex personality of Dean Potter, a rock climber who encountered – and often designed – a number of extreme sports. Almost working through his life in chronological order, the series includes stills, animated journal entries, and interviews with Potter’s friends, contemporaries, rivals, and colleague Jen Rapp, providing insight into a man who seemed to be equal parts driven and haunted.

Potter’s life, in short, revolved around risk-taking. We see him breaking the speed record for a 3000 meter climb on Yosemite’s El Capitan, free soloing (climbing without a rope) various unconquered routes in Yosemite, freeBASEing (a method pioneered by Potter where he climbs without a rope while wearing a spare parachute) on the Eiger, walking on two empty ropes. wingsuit flying (a type of BASE jumping that uses a modified suit to glide through the air).

Potter’s life, in short, revolved around risk-taking.

The documentary is full of extreme sports, in other words, but to call it an extreme sports documentary would be an understatement. As the title suggests, The Dark Witch a portrait of a man at his true center – a psychological study of the personality of a near-fictional figure.

The Dark Witch it almost acts as a prequel It’s free

Given that free soloing in Yosemite has been Potter’s focus, it’s no surprise that Alex Honnold — the climber famous for the first free ascent of El Capitan, who recently gained more fame soloing Tapei 101 live on Netflix — makes an appearance. What’s more interesting is how much influence these two had on each other.

The rivalry between Potter and Hornnold is not clarified in the documentary by Potter’s friends and Hornnold himself, who talks with his vague honesty about how he planned Potter’s success in Yosemite before setting his sights on conquering Potter’s personal lists (his 2008 Half Dome free solo not being one).

As well as taking a serious look at the rivalry between two athletes at the top of their game, these episodes of the docuseries serve to show an important aspect of Potter’s personality: the struggle between doing something for the love of it and his ego.

The Dark Witch a very stressful watch

Credit: HBO

The Dark Witch he does an excellent job of showing Potter’s inner conflict. He wants to do art and spiritual things, but his competitiveness leads him to take bigger and bigger risks; you want to live a free life with no one controlling you, but you are also given sponsorship and big financial deals.

One high-pressure episode sees Potter travel to China to complete the epic walk – balancing himself on a tightrope between two peaks – live on national TV, for a $200,000 payout. Composition is almost as difficult to view as the act itself. Potter argues with the people involved with his translator, demands that they not use the safety net, and repeatedly falls short in the performance leading up to the live broadcast. He was close to those close to him, and he just pulled himself out completely. On the big day, when he somehow manages to cross the line while millions of people watch, he breaks into the far side.

This pattern – a tense build-up to a high-stakes action that Potter feels pressured to complete – goes to the heart of the theme. The Dark Witch: mental health.

The documentary is a powerful examination of mental illness

It is clear in the series that Potter suffered from severe depression.

“It was always hard on his mind,” Potter’s friend Brad Lynch, who wrote some of his most famous mounts, says at the beginning of the first episode. “Even when I first met her she was in her head. Like, really down. And there would be times when we’d sit together and drink a lot of beers or whatever … we’d sit there and just cry. Like cry. We were both like, what’s getting this sister out of my head?”

Risking his life, the documentary suggests, is a form of coping with Potter.

As Lynch speaks, we see the first of Potter’s journal entries. “I need to calm my mind,” read another. “Find clarity through nothingness.”

Later, in one of the most important lines in the documentary, Lynch summarizes what he believes Potter does whenever he takes a big risk: “I began to realize that his only cure was the effects of death.”

Risking his life, the documentary suggests, is a form of coping with Potter.

“When I’m flawless, without a line or a rock, I’m alone and free, I need to be completely focused or I’m going to die,” we hear him say in an old interview. “Somehow, when my life is on the line, it brings my senses to a heightened state of calm and clarity. It’s the most powerful feeling I’ve ever had.”

This level of depth is what makes it The Dark Witch such a powerful series. Yes, there are breathtaking images of many of the horrors that made Potter famous. But instead of just fictionalizing him, the filmmakers have gone out of their way to understand his personal struggles and motivations. The result is angry, exhilarating, and – in the final moments of the documentary – almost unbearably sad.

The Dark Witch premieres on HBO on April 14 at 9 pm ET, with new episodes airing weekly.