by Kevin Candela
Watch the 1957 movie. The brilliant Nigel Kneale screenplay really does cover it all, from the Shipton Expedition that found and photographed the famous “first” footprints (mentioned, having happened only a few years earlier in “reality”) to the nobly intentioned scientist, the opportunistic entrepreneur, the callous career bounty hunter and the legend-obsessed everyman who once caught a glimpse of the yeti. Best of all, the head lama at the Tibetan monastery is more than wise: He, like the yeti, stands clear of the petty human race, smiling knowingly as the ambitious quartet of visitors who seek to know if the creatures exist insist on risking it all in trying to find out. Even the Sherpa is important, despite his precious few lines. And so is the scientist’s wife, who is perhaps the only peer of the head lama in terms of innate wisdom.
