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At the Movies

WITH MARK MOOREHEAD

Film: Journey Into Amazing Caves

Director: Stephen Judson

Rated: PG 

Now Playing: IMAX Theatre Arizona Mills

Viewability Rating: **** (Good)
 

Not many third-grade teachers are willing to dangle hundreds of feet below a precipice on a sheer wall of the Grand Canyon and then swing back and forth in an effort to reach a remote cave.

However, there is one elementary school teacher who goes to great lengths (or, more accurately, depths) to provide her students a unique perspective of the geologic underworld.

Nancy Aulenback calls herself a “caver.”  These are people who explore caves and are passionate about cave conservation. In addition to being a teacher she is also a National Cave Rescue instructor and member of the “Tiny Team”, a group of slender cavers whose ability to squeeze through the narrowest of passages makes them invaluable in difficult rescues.

At a compact 100 pounds, Aulenback is living proof that size and strength are less important than having the right training and tools.

In IMAX’s new film Journey Into Amazing Caves, Aulenback lends her skills to assist microbiologist and fellow caver Dr. Hazel Barton hunt for “extremophiles,” those tiny microscopic creatures living in the most extreme and hostile environments within the earth.

These bacteria produce powerful weapons to ward off other microbes; Dr. Barton hopes to isolate one of these organisms one day soon to use against tuberculosis or cancer.

Amazing Caves is not a film about finding a cure for cancer. The film aims to educate the audience about the sport and science of caving and to take you where no one has gone before.

Children and adults alike will be spellbound by the death-defying acts performed by these two women in extreme environments around the world.

Liam Neeson narrates the film, and the Moody Blues provides music.

First stop is a cliffhanger at the Grand Canyon, where we witness a circus-like high-wire act that is both wet and wild and takes us into a previously unexplored cave.

Watching these human flies on the enormous IMAX screen makes you feel you’re right next to our intrepid explorers.

Second stop on the cinematic journey is an ice cave in Greenland. Descending vertically into the frozen, beautiful, awe-inspiring, white caverns of ice hundreds of feet deep appears perilously ludicrous as we are informed by narration of the danger of ice constantly shifting, melting and breaking away.

Nevertheless, Barton captures exotic, resilient microscopic bugs in ice hundreds of years old.

The third and final stop is an underwater cave in the Yucatan Peninsula.  Claustrophobia takes on new meaning as we float weightlessly alongside Barton in a dreamscape of giant columns of stalactites and stalagmites.

Journey Into Amazing Caves is interesting on many different levels. But, from a purely entertainment point of view, the adventure does get bogged down by a little too much science (like commercials for arthritis medication) interrupting the action.

Saving the good news for last regarding the capture of potential miracle drugs of the future from such unlikely locales would have been the coupe de grace for the hearty filmmakers and a stunning revelation to all the young minds for which this film was made.

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