The Balloonists review – divas and disasters in tale of first round-the-world hot-air balloon flight

Polite documentary about Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones, who faced off much wealthier rivals Richard Branson and Steve Fossett in the race to circumnavigate the globe

Here is a blow-by-blow account of the first nonstop round-the-world flight in a hot-air balloon, in 1999. The pilots were not alone; the rivalry to circumnavigate the globe was the 90s equivalent of the billionaire space race, with tycoons Richard Branson and Steve Fossett also chasing the dream. It might have been more interesting to tell that story, but documentary maker John Dower focuses on the winning flight of Swiss explorer Bertrand Piccard and Englishman Brian Jones, who made their record-breaking 25,000 mile trip across on the Breitling Orbiter 3.

It was Piccard’s third attempt. The first was a disaster, with Piccard ditching his balloon in the Mediterranean just hours in: “I felt completely ashamed,” he remembers. He did not have the deep pockets of Branson or Fossett, but he was born into a family of inventors and explorers; in 1931 his grandfather was the first person to reach the stratosphere, in a hydrogen balloon. Piccard is charismatic and driven, and the film buzzes around the question of his ego. He admits that one colleague accused him of being a diva. Everyone interviewed here is on their best behaviour, and in no mood to gossip, about each other or their rivals, making this a frustratingly polite documentary.

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المصدر: The Guardian — Film