Karl Meltzer: Made to Be Broken (2017) User Reviews

Inspirational

[safenoe · 6/10 · 31 January 2022]

I first about the Appalachian Trail after reading Bill Bryson's book (but I haven't seen the Robert Redford adaptation) and I wanted to walk the AT. But I haven't. Anyway, Karl Meltzer is one tough dude and he works in a team to go on is record breaking attempt.

A great running documentary!

[garethcrook · 9/10 · 7 February 2019]

Karl 'Speedgoat' Metzler tries to break the speed record for running the Appalachian Trail, 2188 miles of brutal terrain through 14 states! There's a support team behind him helping him to the target of 46 days, but once on the trail it's his mind and body against everything screaming at him that it can't be done. My god though, what amazing scenery to run through, it's spectacular, proper outdoors!! Not for the faint hearted, this guy knows what his doing, as best mate Bill on his team says "Karl has amazing feet. As long as there's no blisters we're okay. He doesn't have any toenails anyway, so we don't worry about those". There are blisters though, at one point fixed with a surgical needle which although gross sounding, I found quite amazing. One criticism is at a lean 40 minutes, there feels there could've been a little more detail, but this is slick and the pace matches Karl's relentless drive. So many interesting vignette stories here, so much to enjoy. Whether you love running or not, this is a lovely story filled with a told by lovely people. Truly inspirational.

Don't bother

[autumnk6 · 4/10 · 29 September 2018]

It's not an inspirational movie. It's also not much of an outdoors movie if that is what you're looking for. You hardly see any of the AT. I would categorize it more as a movie about an elite athlete. However, I found Karl to be generally unlikeable. None of his relationships seemed deep or meaningful on the screen. All of his struggles seemed superficial, making him out to be childish. I'm not saying that was the case; that's just how it appeared to me on screen. As a result it was hard for me to relate or empathize with him at all. Overall it was a waste of 45 min.

Amazing

[krishshautriya · 10/10 · 6 March 2019]

It's a beautifully shot documentary about the perseverance of the human spirit. If you want to get inspired, definitely watch this.

Extremely mediocre, the spirit of true adventure never makes it to the audience

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 1 September 2018]

"Karl Meltzer: Made to Be Broken" is a recent 42-minute documentary short film (2017) and you can read the name of the protagonist in Matt Katsolis' movie in the title already. The goal is to break the record of how quickly you can make it through America's Appalachian Trail and we get to watch Meltzer during his battle. We find out some anecdotes about cutting hair from his wife, how close he must be with his dad (from what we see I did not feel it, all words) and are supposed to suffer with Meltzer when he has minor foot injuries that could put a danger to his adventure and record breaking attempt. So in theory all the components are there and yet I felt almost nothing here, especially not cheering for the central person in here. I am not sure if the quest they got is one that deserves making a movie about it. on the one hand, it's not worse than climbing mountain xy without an O2 application, but on the other hand I feel that they could have found at least a 100 other equally "epic" world records to break. then again, I am by no means a fan of the faster, higher, further mentality to be fair and maybe it is my subjective approach that this film did not do too much for me as a consequence. I don't know. It's not a failure or anything and there are moments when Meltzer feels likable, but I don't think it was good enough to really make an impact on audiences unless they maybe really are adventurers themselves or just know Meltzer personally. The element of "inspiration" that Meltzer's journey shoudl motivate me to create or achieve something great as well felt entirely missing I must say from my very personal standpoint. This is one of the reasons why I give this short film a thumbs down and honestly even at under 45 minutes it felt lacking focus and rarely essential. Watch something else instead.