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Free Solo, which captured the Oscar for best documentary feature at the 2019 Academy Awards last weekend, is set to make its television debut Sunday, March 3, at 9 p.m. ET on the National Geographic Channel.
That means it’s also now easy to watch the amazing film streaming online even if you missed it live on Nat Geo. If you don’t have cable, you can watch Free Solo live or on-demand on your computer, phone or streaming device via one of the following cable-free, live-TV streaming services:
Not only is National Geographic one of 95 live TV channels included in the main Fubo bundle, but Free Solo is included in FuboTV’s on-demand library, so you can watch it right now.
You can sign up for a free 7-day trial of FuboTV right here, and you can watch Free Solo either live as it airs or on-demand on your computer via the FuboTV website, or on your phone (Android and iPhone supported), tablet, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast or other supported device via the FuboTV app.
FuboTV also comes with included Cloud DVR, so you can also record any future airings (next airing March 10 at 10 a.m. ET) and watch that way. The difference between watching a recording and watching on-demand is that you have the option to fast-forward through the recording.
In addition to a Netflix-like on-demand streaming library, Hulu also offers a bundle of 50-plus live TV channels, including National Geographic. Free Solo is also included in the “Hulu With Live TV” on-demand library (but not the regular Hulu on-demand library), so you can watch it right now.
You can sign up for “Hulu with Live TV” right here, and you can then watch Free Solo live or on-demand on your computer via the Hulu website, or on your phone (Android and iPhone supported), tablet, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Echo Show or other streaming device via the Hulu app.
“Hulu with Live TV” also comes with 50 hours of Cloud DVR storage, so you can record any future airings (next airing March 10 at 10 a.m. ET) and watch it that way.
PlayStation Vue — which doesn’t require an actual PlayStation console to sign up or watch — offers four different live-TV channel packages, all of which include National Geographic.
You can start a free five-day trial right here (select “Start Streaming” in the upper-right corner), and you can then watch a live stream of Free Solo on your computer via the PS Vue website, or on your phone (Android and iPhone supported), tablet, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, PlayStation (3 or 4), or other supported device via the PS Vue app.
If you can’t watch live, PlayStation Vue comes included with cloud DVR, so you can record the next airing (March 10 at 10 a.m. ET) and watch that way.
‘Free Solo’ Preview
Note: Spoilers about Hannoid’s climb follow
Directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi (Meru, Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love, Incorruptible) and Jimmy Chin (Meru, The Wildest Dream), Free Solo chronicles rock climber Alex Honnoid and his quest at a free solo climb of El Capitan, a near 3,000-foot vertical rock formation in Yosemite National Park.
Honnoid completed the climb, becoming the first person ever to top El Capitan without safety equipment. He accomplished the feat in just under four hours.
“This is the ‘moon landing’ of free soloing,” said Tommy Caldwell, who, along with partner Kevin Jorgeson, completed the first ever climb of El Capitan’s “Dawn Wall” in 2015.
Added Peter Croft, a free solo climber who completed a number of first ascents in the 1980’s, 90’s and 00’s: “It was always the obvious next step. But after this, I really don’t see what’s next. This is the big classic jump.”
It was an unbelievable athletic feat, and the film is right on par in terms of being an extraordinary artistic feat.
Premiered in August 2018, Free Solo captured a number of different awards, including “People’s Choice Documentary” at the Toronto International Film Festival and “Best Cinematography” (among others) at the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards. Then came the big one last weekend, as it took home “Best Documentary Feature” at the Oscars.
“We ran into Taylor Swift at the Fox party,” Chin said. “She said she loved the film, and we got to hear her take. People who are truly the greats understand Alex Honnold’s dedication and love and commitment.”
But considering the source material, it isn’t exactly easy to watch for everyone. Even Mikey Schaefer, an experienced climber who was part of the cinematography team, had some trouble with a certain part.
“I think I … had a unique ability to understand what he was going through,” he said. “And I don’t free-solo, but I have climbed that route and I was the only person on the crew that’s actually climbed that route — with a rope. But I’ve gone up there and I’ve grabbed those holds.
“When he was going through the boulder problem [a particularly tricky part of the ascent], I’m intimately aware of the size of that hold and the difficulty of that move, so I think for me especially it was just really hard (to watch).”
Free Solo has a critics’ approval score of 98 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.