10s Movie Review - The Way Back

Director: Peter Weir
Genre: Drama/ Adventure
Runtime: 133 minutes
Year: 2010
Starring: Jim Sturgess, Ed Harris, Saoirse Ronan, Colin Farrell, Mark Strong
Description: Siberian gulag escapees travel four thousand miles by foot to freedom in India.

I WATCHED THIS MOVIE FOR MY 2022 MOVIE CHALLGEN
WEEK 40: A WAR MOVIE
 
Review: Australian director Peter Weir doesn’t make that many films anymore. The man behind such modern classics as “Dead Poets Society” and “The Truman Show” delivers “The Way Back”. At the point of release, it’s only the second film in 12 years. And while this film about an epic, inhuman hike once demonstrates Weir’s craftmanship, “The Way Back” lacks just that little bit extra to turn a good film into an unforgettable one.

“The Way Back” is based on a true story recorded by Polish lieutenant Slavomir Rawicz in “The Long Walk”. In this book, Rawicz describes how, as a prisoner, he escaped from a Siberian gulag and embarked on a harsh journey, from Siberia through Mongolia and finally ending up in India after crossing the Himalayas. A journey of more than six thousand kilometers.

Ever since the publication of this book, in 1956, there have been doubts about the veracity of Rawicz’s story. Indeed, no evidence of it has been found, and it remains to be seen whether he could ever have managed to escape from the gulag where he was imprisoned. In the end, Peter Weir decided to dedicate the film to three unknown survivors who would have made such a journey, and to build the rest of the film around the book and present it as a fictional story in order to avoid controversy.

It was expected beforehand that “The Way Back” would become a major Oscar favotie because of the epic nature of the film and because six-time Oscar nominee Weir has never won the award before. It soon becomes clear, however, that the film cannot quite live up to those expectations. This has nothing to do with the good direction or excellent actors, but more to do with the screenplay that pays too little attention to the mutual group dynamics of the prisoners who undertake the journey together.

It's hard to keep a film without some form of conflict interesting, and while “The Way Back” does a nice job, it’s a shame that 133 minutes of little happens other than a long hike. Even when, in time, a young girl (well played by Saoirse Ronan), joins the group and forms a bond with the oldest member of the group (Ed Harris).

This all makes for a pretty straightforward film. A group of people with just one goal and the entire film is devoted to that goal. Good, but not great.

Rating: 3, 5/ 5