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

20s Movie Review - The Way Back

Director: Gavin O’Connor
Genre: Drama
Runtime: 108 minutes
Year: 2020
Starring: Ben Affleck, Al Madrigal, Janina Gavankar, Michaela Watkins, Brandon Wilson, Will Ropp, Fernando Luis Vega, Charles Lott Jr., Melvin Gregg, Ben Irving, Jeremy Radin, Matthew Glave

Description: Jack Cunningham (Ben Affleck) was a high school basketball phenom who walked away from the game, forfeiting his future. Years later, when he reluctantly accepts a coaching job at his old school, he may get one last shot at redemption.

Review: When a film gives an actor such a good chance to excel and the story also works successfully towards a beautiful release, but nobody is really talking about this movie, I naturally will look for a reason. I think that people were looking for a good basketball drama. A good drama it is, the film only doesn’t focus on the basketball part. It focuses on the coach and his life now and then.
Jack Cunningham was once a star basketball player. Everyone expected him to get a scholarship to play college basketball, but we meet him in the opening scene as a construction worker who lingers in the pub a little too long after work. So long, in fact, that one of the other guests quite routinely walks him to his home, to make sure he gets in safely.
Slowly it becomes clear that Jack can’t cope with something that happened in the past, which is also the reason that his wife Angela has left him. When the principal of his former high school asks him to coach the basketball time, Jack seizes the opportunity with slight resistance. Together with assistant coach and math teacher Dan he takes on the task, turning a pretty bad team into something the school can be proud of.
The film has a raw look and feel to it, you recognize director Gavin O’Connor’s style in that (he also directed “Warrior” and “Pride & Glory”). This adds to the realism of the film and makes it more relatable and real. And like I stated before, this is not a sports movie, because it doesn’t focus on that element. And I actually kind of liked it because of that, because it separates itself from all the other movies about coaches that come in to change an otherwise bad team. It focuses on the coach instead on the game and its players. Did it have to be basketball? No, it might as well be another sport. But that’s okay.
If you are a frequent reader of my reviews, you might know I’m not the world’s biggest Ben Affleck fan. I either like him or don’t in a movie. And only few movies I really loved him in. Movie liked “The Accountant” (also by Gavin O’Connor), “Argo” and “Gone Girl” made me change my mind about him and I really enjoyed his performances in those films. I can now add “The Way Back” to this list, because Affleck really does excel here. His performance is strong and it’s one of his best roles. Just sad that not a lot of people have witnessed it, because I think a lot of people didn’t see this movie when it came out.
I could recommend “The Way Back” if you want a strong, raw drama, not if you are expecting a sports drama, because that it isn’t.

Rating: 3,5/ 5