Movies Reviews

The Way Back – Movie Review 2

By Ron Wilkinson Jan 24, 2011, 12:26 GMT

A group of soldiers who design an escape from a Siberian gulag in 1942. ...more

The current reigning top of the heap tribute to the human spirit.

Master director Peter Weir teams up with co-screenwriter Keith Clarke to bring Slavomir Rawicz’ riveting novel of Siberian survival to the screen. Only a few films in history match this testimony to the endurance, faith and camaraderie to be found in the human soul. When all else fails and faith in the human race is flagging, this film brings hope.

Americans love escape flicks. As a sub-genre of the caper flick, they couple the maverick denial of the impossible with the triumph of the good guy. In fact, even if the escapee is not a good guy we still love the films.

Recent examples of great bad guy getaways include Dillinger in “Public Enemies” and the fabled Mesrine. Old favorites include Steve McQueen’s 1963 “Great Escape” and the culmination of all traditional escape films, his “Papillion,” ten years later. In recent years, Tim Robbin’s “Shawshank Redemption” may well top the list.

However, when it comes to survival coupled with escape, there have been few films ever made that match this one. Captain Bligh’s open boat voyage after the mutiny on the bounty is widely regarded as the most amazing feat of survival but there has not been a film made of it. Would we want one? After all, it was just one day after the next of waiting, waiting, waiting.

For Peter Weir fans, in making “Way Back” the champ is completely up to the level of intensity and integrity that he has demonstrated time and again. However, just as “Picnic at Hanging Rock” was a bit minimalist for some, this walk from Siberia to India is, after all, mostly a walk.

There is walking in snow, in fields, in deserts and across mountains, but not a lot more action than that. The brutality of the opening scenes seems over-acted, as if the director himself sensed that the film needed some more action, somewhere.

The kind of intelligent people who will watch this film do not need to be smacked across the face to know that life in the gulags was tough, or that the Stalinist regime was psycho. It is a good thing when the film gets down to the business of survival, but it does get old after a couple of hours.

Jim Sturgess, Ed Harris and Colin Farrell put out excellent performances. Harris is at the top of his game - over 60 and getting better every film. There is little to back them up in the way of action, fancy camera work or costumes. They are dressed in rags and walking on snow and that is about it.

This demands extreme personal exhibition of the mental trauma of impending death. These three men actually look like every day will be their last. In spite of that, they go on, struggling to survive long past the point where they know either direction or motivation. This is theater.

They survive, of course, but we all knew that was the case before we saw the film. There are powerful lessons in bonding and mankind’s humanity, and inhumanity, to man. We see the best and worst in the human race.

However, many Americans will miss the Yankee ingenuity of “Rescue Dawn” or even the clownish “Rambo” series. The escapees do not have any tricks---they just walk, and bump into water now and then.

The photography is without compare, it is absolutely spectacular. However, it takes more than a travelogue to make a great film. Oscar nominated Saoirse Ronan’s (“The Lovely Bones” and “Atonement”) supporting performance is also spectacular, but the other work is just “much above average” - not knock your socks off.

Ronan deserves an Oscar nomination but Ed Harris’ power is hidden deep behind his beard. Another great supporting performance by Romanian indie star Dragos Bucur (“The Other Irene,” “Police, Adjective” and “The Death of Mr. Lazarescu”).

This is one of the top twenty films of the year but it will lose audience share due to the deliberate pacing and its length of 133 minutes.

Visit the DVD database for more information.

Directed by: Peter Weir
Written by: Keith R. Clarke and Peter Weir (screenplay) and Slavomir Rawicz (novel)
Starring: Jim Sturgess, Ed Harris and Colin Farrell 
Release Date: December 29, 2010
MPAA: PG-13 for violent content, depiction of physical hardships, a nude image and brief strong language
Runtime: 133 minutes
Country: USA
Language: English
Color: Color