Directed by:
Peter WeirCinematography:
Russell BoydComposer:
Burkhard von DallwitzCast:
Jim Sturgess, Colin Farrell, Ed Harris, Saoirse Ronan, Mark Strong, Alexandru Potocean, Gustaf Skarsgård, Sebastian Urzendowsky, Dragoș Bucur, Zahary Baharov (more)VOD (2)
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The film begins with Janusz, a Polish POW, being interrogated by a Soviet officer. Janusz refuses to admit his guilt. His wife is brought in to the room and forced to make a statement condemning Janusz. Janusz is sentenced to 20 years in the gulag. At the camp in Siberia, Janusz meets Mr Smith, an American; an actor named Khabarov; Valka, a hardened Russian criminal; Tomasz, who makes a living by sketching erotic drawings in exchange for food and clothes; Kazik, a Pole who suffers from night blindness; Voss, a Latvian priest; and Zoran, a Yugoslav accountant. Khabarov confides to Janusz that he has a plan for escaping. Khabarov's proposed route is south to Mongolia, passing Lake Baikal. Mr Smith tells Janusz that Khabarov is fantasising about his desire to escape in order to improve his own morale, and that, in his opinion, escape is impossible. Janusz maintains his resolve. (Entertainment One)
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Reviews (11)
Maybe a little watered down, but The Way Back is worth seeing if only for the wonderful landscapes. Top notch acting performances, Colin Farrell rules as the thief Valka and Saoirse Ronan is one of the most talented young actresses right now (and Irena reminds me of someone I know). Weir is usually a great director, but I think that this didn’t come off one hundred percent. But even so, it’s very high above average. And Dallowitz’s music is delightful. That sweater. Did your granny knit it for you?
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A film of two meaning planes and two faces. The Way Back is about escaping Siberia (surprisingly), a physically devastating journey through Asia, through mountains, deserts and mountains again, to get to freedom. But it also deals, on a symbolic level, with a journey through the history of Central and Eastern Europe, a path to forgiveness. Uh, oh! Like Hollywood's attempts to stage the tragedy of the Holocaust, the first attempt to stage the horrors of the Gulag gives the impression of an explanatory and average staged theatre that aims to make the viewer who is unfamiliar with the facts to understand and feel. For obvious reasons, this trick can only work in an uninspired way and without any depth. In general, however, the further away the heroes are from the traumatic space of the Gulag, the more we learn about them, and the more Weir discusses their individual stories, the better and more cinematically convincing The Way Back is (the highlight is the Mariana scene in the desert, which was the only one in the film that really moved me with the sheer power of cinematic speech). On the other hand, the closer the heroes get to great history, the more constructed the film feels – it is a high school textbook of the crimes of communism for the uninitiated. It takes away a lot of energy and authenticity (unfortunately, this is also related to the very special choice of the dominant language variant and Ed Harris as the story mediator for American audiences). You can get used to it, but the aftertaste of artificial tragedy can't be completely gotten rid of. Like all similar films, this historical trauma is obscured by mandatory sentiment rather than being open to analysis and understanding... It gets points for the excellent (and only truly ambivalent) character of the thief Valek, famously played by Colin Farell.
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What was missing in As Far as My Feet Will Carry Me was in this film. Characters one can relate to, spectacular shots of Russian, Mongolian, Indian and other nature (National Geographic is National Geographic), great music. Some of the scenes (the men chase away a pack of wolves from a carcass and then act just like them - crossing the desert...) are memorable, as are Colin Farrell's creations (I was staring). I was disappointed by the totally unused Mark Strong, the shamefully shortened Himalayan crossing and the whole rushed ending in general.
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Sławomir Rawicz experienced something unimaginable, so I have no problem tolerating his fiction. The post-war generation needed many such stories to survive. After the first war, there was Anastasia, after the second The Way Back. The only problem I have is with the adaptation being too universal and with actors who are too famous. Colin Farrell and Ed Harris? Their faces are simply an obstacle to believable ordinary characters.
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Back from Siberia. Let’s go, they said. And so they walked and walked... However, Weir didn’t realize that without a good screenplay this wouldn’t gain much pace as a drama and that it probably just shuffle along. See, this is an unworthy substitute for Seven Years in Tibet and As Far as My Feet Will Carry Me (even more so since it’s made up, however Papillon showed that isn’t always necessarily bad). Otherwise, it’s too bad that those two adaptations escaped him (doubly so, because then they wouldn’t have been badly-made movies). And nobody knows how to draw you in like Peter Weir. It felt like I was tramping that interminable trail myself (meant in a good way), I felt what the characters felt at every moment, I was there. So from my point of view enjoyed and endured, and therefore it’s outstanding.
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