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The Way Back: Escape From The Gulag
In history, one of the most controversial—even feared—of all penal systems is that of the Chief Administration of Corrective Labor Camps and Colonies, or Gulag, of the former Soviet Union. The Gulag camps near the Arctic Circle were harsh places for convicts. Writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn described the Gulag as a system where people were worked to death. The film, The Way Back, is told about a group of convicts escaping a Gulag camp and making it to freedom.
Farrell’s character assesses the situation with a fellow Gulag convict; escapees camp in a desert.
After the success of his movie, Master & Commander, writer-director Peter Weir comes into the limelight again with The Way Back, a movie about the journey of a group of people who chose not to die in a Gulag prison camp. It’s a story that begins with the conviction of an American reporter for espionage in the former USSR after a Soviet scientist attempts to enlist him into smuggling sensitive information to the United States. Forced to sign a confession on the promise of freedom, he is instead taken to a Gulag labor facility where he meets an Englishman who teaches him all about surviving in the camp.
After experiencing the brutal reality that is the Gulag, the reporter, the Englishman, and others decide to go after freedom, taking on an inhospitable landscape that even their pursuers refuse to challenge. Just what’s between the escapees and freedom? The Himalayas! What’s their plan? Walk over the towering mountains to safety.
Face to face with wolves in the mountains; the escapees argue.
Escape movies are always interesting to watch. They always show how much the human body and mind can take when exposed to extreme duress. They also show the limitations of people when self-preservation is tantamount. In The Way Back, the escaping group encounters a woman who they choose to take with them in spite of the responsibilities and added problems. In their situation, the woman is either a burden or the recipient of a good moral gesture; both a blessing and a curse in the group’s quest to return home. It’s the decisions that they make which make the characters in The Way Back very human and believable.
The Way Back stars Colin Farrell, Ed Harris, Jim Sturgess, and Saoirse Ronan as the lost woman. If you loved watching Master & Commander (starring Russell Crowe), which has a similar “journey” story of cat and mouse, you will likely also enjoy The Way Back regardless of the human hardships and suffering it depicts.
Ed Harris’s character smiles and hugs a refugee woman in anticipation of freedom!
Good.
Good review of this movie.
gonna hv to see this one
nice review. Will watch this one over this weekend.
One interesting film to see.
Good review and seems a good film.
Great movie review, I’ll have to see this one.
Its a must watch for me then! I have Master and Commander on DVD I will be seeing this film, good review. LB
A good Share
Interesting post.
Nice Share.
Great review. I like watching this kind of movie, very inspiring.