The Way Back

The Way Back 2010 12 A 132 minutes

Film Director Peter Weir (Picnic at Hanging Rock and Gallipoli) doesn’t do things by halves. Seven years after bringing Patrick O’ Brian’s seafaring epic - Master and Commander - to the big screens, he has completed yet another mammoth task; the controversial story of Slavomir Rawicz’s 4000 mile walk to freedom.

Based on Rawicz’s 1956 book, The Long Walk, The Way Back tells the story of a group of 6 innocent political prisoners and one convict (Colin Farrell), who, following the conquest of Poland in 1939 were sentenced to effective life imprisonment in the Soviet labour camps. With little or no food and temperatures constantly below freezing, they stood little chance of surviving hard daily labour. Seven men made a choice; one way or another, to die free men. They could not possibly have imagined what lay before them; a 4000 mile trek south across the frozen wastes of Siberia, into the dry, arid plains of Mongolia, down into China, on into Tibet and then finally, across the Himalayas into India.

The characters beautifully capture the indomitable nature of the human spirit but they remain strangely independent, united only by their common goal of freedom. Janusz, (Jim Sturgess) leads the motley group, quietly asserting his authority, always inclusive but desperate to return to his wife; Ed Harris, is marvellous, here an American, Mr Smith, manipulating an emotional burden to drive his aging body ever onwards; Colin Farrell is the dark, knife-wielding gangster, Valka, who comes to question his freedom and his own place in society. Into this cynical, sceptical and single minded band of men, falls Saoirse Ronan, a young lost Polish girl, lost and alone. Despite the protestations of the American – “kindness will kill us all”, she is soon accepted and recognised for her efforts at helping them rediscover their humanity. But they only briefly show emotion – Ed Harris in particular – a combination of exhaustion and their all-encompassing sense of purpose allows no quarter for sentimentality.
Their common struggle is set against some truly breath-taking landscapes. Wonderfully photographed by Russel Boyd in locations across Bulgaria, India and Morocco, the terrain is beautiful but deadly with starvation and dehydration, exhaustion and fatigue, their constant companions.
Despite some awkward moments such as the return of an elderly Janusz to Poland and the somewhat repetitive nature of their fight for survival whatever the terrain, the film generally impresses with its gravitas and sense of intensity. This is film making at its most serious and mankind at its finest.



Verdict
Utterly convincing but full of festive spirit, this is not! 8/10
Dick Morgan
January 2011