A Wallop from The Way Back

The Way Back, Peter Weir’s first film since Master and Commander in 2003, is an effortlessly inspirational film. Allegedly the film is based on a true story; however its veracity is disputed. Nonetheless, the film depicts a beautiful story of survival and the value of freedom. The Way Back is a about a group of rough men who escape from a Stalinist gulag in 1941 to travel thousands of miles out of Serbia to India. The determined group encounters blizzards, dust storms, mountains, deserts and a young Russian orphan along the way. Weir’s depiction is not in the least bit Hallmark-like. According to Mick LaSalle of The San Francisco Chronicle, “Weir instills emotion in the audience, not by showing emotion, but by showing action and by holding emotion in check.”

Regardless of whether these exact events took place, during World War II other Poles undertook difficult journeys attempting to leave the Soviet Union. Accounts of their escapes can be found in the archives of the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum in London, England, and in the Hoover Institute, Stanford University, in California, in addition to other reasonably verifiable escapee autobiographies printed in English. The Way Back is meant to inspire and demonstrate the true triumph of the human spirit.

Check out the Trailer: The Way Back

Next is Mike Leigh's Film Another Year on March 9.