Slow to begin, but don't worry -- it rolls !

Rating: 8/10 (18 January 1999)

An editor may have been sorely needed during the first hour of the film, but if you made it 40 minutes in chances are you stayed. The scenery was breathtaking as were the costumes and the seeming authenticity of the setting. Once again Pitt tackles a role involving a foreign accent (of sorts) and does an admirable job; appearance-wise it certainly wasn't difficult to impersonate an Austrian skiier, but the sequence of the changes that took place within the persona of Heinrich Harrer over the years as the story unfolds was well portrayed. Even the uninformed will now know something about Tibet and its plight as both a nation and a people. The ethically and morally bankrupt political apparatus that depicts the ruin and exile of what's created before the viewer is stark, moving, and unforgettable. (Rating 4 stars of 5.)