Heinrich Harrer's Memoir

Rating: 9/10 (29 December 2011)

Based on the book written by Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer that chronicles his experiences in Tibet between 1944 and 1951 during the Second World War;the interim period;and the Chinese People's Liberation Army's invasion of Tibet in 1950,Seven Years In Tibet tells the story of a man who undergoes character change that was prompted with one's relationship to the Dalai Lama.
Brad Pitt stars as the arrogant Heinrich Harrer,a famed Austrian mountain climber who leaves behind his wife and infant son to head a Himalayan expedition in 1939, only to fall into the hands of Allied forces as a prisoner of war. He and a fellow escapee, Peter Aufschnaiter,played by David Thewlis, make their way to the Forbidden City in Tibet, where Peter finds a wife and Heinrich befriends the Western culture-obsessed teenage Dalai Lama,portrayed by Jamyang Jamtsho Wangchuk, the spiritual leader of his Buddhist nation. As Heinrich waits out the war, his friendship with the Dalai Lama begins to transform him from haughty to humble, but a crisis with China looms.The film ends with a series of title cards that list figures that quantify the death and destruction as a result of Chinese occupation. Harrer kept a good relationship with Dalai Lama after his flee from Tibet to India.
The story was characterized as a road picture,epic and spiritual journey of Harrer.It is a beautiful film with a story so typical-yet-unusual coming-of-age of a man who becomes a better person.Although the relationship between Harrer and Dalai Lama was lacking,it manages to become interesting due to the extra-ordinary performance of Brad Pitt.Because of it,the film does not fall short in both satisfaction and entertainment despite this shortcoming.