A Slow Paced Disappointment

Rating: 3/10 (24 July 2010)

I guess it depends on what you were hoping to find with this movie, but I found "Seven Years In Tibet" to be a slow-paced disappointment. I was hoping to come out of this with a deeper understanding and appreciation of Tibetan Buddhist spirituality. Unfortunately, aside from learning that Tibetan Buddhists respect all life and won't harm it (down to and including the lives of worms) I really didn't find much reflection of Tibetan Buddhist spirituality here. There were a lot of Tibetan customs portrayed, but I personally found little depth and no real explanation or exploration. (And, even the Tibetan Buddhist commitment to reverence for life and non-violence is obviously conditional, since the Tibetans apparently had no qualms about forming an army in a desperate attempt to beat back the Chinese.) One gets a picture here of the deep reverence in which the Dalai Lama is held by Tibetans, and of the somewhat xenophobic attitude of the Tibetans, but I found little more.
The movie revolves around the experiences of Heinrich Harrer, an Austrian mountain climber who, on the eve of World War II, sets out to conquer one of the highest mountains in the Himalayas to plant the Nazi Swastika flag on its summit. Harrer was a difficult to define character. He certainly didn't come across as a devout Nazi (he insisted on calling himself an Austrian rather than a German) and he seemed to have little interest in the swastika flag that was presented to him to plant. While there might be some admiration for him on that basis, he's also an unsympathetic character as the movie starts, leaving his wife and yet unborn son in the midst of a difficult relationship. Failing to conquer the mountain, his team descends to India just as the war breaks out and he's arrested by the British as an enemy alien and sent to a POW camp, from which he escapes and makes his way to Tibet - his time and experiences there being the primary focus of the movie. Harrer clearly "finds himself" (if I can use that term) and becomes attached to the country, the people and the Dalai Lama in the process. As the movie ends, this takes on an overtly anti-Chinese (or, at least, an anti-People's Republic of China) feel, as the Chinese brutally invade and conquer Tibet - an occupation lasting to this day.)
Brad Pitt was good in the role. I have no complaint with his performance. In fact, all the performances were good, especially that of the young actor who played the 14 year old Dalai Lama. There's some spectacular scenery (which, unfortunately, is not actually of Tibet, the mountain scenes being shot as I understand it in Argentina and Canada.) I simply would have liked a more fulfilling look at Tibetan Buddhist spirituality, and so came away somewhat disappointed with this.