Nice film, skeptical story

Rating: 8/10 (24 March 2018)

"The Way Back" is certainly a wonderfully shot film, with beautiful landscapes and does a great job capturing the daunting terrain. The men who escaped from the Soviet Gulag in Siberia certainly had a journey cut out for them. With that being said, there were certain positives and negatives about the film. One, it had a sound portrayal of Gulag life. From the very beginning you see how quickly time in the camp is turned to savagery. Rations are hoarded or traded or stolen. All that matters is survival, rather, your own survival. There is certainly a camp hierarchy in place with the "criminals" calling the shots. This was a useful tactic that the guards employed in order to create fear and order within the barracks. The hard labor of the camps was also depicted well in the film. The labor of the Gulag was an imperative aspect that came with many dangers for the men. Any one caught not doing their job would be shot. We see close moments such as these in the film, especially when Jim Sturgess' has a moment of hallucination and tries to walk out of the mine. Life was grueling and difficult, with few moments of hope. "Mister Smith," Ed Harris' character sums it up well later in the film: "In the camps some saw death as freedom."
Despite some of these positive aspects, the overall journey left me in disbelief. The whole thing was like the ten biblical plagues. One thing after another, I was surprised they weren't all dead sooner. That being said, there are questions about the veracity of the story itself as even though the film is supposed to be based on a true story, the 1956 memoir that it is based upon is heavily disputed. Yet the purpose of the journey was not entirely lost on the film. For one it gave us a reflection of Soviet life that we didn't see in the Soviet Union through the scene with the destroyed Buddhist monastery. This was a reflection of what life would have been like in Soviet Russia as the monastery was completely destroyed and desolate. Churches were demolished and priests were shot and taken to camps. Under the communist regime religion was banned, yet another aspect people found solace in taken away. Overall the film showcased an immense amount of strength on the part of the escapees and the struggles of maintaining hope. An interesting story whether fact or fiction.