The perils of exile

Rating: 8/10 (6 March 2011)

Peter Weir is a filmmaker who renews his style in each new film. In The Way Back he summarizes the perils of a Cold War escape. From the violence of a prison camp to the sand deserts of Mongolia; from the Stalinist show trials to the mirages of thirst and hunger. The Way Back is at its best very entertaining. As for the ideology of the film, the tensions of the Cold War are presented as a mere reference. We don't hear any new thought on the matter. Communism was bad an oppressive, and all the rest of the world, including India, was prosperous, peaceful and free. Weir shuns the fact that all Soviet fugitives were useful to the West as propaganda.