Die Free or Live as a Prisoner

Rating: 9/10 (8 June 2011)

THE WAY BACK is a discovery: there are some themes of films such as the bleak one this title suggests that we too often avoid, think that there is only so much that can be expressed or processed in a long stretch of a prolonged escape. Nothing could be further from the truth in the case of this film. It begins in 1940 'when seven prisoners attempt the impossible: escape from a brutal Siberian gulag. Thus begins a treacherous 4,500-mile trek to freedom across the world's most merciless landscapes. They have little food and few supplies. They don't know or trust each other. But together, they must withstand nature at its most extreme. Their humanity is further tested when they meet a teenage runaway who begs to join them on their quest. A compelling testament to the human spirit, this gripping wilderness adventure is Peter Weir at his hypnotic best', as one critic from the Telluride Festival phrased it.
The screenplay by Peter Weir and Keith R. Clarke is based on the Slavomir Rawicz novel "The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom" and despite the controversy about the facts as portrayed in this film, this is a human versus nature drama that quietly explodes with an intensity that is at times nearly unbearable, while at other times extraordinary in the manner it shows how men survive the most impossible obstacles. From the beginning of the film in a Soviet Gulag the escapees include a Polish political prisoner Janusz (Jim Sturgess), a Russian criminal Valka (Colin Farrell), and American Mr. Smith (Ed Harris) who was caught working in Moscow when war broke out, and Zoran (Dragos Bucur), Tomasz (Alexandru Potocean), Kasik (Sebastian Urzendowsky) and Voss (Gustaf Skarsgård). During their 4500 mile across the Gulag, Siberia, the deserts of Mongolia, the Himalayas in China and into India they encounter a young girl Irena (Saorise Ronan, in an incredibly sophisticated performance), also escaping the Soviet Union, and she becomes part of the survival team.
The well-written script allows the human element in all its forms to rise out of the struggle with Nature and thanks to Peter Weir's astute direction and the incredible cinematography of Russell Boyd the epic is a deeply moving tale.
Grady Harp