Clunky drama but this will be remembered for its sense of history

Rating: 8/10 (9 January 2011)

The Way Back is a big film, as other reviewers have commented. The Gulag scenes at the start were immense, and the dramatic tension was held for two hours. The escapees journey, the heart of the plot, was credible - most of the time. Was it poor editing or simply a gap in the storyline that caused the film to jump jerkily across large parts of a continent, fast forward across the Trans Siberian Railway without even a frame of action, and to 'miss' the Hymalayas almost entirely? And for a journey of such magnitude without anything like adequate nourishment the guys that made it managed to maintain their weight and flesh throughout.
The controversy surrounding the veracity of the published story may have impacted negatively on the film but despite this Peter Weir has succeeded in subtly weaving in much more historical background than many 'historical' films deem necessary. Film goers went to see an action film but will have absorbed more understanding of the catastrophic and deadly events in Poland and Russia of the period than perhaps they realised on coming out of the movie.
My interest was kindled after hearing accounts from two friends, separately, of their Polish fathers' journeys from prison camps in Russia in the middle of WW2. Both were released after being granted amnesty - Hitler had just invaded Russia and Polish captives were offered the chance to fight for the allies. Both made their way to Tehran in Persia, a journey of similar epic proportions but this time (two years later than the events in the film) with the approval, if not the material support, of the Russians. Not Siberia, and no Gulag breakout, but a historic episode all the same, one experienced by thousands of Poles who had been incarcerated after the invasion of their country in 1939.