My 382nd Review: Epic without sentimentality - a better film for its straightforward approach

Rating: 9/10 (7 March 2011)

Research affirms that 56 millions Soviet citizens died in the Gulags.
The Way Back focuses on one story, without melodrama or fuss (and some will want it to be more an adventure film, but it is a more realistic take than that). It is serious about suffering - not in any generic horror fashion - but genuinely, how much can humans survive and are willing to survive to get to freedom. This is film-making where the plot is foremost - and what a plot. The film reveals in the first 20 seconds that plot, but takes over 2 hours to show how it is achieved.
I personally came away from this deeply inspired, partly because it really makes you think that if they can achieve what they achieved, then how can I not complete any task in front of me, and secondly, because it is not glorified story-telling - it keeps it focus and keeps this pretty plain and simple - and yet it totally hypnotic.
At every stage the detailing and the relationships are well done - but it is the effort that carries this to the heights - and like 127 hours you can complain that it's not full-blown production heavy filming - and you'll be right, but like 127 hours what you'll get instead, if you can let yourself become involved, an extraordinary journey that defies all sense of human effort.
Well worth the effort. It is a story of the triumph of the human will and a very good watch.