Sunday 22 January 2012

The Way Back

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Year:2010
Country of origin:USA
Director:Peter Weir
Genre:Epic journey
Starring:Colin Farrell, Dejan Angelov, Ed Harris, Jim Sturgess
Rating:5/5
IMDB link:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1023114/
Tagline:Their escape was just the beginning
Favourite line:"Yeah. A big, black poisonous chicken with no legs."

Peter Weir's movies are really starting to grow on me.
Not like fungus or plaque or cankers, but something altogether more pleasant.

The plot:
Imprisoned in a gulag in Soviet Siberia in 1940 for disloyalty to the State of Russia and Stalin, it's great leader, a young Pole, Janusz, leads a gang of six on a breakout. Whilst most prisons deter by bars and cages, dogs and guards, here the most fearsome element is nature herself, the prison situated in the desolate, perishing bleakness of Siberia so that, with lax guards and limited security, getting out is the easy part.
With only a vague plan - head South - the six must overcome many hardships before safety is finally reached.

Heartstoppingly beautiful at times, soul-wrenchingly anguished at others, this is a tour de force of cinema on an epic scale.
Taking in the frozen wastes of Siberia, the harsh, bracken-strrewn land of Mongolia, a seemingly endless desert leading to the mountainous terrain of Tibet before finally reaching the lush vegetation of India, this is sumptuous and lavish.
With an excellent cast, the highlight being either Ed Harris' hard as nails American or Colin Farrell's Russian criminal, this is masterful in every regard.
Just wonderful.

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