The Way Back

Starring Ed Harris, Jim Sturgess, Saoirse Ronan, and Colin Farrell, this is the true story of a group of men who escape a Siberian camp during World War II and walk 4000 miles to freedom in India. This movie had a lot of things going for it before I even watched it: I love Ed Harris' voice and blue eyes, I'm a fan of Strugess from Across the Universe, I thought Saoirse was amazing in Atonement, and Colin Farrell is a pretty solid actor. But more importantly, I wanted to watch this movie because it has to do with the Soviet Union and Communism during WWII, which is much more rare than one about Germany, and I'll take any opportunity to learn more about the Soviet side of things (through film).

This was a really good movie, the acting was good, the accents were mostly believable and he shots of the landscapes were both beautiful and horrifying as you imagine having to walk across them. I was surprised how convincing of a Russian Colin was, but Jim's accent was a little weak at times; but more than anything the story was well done. Once the guys escape, not a whole lot happens besides the elements causing them to be near death, which in real life is scary as shit, but in a movie, not so exciting. Yes the movie lagged at times, and around the one hour mark I got a little impatient for some action, but once I settled in to the story I just went with the flow and was really able to appreciate the characters. The sense of brotherhood these men (and eventually Ronan) share is amazing, starting out as strangers, these men come together for each other even though there are very few heart to hearts. Their determination is incredible, and there are some genuine funny moments which remind us that they have not lost their humanity. At the end, the hyperbole of their achievement is not lost, when asked where they came from, one responds with "Siberia", he is then asked how they got to India and responds with a jovial "We walked!"

And I think that is another thing that makes the story incredible - none of these men forget who they are or lose their humanity. In the cynicism we seem to have adopted these last few decades, I half expected them to cannibalize one of their fallen, or steal from a local, or even fight over the beautiful Saoirse, but they never do. They do what they need to survive, like drink mud and eat snakes, but they never do anything violent or deceiving while they struggle to continue. That may not make for the most interesting, edge of your seat story, but why does positive have to be boring?

Some criticism would be the blatant anti-Communism, the only one who supports Stalin is Farrell's character, and he is the sketchiest of the bunch (although a very interesting and well-played character). Not that I am supporting Stalin or what happened under him by any means, but it would have been nice to have a strong, reasonable character to argue the other side of things for good measure. I was also really disappointed that we are not given more information about what happened in real life to the survivors after the movie ends, I would have liked to have known that they lived full and happy lives afterwards, or even if they didn't.
That is probably because there is some debate regarding the authenticity of this story, but either way, we know that people did incredible things to survive during World War II, and this could certainly be one of them.

Inspiring.