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Released By: Image Entertainment
Released On: 04/22/2011
Director: Peter Weir
Cast: Colin Farrell, Ed Harris
The Film:
Because I'm so technically behind the times, I'm not able to do screen captures of blu-ray discs. Which is not really a bad thing, per se, because captures of blu-ray releases inevitably bring out the complaints of compressed jpegs and Photoshop alterations, even more than they do for their DVD counterparts. There are, however, some instances in which blu-ray captures help to expand on a review, especially when you've got nothing nice to say about a film. This is definitely the case with Peter Weir's, The Way Back.
How do you screw up something like this, Mr. Weir? The Way Back, in case you haven't heard of it, is based on Slavomir Rawicz's novel, “The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedomâ€, and concerns escapees from a Siberian gulag during World War II. Poland in 1939 was not a fun place to be. Invaded and occupied by both Hitler and Stalin, one had a good chance of being imprisoned for crimes against the state by either army. It is fairly well-documented what happened to folks who opposed Hitler, but what has somehow gotten passed by for the most part was the punishment for speaking out against Stalin; a one-way ticket to any number of labour camps in Siberia. Average citizens found themselves at the mercy of Stalin's camp guards, brutally cold weather, fellow inmates, insignificant rations, and if they were really unlucky, a work detail in the unstable mines nearby.
The Way Back documents the story of a few of these prisoners of different nationalities, backgrounds, and “criminal†offences, who teamed up to escape from one of these camps. Getting through the wire was only the first step, though; with no safe territory for thousands of miles, these individuals were forced to endure blizzards, wolves, and a number of other threats of nature to triumphantly emerge in India, 4000 miles later. The sheer willpower that they must have possessed to persevere is staggering, and the potential for one of the greatest unknown stories to be told on film, equally so.
So….how do you screw this up? The Way Out has almost zero redeeming qualities. I can hardly find the energy or creativity to discuss it at length. It is a wickedly pointless waste of time, and I can't imagine how anyone would be proud to have this on their resume. The actors, namely Colin Farrell and Ed Harris, are normally excellent and enjoyable in just about every role, yet here their parts are watered down with every action and line of dialogue spinning off into space, delivered with about as much apathy as one could muster; the source material carries about as much weight as a trip to the grocery store. After the initial escape from the camp, it seems as though the characters do nothing but walk for hours. The sudden death of people that would have mattered in real life has no effect. They walk, through cold mountains, through hot desert, through climates that seem to be mediocre, all for no reason. Their interactions are meaningless. When they finally reached their destination at the end of a painful two and a quarter hours, I couldn't reach for the remote fast enough.
The scenery is pretty, though.
A quick look at Weir's resume reveals a few good films, but recently, with Fearless, Master And Commander, and The Truman Show, a trend of films that have a lot of flash and big name actors with no payoff. With The Way Back, he seems to be further solidifying this reputation. I would hope that any of the survivors of this amazing escape were spared the pain of having their lives diluted to such an extreme.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The Way Back is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, and it looks quite nice. The scenery, which you'll have a lot of time to take in during the overlong running time, looks very pretty. The DTS-HD 5.1 track is also well done, with good use of the surrounds and some pretty nifty bass response with clear dialogue throughout.
The Journey of the Journey is a making-featurette that affirms how pointless the film is. With the cast and crew of the film talking endlessly about how moved they were by the plight of the original escapees, they hammer home how much emotional impact the real story has…and how little the film delivers on that. Weir also discusses his shooting locations, using Bulgaria and Morocco extensively. Perhaps shooting in Siberia would have given them the motivation they needed to present this as something more meaningful than “The Incredible Journeyâ€.
Overall:
A decent package of a complete waste of film. Don't waste your time with this one.
