What is the furthest distance you’ve ever walked? For me, it probably tops out somewhere around ten miles, and that was in good weather, wearing good shoes. Still, my feet felt like they were going to fall off, my back ached, and I never wanted to take another step again. (Yes, I’m kind of a wimp.) ”The Way Back” is a film about a handful of men (and one fourteen year old girl) who escape from the gulags of Siberia and walk…all the way to India. 4000 miles, across some of the most treacherous, rugged, and beautiful country in the world. Four. Thousand. Miles.
It’s an incredible story, a testament to the human will and endurance. Sadly, that’s not enough to make it a compelling movie. Because these men, and this girl, they don’t do much. They walk, and walk, and walk. Through blizzards, and swarms of mosquitos, across deserts, up mountains and down the other side. ”The Way Back” is co-produced by National Geographic, and it’s filled with some really amazing photography of landscapes. But it’s a movie about a long haul, and it’s a long haul of a movie. It took an incredible amount of perseverance to complete this journey, and not everyone who embarked survived. It’ll take a much smaller act of perseverance to finish this movie, but not everyone who starts it will make it to the end.
read the rest of my review here.
