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Seven Years in Tibet
Every once in a while a film comes out of Hollywood that has a decent budget and isn't a sequel, action flick, or TV remake. One such film is 1997's Seven Years in Tibet. Feeling like a foreign film, this movie is quiet and unhurried, and though it last over two-hours it never seems to drag or bore. Sony has now released this fine film on Blu-ray with a very good transfer and a solid audio track.
Based on a true story, Brad Pitt stars as Heinrich Harrer a famous Austrian mountaineer who has gained his fame by scaling some of the most difficult peaks in the Alps. As the movie begins in 1939, he's leaving his country and his pregnant wife for the Himalayas; to be a part of a German expedition to climb a peak in India that has never been conquered but has killed many German climbers. A Nazi sympathizer, Heinrich is egotistical, arrogant and just a bit vain. He's sure that he'll make it to the top.
The climb goes well at first, but then the expedition gets caught in some violent storms. They try to wait them out, but when the weather clears an avalanche nearly sweeps the men down the side of the mountain, and with the fresh snowfall, more can be expected. The expedition leader, Peter Aufschnaiter (David Thewlis) calls off the climb and orders everyone to descend, over Harrer's strenuous objections.
When they reach the bottom of the mountain, things get worse. While they were climbing German and England have gone to war, and the expedition are all arrested as potential enemies and sent to a POW camp in India. Heinrich doesn't like being confined and tries to escape again and again. Finally, working with several other inmates including Peter, Heinrich manages to escape and elude his captors. He and Peter travel together, but the going is rough. Not only do they have to evade the Indian police, but Heinrich takes to cheating his partner, which causes more than a little tension. Together, after going through several grueling ordeals, they manage to make it to Tibet and the Forbidden City, Lhasa where Peter finds love, and Heinrich finds the 11 year old Dalai Lama (Jamyang Jantsho Wangchuk) and becomes his teacher.
This is a very good film, one that relies on character development and personalities rather than explosions and action sequences to draw viewers in. Brad Pitt does an admirable job as Heinrich, showing the man's slow transformation from a class-A jerk to a caring individual with subtlety and finesse. The only real problem with his performance is the Austrian accent that he uses throughout the film. It's never terribly convincing, and the fact that he drops it on certain words occasionally makes it even worse. Still, that's not a fatal flaw with the film as the accent is fairly easy to tune out.
The person who really stole the film however was David Thewlis. Every time he was on screen the story became more interesting. His character was just as three dimensional as Pitt's and in a lot of ways more complex. I only wish the movie had more time to explore his story.
Even though the film clocks in at 136 minutes, it probably would have been a better film if it was a little longer. It's hard to condense the 11 years that takes place in the movie into a little over two hours, and though the film does a good job, there are still some abrupt time changes. In one scene its winter and people are skating on ice, and in the next over 6 months have passed and some pretty important events have occurred. It is hard to judge how much time has passed from one scene to the next, and while this is never jarring it does make viewers wish that the intervening years hadn't been passed over.
Even if the story doesn't grab you, the beautiful scenery should. The movie reminded me of a John Ford western in that respect, with the magnificent countryside playing the equivalent of a supporting role. The cinematography was excellent, presenting Tibet in a series of gorgeous vistas that really add another dimension of entertainment to the film.
The DVD:
Video:
The 2.40:1 widescreen image looks very good on this Blu-ray disc, almost too good. The level a detail is great, and small facial features, pores, fine hair, and the like are easy to discern in close-up shots. In some of Brad Pitt's close-ups however his skin is too even and smooth because of his make-up. It doesn't make him look bad, but it is noticeable in a few instances. The colors were fine generally, though the dresses and costumes that the people wore looked just a tad on the dull side, especially during the exterior shots. This is a very minor defect though. This film has many wonderful vistas, and they all looked lovely. The green grass covered hills with snow capped mountain peaks in the background had solid colors though they were often filmed with a soft focus causing them not to be as crisp as possible. Posterization wasn't a problem and other digital defects were likewise missing.
Audio:
This disc comes with DD 5.1 mixes in English and French as a PCM uncompressed English soundtrack. I enjoyed the PCM audio while watching the film, though spot checking the DD track did not reveal a huge difference between the two tracks. The film is mainly dialog driven and generally quiet, but the front soundstage was used to good effect. The rears were employed relatively sparingly, but when they kicked in the film was encompassing and full. The dialog was easy to discern, especially Pitt's lines with his non-consistent accent, but there just wasn't a lot to set this apart from your average movie soundtrack. It just wasn't dynamic or impressive, but it did its job well. There are subtitles in English, French, and Spanish as well as Portuguese and Thai.
Extras:
Unfortunately there are no extras. That's really too bad since a documentary on the Dalai Lama or even an interview with the real Heinrich (who died in 2006) would have greatly enhanced this BD.
Final Thoughts:
While this wasn't a perfect film, Pitt's accent could have used some work and the narrative jumped forward in time a bit too often, it is a very enjoyable and extraordinary film. How it ever got made is a wonder; I can't imagine what the pitch sounded like. ("It's a movie about a Nazi who abandons his wife and son and then meets the Dalai Lama. The Buddhists will flock to it I tell ya!") In any case the movie works well. The characters are engaging and the film never gets preachy, choosing to show the effects of living in Tibet on these two men rather than lecturing. Well worth checking out. A strong recommendation.
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