The Way Back

The screenplay,co-written by Weir,never really gets up close and personal with this fascinating array of characters from various spheres of Soviet influence,convicted to the Gulag for myriad reasons. The escape from the prison is surprisingly easy just the matter of a dash across the barbed wire and once they are on the foot,there is no tension. Neither over the meagre,fast-depleting food stocks,nor water; none when thoughts crop up about cannibalism; and none when they lose their way. Even when a young,attractive girl joins this hardened group,life goes on as usual. The violent,restless Farrell provides some frisson,but he doesnt stick around for a long time.

The peril of the journey never really hits you,only the length of it. And since nobody seems to be giving them a chase,you wonder if the Soviet might have really gone after the bunch of six had they put their tent in the middle of Mongolias Gobi desert.

The dialogue is perfunctory,the jokes are lame and till the girl Irene strikes a relationship with Mr Smith,the American who lost his son,the movie is largely without a heart. The Way Back is a story about survival that feels and looks like a boy scouts trip gone wrong.