Written by: Peter Weir & Keith Clarke
Starring: Jim Sturgess, Ed Harris, Saoirse Ronan, Colin Farrell, Dragoș Bucur, Alexandru Potocean
Rating: [3.5/5]
With a proper goal on the horizon and enough adrenaline, human beings can accomplish things they never thought they would be able to complete. They just need to get desperate enough to want to get it done. The Way Back provides a tale that combines all of these elements in a story capturing quite the trek but one that dazzles both visually and also taking in the pure perseverance of the characters we follow.
After being sent to a Siberian prison, Janusz Wieszczek (Jim Sturgess) meets other inmates who plan to escape through the tough terrain and make their way to Mongolia. As they escape and begin their trek they run into the harsh elements of the environments they enter with very limited supplies.
If you search for it, you can find some incredible feats of human achievement when their backs get put against the wall. An effort to simply survive and reach a place that will provide them peace or where they can live freely. This becomes the ultimate objective of the men who escape this Siberian prison. They know of the dangers awaiting them, which exceed simply trying to dodge the efforts of the guards and Soviet army finding them but also what it means to walk through such harsh temperatures. With all of this in mind, they still acknowledge the importance of what they must do for their own sake and the film sets things off for quite the trek.
Starting in a complete snowstorm that assists in covering their tracks, this journey begins with some horrid conditions to the point where one of them freezes to death because of it. However, this journey encompasses such a long-range journey that they encounter more than just the snow seeing as when they enter different nations they deal with desert-like conditions, which completely change the dynamic of what they must do in order to survive. As we watch these characters navigate these circumstances we see them pushed to their limits and exactly why their perseverance indicates so much about them and how much they want to reach their eventual endpoint.
As we travel with these characters they undoubtedly build a dynamic together that proves vital if they will survive considering they need what each can supply the team. Janusz serves as the main protagonist who receives much of the backstory but in addition, we receive quite the motley crew of individuals from all walks of life. It includes an American engineer (Ed Harris), a Russian criminal (Colin Farrell) a Yugoslavian accountant (Dragoș Bucur), and a Polish pastry chef (Alexandru Potocean). Certainly not a group of individuals who naturally gravitate toward each other for a collective goal, but desperate times call for desperate measures here. They build a bond of necessity but it does not mean they cannot genuinely build connections together as a circumstance like this forges by fire making each of these moments quite precious. It certainly gets better with an addition they make while already on their journey of Irena Zielińska (Saoirse Ronan), an orphaned Polish teenager who changes the dynamic a bit between the men.
With good performances to boot the true highlight of the film comes from the cinematography in capturing the environments these characters travel through. It came as no surprise that National Geographic Films served as one of the production companies behind crafting this movie considering the emphasis on capturing the beauty of where they travel. From where they start and conclude, we see vastly different climates and weather patterns that add to this difficulty and it all looks quite gorgeous. Peter Weir, the director, has always liked pitting his characters against natural elements and this film puts them on the edge of each extreme one could think of when it comes to weather.
Difficult to watch because of the harsh conditions and the impact it has on the characters but undoubtedly entertaining and well-crafted, The Way Back does everything it sought to accomplish. It brings together a group of strangers as they traverse dangerous paths and do so because of the dream they have to live freely and away from their oppressors. We get some great actors all brought together to put it all together and a tremendous filmmaker who strikes up another strong outing once again.
Films with Josh 
