Seven Years in Tibet (1997)

FilmReport * Seven Years In Tibet * Produced in 1998 * Produced by Jean-Jacques Annaud * Brad Pitt ¨C David Thewlis ¨C Wong Mako * I have seen the movie at my house. * It is an adventure movie. * The whole story takes place in Tibet and the surrounding mountains. Only at the beginning and at the end, Heinrich is in Austria. During his journey he has climbed many mountains and he was for 3 years in a POW-camp. * The most important place for me was the Monastry where the Dalai Lama lived. It showed perfectly the situation and religion of that county. It was as if that was for them the world and nothing else existed. When Heinrich, ¡®the traveller¡¯, got there in the beginning, he disliked their culture and religion but at the end you see him in complete respect with the inhabitants and he enjoys their lifestyle. * The lights gave a good effect on the situation of the movie. It was dark and not clear sight when for example, Heinrich was at the POW-camp and when the Chinese invaded Tibet. This gave a special effect on how the situation was then. * The way the actors were dressed gave a very good interpretation of how they lived. When Heinrich left Austria he was properly dressed and therefore had a nice family and a nice expedition to look forward to. During his journey things got tough for him and he wore very old, dirty clothes. As soon as he and his friend got to Tibet, they met a girl who was dress-maker and made them new, very nice clothes. They were doing good; had food, shelter and people around them. When Heinrich met the Dalai Lama he first wore the casual, modern clothes which were made for him. At the end, when he eventually respected their religion and culture, he wore their traditional dresses and was dressed properly for the religion. * When Heinrich and his friend Peter were up in the mountains and in the camp, their faces were all dirty and they hadn¡¯t showered for a very long time. You could get the feeling that if you were there with them, they would smell awfull. When they had their good times in Tibet, their faces looked very neat, they were shaven and their hair was properly cut. * The music in this movie only acted for the background. For example, when the Chinese invaded Tibet, there was more background music and when Heinrich was in the Monastry, you could hear the traditional music of Tibet. When the two men were up in the mountains and actually for the rest of the movie, there was no music used. Also there isn¡¯t a special sound-track made for this movie, as it only had a little bit of background music. * There were some special sound effects. For example when Peter or Heinrich fell from a rock in the mountains or when the Chinese invaded Tibet. Not too much were used though, it was all very ¡®natural¡¯ to hear. The main character of the movie is Heinrich Harrar, a famous mountaineer who comes from Austria. He was married to Ingrid, but when he left for his expedition, he left her pregnant with his child. After a few years, they got divorced and she married
somebody else, who eventually would be recognized as the father of their child. Heinrich gets very upset when he recieves the divorce papers. He is very arrogant and is very independent. When he and Peter travel together, he isn't very nice to him and only relies on himself. As they get to Tibet, Heinrich first didn't respect the culture and religion of the country and only sees it as a source of food and shelter. When after a while he gets friends with the Dalai Lama, he is turning into an other man. He is very kind to all the people and respects their culture. When eventually he gets backto Austria, he's a complete different man. In the movie were no flash-backs used at all. It was told in chronological order, although they skipped some years when for example, he was at the POW-camp. It was narrated as the diary of Heinrich. Sometimes you here him read his diary. For

example; It's August 4, 1939. I have reached camp 3 and only 2 others are left for me to go to. I hope Rolf (his son)is doing fine. Then the story continues again and you see Heinrich going to places etc. The time in which the story took place in, was during World War Two. This influenced the story a lot. This represents the reason why the Chinese invaded Tibet
and why Heinrich got imprisoned at a Britisch war-camp. * The main theme of this movie was loyalty; when Heinrich saved Peter's life; when the inhabitants of Tibet let the two strangers into their country; when the Dalai Lama and Heinrich got friends. There was also some dis-loyalty like when Heinrich's wife wanted a divorce and wasn't patient for his return home; when the Governor of Tibet left them at their hardest time, when the Chinese invaded Tibet. * This movie was made to first of all, produce the diary of Heinrich Harrer to a movie. Second, I think it was to show how two cultures got together. Heinrich brought the Western-culture into Tibet. This was great to see how the inhabitants and the Dalai Lama reacted on this. It was to show that two complete differentcultures can mix easily and that eventually the egocentric Heinrich Harrer changed into a very nice and kind man. * The thing that fascinated me the most of this movie, was the friendship between the Dalai Lama and Heinrich Harrer. The Dalai Lama was grown up with strict rules to be a leader. When he sees Heinrich, sudden all these rules seem to dissappear and they get quite close with eachother. It was nice to see too how Heinrich turned into a friendly man at the end. The other thing which fascinated me too, was the setting of the movie and especially the Monastry and the clothing of the monks and inhabitants of Tibet. It was very nice to see such a different culture with their beautiful traditional clothes and monastries. To be honest, nearly nothing bored me in this movie. It was quite exciting to follow Heinrich and his friend through the mountains and eventually their stay in Tibet. The first scene which interested me was in the beginning, when Heinrich and the expedition group were trying to climb the Himalaya. At one moment, Peter and Heinrich were roped together and Peter fell. Heinrich and he just had been in a row and he had badly hurt his leg. Heinrich had to do all he could to save Peter¡¯s life, when he hung there on his rope. This was also an example of the theme loyalty; although Heinrich and Peter were in a row, he still gave everything he had to save Peter¡¯s life. The second sc¨¨ne was when Heinrich and Peter were in Tibet. Heinrich got an invitation to meet the Dalai Lama. This sc¨¨ne was so impressive because now two cultures met eachother and at their first sight, it already looked like as if they liked eachother. Ofcourse the setting played a big part in this, as it was my favourite. The producer has done very well in performing the main theme. He showed many situations in which the theme played a big part. The more weaker points of this movie was the storyline with the never-seen-child of Heinrich and his ex-wife. I think this was done to romanticize the whole story a bit and make it even more life-like. For me, the rest of the movie was all good. The actors who played the main characters were very good. Heinrich was to my opinion really that egocentric as the movie showed, but I think a little bit less handsome than Brad Pitt... The Dalai Lama was played as if he was really him. For such a young child, he played his part very good. Ofcourse, this also added a lot of value to the movie for me. The clothes, as already mentioned before, were very appropraite for the situations. Also the props, like food from the and the klimbing tools were really like as if they came right from that time. This also added a lot of value to the movie. Even all the props in the Tibet scenes probably really belonged to the people who lived there and also how the monastries and houses were shown. This movie now belongs to one of my favourites. I enjoyed it so much. The setting nice, the actors were good, it was all very realistic and the whole storyline interested
me a lot. It had only one little weaker point but the rest of the movie made up for it.