vanillabean349 This film was truly an experience to watch. The events of this film are based on the story recounted by Slavomir Rawicz, a polish army lieutenant who managed to escape from a Siberian gulag during the second world war and walked to freedom in India. Peter Weir uses this story and some imagination to produce the sometimes fantasy-like plot for the film. In the opening scenes, Janusz, the protagonist, is being interrogated on charges of spying for the Allied powers, but refuses to sign a confession even after his wife is forced to falsely testify against him. This sort of corruption was not unusual in the USSR during this time, further developing the exposition for the film. The film also does a great job of depicting the experiences of prisoners in these gulags. Upon their arrival, the commandant of the camp explains the true viciousness and harshness of the natural environment in these camps, and that this ought to be feared more so than the guards, officers or work. This is an accurate picture of the gulags, especially in Siberia, where bitter-cold temperatures, sudden storms and other harsh conditions took the lives of both prisoners and guards at only marginally different (but still alarming) rates. Work in these camps was often tough labor like the logging shown in the film, and was possibly even more dangerous than the film depicted. Trees would often fall on people, accidents often occurred that resulted in serious injuries, and there are recorded incidences of people who chose to harm themselves to get a reprieve from this dangerous environment. In addition to the work and conditions, the types of prisoners in the gulags depicted in the movie were also accurate to a great extent. Gulag populations were far from homogeneous, and often held career criminals, political prisoners, and many common people who were charged falsely with some crime, as well as people from a variety of ethnic backgrounds. The career criminals often took control of the prisoner population, and were able to manipulate others in the camp to get what they wanted. Often times, the guards even supported this behavior. Similarly, there were people of all walks of life, all levels of health, and all manners of allegiance to the soviet order. While many of the main characters were in open opposition to the Soviet system, people like Valka - who still praised Stalin even after escaping the camp - did exist. Overall this film paints a relatively accurate picture of gulag life, and the types of conditions seen within the camps. The characters are at times overplayed, and the story itself becomes slightly monotonous after a period of time, but I would recommend this film to anyone interested in a story of true human will.

efishbin The beginning of the film contains the most valuable and accurate historical depictions. In the first scenes, we are shown how family members were coerced into informing on their spouses, or parents, through means of torture. The gulag system not only tore apart families by physical distance, but through emotional trauma as well. The guilt of being responsible for a loved one's imprisonment is imaginably as tormenting as the gulags were.The scenes that took place in the gulag showed the hostilities of Siberia's climate and the unforgiving nature of the criminal prisoners who ran the show much like the Kapos did in concentration camps. The film did well to highlight the different kinds of prisoners who ended up in the gulags, ranging from political prisoners, to convicts and even on the rare occasion, an American.As the escaping group got further from the gulag, the film became more and more about surviving in the wild than about a significant historical event. Of course there were people who escaped and many who met their end in the surrounding wilderness. But the 4,000 mile walk depicted seems to have been an unique exception or perhaps an impossible dream at best. The journey, though, illustrates what is better than being in a gulag. They were willing to risk the unknown in the wilderness rather than stay and die in the gulag as prisoners. The escaping group took ownership of their lives back, and for some, their deaths too.Purely as a film, it was a compelling story told in an engaging way. I appreciated the many different kinds of prisoners that had their characters expanded upon and a voice given too. Not often is a criminal prisoner seen as much more than a criminal, and I thought that Valka was a crucial character to the film.

tannerpim This great Movie sometimes feels like a National Geographic book that you enjoy from your seat Yes, the Characters do get some malnourishment , and some do die from the trek, but the lighting is made well the clothing the actors ware draws you in as a viewer to believe the place and time is relevant ,to say the least, and the escapees do bond enough to make it as a team, but there is, unrealistically, not enough conflict and Drama. It is all handled in such a delicate way, that it is too delicate for its own good. It is without much tension and it all plays out so gentile that the Movie is OK to watch but there is way too little to feel, what would make the movie better, is more conflict and more drama, they don't explain the other stories of the other escapees, like what happened to valka, and the other guys , its okay just wish it was more engaging

anthonykeane-24229 For you that doubt, grew up with my Grandparents. i was sent to live with them quite early in life, but I grew up with the stories. They licked ice off screws on the cattle carts on the way to Siberia for water. And yes, they went to British India via Mongolia and the story gets even more disturbing. Their crime? They were engineers...too intelligent to be allowed to live. Thank you for making this film and showing the horrors of Communism. I doubted it myself because of what the world tells us, I was wrong. There is no way on Earth this story is a fabrication, my Grandfather whom still lives does not even know of the internet...but I knew the story from 8+ in the late 80s. Thank you Britain for taking care of my Grandparents, thank you to the Indian people and thank you to the Persians. I will repay my debt to England, I owe you. And f*^& you Stalin and Lenin.