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The Way Back (2010, Weir)

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The Way Back (2010, Weir)

Old 10-18-08, 11:25 PM
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The Way Back (Peter Weir)

Glad to see Weir behind the camera again. From Variety:
Peter Weir is set to direct "The Way Back," the fact-based story of the escape of soldiers from a Siberian gulag in 1940.

Production begins in March in Bulgaria.

The highly selective Australian helmer last directed the 2003 film "Master and Commander" for Fox, and developed but dropped out of "Shantaram," the Warner Bros. project which was to star Johnny Depp.

He wrote the script for "The Way Back" and based it on several sources, most notably the Slavomir Rawicz book "The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom." Book is Rawicz’s account of being captured by the Red Army in 1939 and his journey to freedom with other inmates. The group crossed the Siberian arctic, the Gobi desert and the Himalayas, finally settling in Tibet and India.
Old 10-18-08, 11:57 PM
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Weir has yet to make a bad film. Sounds like its got great potential.
Old 01-11-09, 12:37 PM
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Re: The Way Back (Peter Weir)

From Variety:
Director Peter Weir will find "The Way Back" with Colin Farrell, Ed Harris, Jim Sturgess and Saoirse Ronan.
Old 01-11-09, 01:35 PM
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Re: The Way Back (Peter Weir)

Anything from Weir is a must-see for me.
Old 01-11-09, 02:17 PM
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Re: The Way Back (Peter Weir)

Agreed. Weir is one of the greatest living directors right now, but he doesn't make many films. Glad to see him with a new project.
Old 10-22-10, 10:38 AM
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Re: The Way Back (Peter Weir)

Trailer - loads automatically.
Old 10-22-10, 05:07 PM
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Re: The Way Back (Peter Weir)

It's Weir. I'm in.
Old 10-22-10, 06:28 PM
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Re: The Way Back (Peter Weir)

Weir is a phenomenal director, anything he releases is a day one film for me.
Old 02-01-11, 06:13 PM
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The Way Back (2010, Weir)

<iframe title="YouTube video player" class="youtube-player" type="text/html" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/87kezJTpyMI" frameborder="0" allowFullScreen></iframe>

Anyone see this yet? It's currently at 75% on RottenTomatoes. I'm a huge fan of Peter Weir so I'll be checking this out.
Old 02-01-11, 07:30 PM
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Re: The Way Back (2010, Weir)

I did. It's good, but very very slow. Marketing on the film was crap. No one was in my theater and the showtimes were cut in half the second week in my area.
Old 02-01-11, 09:59 PM
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Re: The Way Back (2010, Weir)

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/movie-talk/...eter-weir.html
Old 02-01-11, 11:44 PM
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Re: The Way Back (2010, Weir)

They have done a poor job at marketing this film. It looks absolutely fantastic; hopefully I will get to see it sooner rather than later.
Old 02-02-11, 10:18 PM
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Re: The Way Back (2010, Weir)

Twenty minutes in the gulag. Then two hours of long-distance shots of people walking. Stop for five minutes here and there to talk about looking for food and water. Over all, it was a damn boring film. They never are in any danger, they never get chased by wolves or Nazis or Soviets or anything. Just more damn walking. They never stop walking. Did I mention they do a lot of walking in this film? Hell, even MY feet were bloody and swollen after 150 minutes of seeing them walk!
Old 02-02-11, 10:25 PM
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Re: The Way Back (2010, Weir)

yet the trailer makes the film look like a rousing foot chase - which it essentially isn't. I thought the first twenty minutes were sleep inducing, but I didn't mind the rest of the movie - the cinemtography is obviousily the highlight of the movie - in the grand tradition of an epic, the wide sweeping panavision camera work looks amazing on the big screen.
Old 02-02-11, 11:23 PM
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Re: The Way Back (2010, Weir)

Originally Posted by E. Honda
Twenty minutes in the gulag. Then two hours of long-distance shots of people walking. Stop for five minutes here and there to talk about looking for food and water. Over all, it was a damn boring film. They never are in any danger, they never get chased by wolves or Nazis or Soviets or anything. Just more damn walking. They never stop walking. Did I mention they do a lot of walking in this film? Hell, even MY feet were bloody and swollen after 150 minutes of seeing them walk!
That's what I meant by slow. Not that it's a bad film. But if you want to watch a movie about people walking, just walking, this is for you.
Old 04-04-11, 05:26 PM
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Re: The Way Back (2010, Weir)

I couldn't have enjoyed this more.

Fantastic film.
Old 04-04-11, 07:21 PM
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Re: The Way Back (2010, Weir)

An amazing walk. Just breathtaking.
Old 06-16-11, 11:10 PM
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Re: The Way Back (2010, Weir)

I really enjoyed this movie!
Old 06-17-11, 06:44 PM
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Re: The Way Back (2010, Weir)

Originally Posted by E. Honda
Twenty minutes in the gulag. Then two hours of long-distance shots of people walking. Stop for five minutes here and there to talk about looking for food and water. Over all, it was a damn boring film. They never are in any danger, they never get chased by wolves or Nazis or Soviets or anything. Just more damn walking. They never stop walking. Did I mention they do a lot of walking in this film? Hell, even MY feet were bloody and swollen after 150 minutes of seeing them walk!
I can see why, it was a box office flop! I became drowsy, just by reading your post about it.
Old 09-02-11, 04:25 PM
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Re: The Way Back (2010, Weir)

Originally Posted by slimdude
I can see why, it was a box office flop! I became drowsy, just by reading your post about it.
It wasn't a BO flop because it was a bad film, it was BO flop because the distribution company and producers that were attached to it failed to market it correctly.

Even Weir himself stated that Hollywood doesn't support films like TWB. Even he had a hard time funding the project.
Old 09-02-13, 10:53 AM
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Re: The Way Back (2010, Weir)

Got this on BD a while back. Watching it again.

Great visuals of the territories these characters face. Ed Harris is the best one in here, the man gets so into his stuff that he's easily the strongest actor in here.

The BD itself is meh. Weak features and there are some Video issues. All mostly to when they're in some type of black surrounding or some shadowed area. Looks fucking weird. Thankfully most of the film takes place in litted elements.

The movie itself? Pretty damn epic in scope but as much as I enjoy the visual and the music, something about the narrative is off. I can't put my finger on it. It just needed to be tightened a bit. I don't mind the length, I actually appreciate it for this film. Just something about the story needed to be better refined. Don't know how to put it.

Either way it's a trek of a film, worth a watch.

Anyone else have any issue with the video quality of the film on the BD?

Still wish to get a jampacked Master and Commander BD one day. Will never happen.

Last edited by Solid Snake; 09-03-13 at 10:54 AM.
Old 09-03-13, 08:02 AM
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Re: The Way Back (2010, Weir)

This was a funny coincidence that this thread was bumped. I actually just picked this up from the library over the weekend because we saw Master and Commander last week and I wanted to check out something else the director has done. Looking forward to watching it later this week.
Old 09-03-13, 08:07 AM
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Re: The Way Back (2010, Weir)

This is also streaming on Hulu+.
Old 09-03-13, 12:47 PM
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Re: The Way Back (2010, Weir)

I enjoyed the movie. It isn't perfect, but there's nothing really wrong with it. I did have one big problem regarding its authenticity. Spoiler, even if have seen the film and like it you might not want to read:
Spoiler:
The film's greatest strength is that it has this incredible survival story that it purports to be true. The achievement of these men is amazing. But after watching the film I did a little research and the truth about the story is hard to confirm. By its very nature of it being a story of escape from a Soviet gulag there are no accounts of the author ever being there and no documentation of the journey other than the word of the author. When you take in to account the almost unbelievable story of walking over 4,000 miles, and combine it with the fact that there is no evidence, I begin to suspect the story is a fabrication.

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