Word: austrian
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...semi-successful, though gorgeous, epic gives much-needed visibility to the tragic modern history of Tibet, but opts for glossy formulaic packaging over genuine emotion, even in the central relationship between Brad Pitt's Austrian mountaineer and the young Dalai Lama. Pitt never frees us from the sensation that he's out of place--a Hollywood heartthrob trying to look spiritual. In fact, the film actually becomes more dramatically compelling as Pitt's character fades in prominence, though it's amusing to watch his arrogant narcissism get deflated. --Lynn...
...gorgeous to look at and gives some much-needed high-profile visibility to the tragic modern history of Tibet--but opts for glossy formulaic packaging over genuine emotional resonance. Each turn of the plot feels Hollywood-scripted to the max, even the central relationship between Brad Pitt's Austrian mountaineer and the young Dalai Lama. The latter succeeds in blending wide-eyed winsomeness with a dignity that's at once childlike and mature. Pitt, alas, never frees us from the sensation that he's something incongruous in this setting--a Hollywood heartthrob trying to look spiritual. To make matters worse...
...young Austrian, his country's most revered athlete, climbs mountains to escape from himself. Leaving his wife, he treks to a remote kingdom to find a new truth. An ideal Aryan who befriends a boy of the yellow race, he dumps Hitler for the Dalai Lama. A man bred on competition, he becomes a missionary for peace and enlightenment. Sounds as though there's a movie in Heinrich Harrer's life...
...know much about the country's predominant religion. He picked up a copy of Sogyal Rinpoche's The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, an introduction to the subject, but never cracked it, preferring in the end to enter the project as ignorant as was the character he plays, Austrian mountain climber Heinrich Harrer, when he stumbled across the Tibetan border in 1944. But on a movie set stocked with actual monks working as extras, the actor picked up a thing or two. "Their idea of a civilization that rejects violence on principle--I mean, what?" he ejaculates with Jackie...
...story follows the adventures of one Heinrich Harrer (Pitt), an Austrian mountain climber whose mountaineering expedition eventually takes him to the holy Tibetan city of Lhasa. The journey marks an emotional awakening for Harrer, one that culminates in his befriending the Dalai Lama, whose friendship and spiritual guidance emboldens him to return to and face tangled domestic issues at home. The relative lack of compelling ideas and characters to identify with before this enlightenment--basically, during Harrer's journey to Tibet--acts as a foil for the movie's latter, more fulfilling half...