Published by: World Tibet Network News Wednesday - October 8, 1997

Brad Pitt Finds a Long Path to Enlightenment

By Rita Kempley

Washington Post Staff Writer

October 8, 1997

The romance of the jackboot, the buns of das Bund: "Seven Years in Tibet," an elaborate epic about an Austrian mountaineer, is the latest in a series of movies that inadvertently perpetuate Nazi chic. As in "Schindler's List" and "The English Patient," the hero is an Aryan hunk who joins the brownshirts for the reasons other men join the Chamber of Commerce and the PTA.

Brad Pitt follows in the goose steps of Ralph Fiennes and Liam Neeson here as the real-life Heinrich Harrer, a remote, fame-addicted 27-year-old whose arduous Himalayan trek gradually leads him to the Dalai Lama and spiritual enlightenment. And a gorgeous, richly costumed, historically detailed and eventful journey it is, too.

Unfortunately, Harrer's inner struggle isn't as grand as the sweep of Jean-Jacques Annaud's direction. And it's not easy to like the self-centered Harrer, even if he is pretty and even if you can forget that he's a storm trooper. Although his hugely pregnant wife is devastated by his departure, he makes no attempt to comfort her before setting off with Peter Aufschnaiter (David Thewlis), the expedition's level-headed leader.

Their object, to scale Nanga Parbat, has become a German obsession and Harrer, who's carrying a swastika-emblazoned flag, is determined to plant it come Hell or high winds. During the misguided assault, Harrer badgers Aufschnaiter and endangers the other climbers and their bearers.

By the time bad weather forces them back to base camp, World War II is underway and the climbers, now enemy aliens, are arrested by the British and placed in a prisoner-of-war camp. Harrer stubbornly tries to escape, but succeeds only when he goes along with Aufschnaiter's plan. And there's another two years to go before he and the long-suffering Aufschnaiter reach the mysterious Tibetan city of Lhasa.

At long last, Shangri-La.

At long last, Harrer gets in touch with his inner child and at long last, the adventure's diary gives way to a warmer, more humorous and heartfelt psychological odyssey in which Harrer is befriended by the devout people of the village and, finally, by the 14-year-old Dalai Lama (the charismatic Bhutanese actor Jamyang Jamtsho Wangchuk). Suddenly, both man and movie are transformed by the genuine bond between the actors, one that forms between Pitt and Thewlis much later in the film.

Pitt approaches the role as if it were the Nanga Parbat itself and he a lone Sherpa burdened with the weight of the entire expedition. It seems to take all of his resources to reach the summit and he's just so relieved to be a good guy again when he meets the Dalai Lama that he sheds his Teutonic torpor and grins all over.

As in Frank Capra's "Lost Horizon," Shangri-La is eventually lost to Harrer, his partner and finally the Dalai Lama himself. "Seven Years in Tibet" is only the first of the fall films to focus on the Dalai Lama's exile and Tibet's ongoing political struggle with the Chinese. Stay tuned for Martin Scorsese's "Kundun" and Richard Gere's "Red Corner."

This one provides an easily understood introduction to Tibet's tragic history. Here, in some of the highest and most remote valleys on Earth, is a tragedy that has managed to touch people everywhere with the charming, sweet sadness of these mountain dwellers. If this film works, it is because Wangchuk infuses it with a joyful spirituality. So when's the last time you had a religious experience at the movies?