Movie Review: Seven Years in Tibet

Related Event: Movie- Seven Years in Tibet

I watched Seven Years in Tibet for the first time ever and really found it to be an interesting movie. Of course, it doesn't hurt that Brad Pitt was playing the lead actor, but it had a lot more qualities than that! In the beginning I had no idea how it would be related to the course on Religion, other than he was traveling to Tibet. I was glad that the movie moved along quickly through the first part so I could realize what the whole idea behind the film was.

Heinrich was a very selfish guy with only his own goals in mind in the beginning, and turned out to be a very thoughtful giving character when the movie came to an end. His relationship with the other men in his climbing team, that he was later imprisoned with showed how little he cared for other people for the first few years he was in Tibet. I enjoyed that his teammate Peter was involved with him through the entire movie, showing a lot about the evolution of that friendship as well. The way Heinrich was so disloyal to him through their climbing and travels and relationship showed what a mean spirited person he was to begin with. As the movie got on, you could really see how much he cared for Peter, and it was touching to see the ways he expressed it to his friend.

Once Heinrich and Peter arrived in Lhasa, was when his personality began to develop, to me, into someone who could be likeable. I suppose that this was why the Dali Lama sought out his friendship. Well, I suppose it was really because he was from a Western civilization, and he knew about radio, cars and movie theaters. Still, it was very interesting to see their relationship develop from the formalities expected from an outside visitor to the close relationship they developed. It makes you see how the Tibetan people think and believe about life. Although the Dali Lama was a highly revered icon in their culture, he was able to develop a relationship with Heinrich, which was eventually without much of the ceremony it had to begin with. A leader could be seen as a person, and be allowed to learn about life from a man from a completely different country and lifestyle.

It seems like a brilliant idea for the writers to make it so that Heinrich had a son he did not meet, but instead developed this relationship with Kundun. It turns out that this a true story and that was really a actual twist of