Seven Years in Tibet

This is my favorite movie. It always inspires me to be a better person. Such a powerful performance. I had to own it.

Love this Movie!!

Seven Years in Tibet is an excellent movie based on actual events that happened. China invaded Tibet during the 1950's and Tibet is one of the 55 minority ethnic groups. 92 percent of China are the Han's. China is trying to eliminate the cultures of all non-Han cultures.

Brad Pitt is the star power in this 1997 movie based on the memoir of Heinrich Harrer, an Austrian alpinist, Anschluss supporter, Nazi Party member, and devil-may-care adventurer whose Third Reich-backed climbing team undertakes a failed attempt to conquer the Himalayan peak Nanda Parbat in the summer of 1939.Upon turning back, they are interned as Prisoners of War by the British in India, their two nations having gone to war while Harrer and his fellows were involved in the climb.Harrer escapes from British detention in 1940, and undertakes a difficult trek to the isolated Kingdom of Tibet, ruled over by the XIV Dalai Lama, then only a toddler. Although Harrer and his companion are at first shown the borders back into India, they manage to evade the Tibetan authorities and eventually find themselves in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet.The Tibetans make them welcome after being assured of their friendly intentions, and they remain in Lhasa for the duration of the war. Harrer is one day spied out by the young Dalai Lama who is playing with a newly-acquired telescope, and he is brought to the Dalai Lama's presence. He and the youngster quickly bond, and for His Holiness Harrer becomes a window on the modern world and a close confidant.For his part, Harrer is deeply affected by the peaceful spiritual ways of the Tibetans and renounces Naziism and all forms of violence. The 1950 Chinese incursion into Tibet devastates him emotionally. Monasteries are burned, monks killed en masse, and the Red Chinese, declaring that "religion is poison" attempt to eradicate Buddhism and the indigenous culture root and branch from the land. A brutal weeklong Sino-Tibetan War is ended when the Tibetan Minister of Defense (B.D. Wong), somewhat of a Chinese stooge, throws open the border crossings.His Holiness, in mortal danger himself, gives Harrer, at some danger as a European, leave to go. Harrer returns to Austria. As history was to show, the XIV Dalai Lama followed his friend into exile in 1959. The two remained friends until Harrer's death in 2006.Pitt is a more than adequate Harrer, though not flinty enough. His accent occasionally slips. Pitt misses the mark as Harrer, when he, unbelievably, transmutes from a self-righteous, self-absorbed man and committed Fascist to a paradigm of compassion instantaneously and completely. I have no doubt that being in the presence (particularly the constant presence) of His Holiness is a life-altering experience, but Harrer's evolution is so compressed in time that it seems staged and unconvincing. His spiritual evolution should have been a profound element in the story, not a cinematic wind sprint.SEVEN YEARS IN TIBET focuses too heavily on Harrer and not heavily enough on Tibetan culture, the Sino-Tibetan conflict, or the Dalai Lama, who is really a secondary player (though an important one) in this film. More focus on the land in which Harrer found himself would have deepened this film considerably.Still, overall, this is a film about a beautiful land, a beautiful culture, and a beautiful people hunted like animals to the edge of extinction by what has turned out to be the ultimate paper tiger---Chinese Communism. Beijing owes Lhasa a million lives and a thousand years of culture. The least they can do is free Tibet.

Worth the time to watch. All the characters are believable and Brad Pitt did a good acting job. You learn things from this movie. What you learn is up to you. The photography is good. The scenery is what you might expect, but this movie is not meant to be a travelogue “sell” full of picturesque vistas and eye-candy for your viewing. It is meant to tell you about a man's journey, the hidden calling that drew him to the beginning of another man's journey. Part of that second journey is what happened to the Sovereign Country of Tibet at the hands of the biggest danger in the world, a China that never had as part of his history or culture the grace of being host to the world and its support. China's soul is an ugly clod, only knowing the way of being self centered. The fake excuse of uniting the Chinese peoples was a ruse used by Mao to coerce the UN and the world into looking aside as he conquered a sovereign peoples' mountain fortress position from which he, Mao and China could then, permanently, intimidate India. This is the military reason for the usurpation of Tibet. The nature of China, the nature of its peoples, is just a clodding selfishness of go, go, go. It has no other way within its being. China is the danger to the world. Remember this. The clod always needs to be ruled over and given directions if it is to be at peace and balance. Remember this, too.

Second best movie ever

I ran across the middle of this movie on tv, and was stuck. I bought it, watched it over and over, I bought the book, Lost Lhasa by Henrich Harrer, loaded with photos. Apparently, before he left he did survey the area, and so there is a record of the Tibetans rights to the Tibet even though China has wiped the name off the maps.Heinrich Harrer a mountain climber, winds up in the forbidden city of Lhasa Tibet home of the Dalai Lama, and being allowed to remain, makes friends with the Dalai Lama, and the Tibetan people.China invades, murders, robs, destroys the area.Even now they are there, the Dalai Lama isn't, and the Potola, the palace had a wall collapse from all the people going through it, the humidity.When I watch this movie, as I must because it is so beautiful, and the people are so delightful, I must stop at the point where the Dalai Lama starts having his telepathic nightmares--where he sees the invasion and destruction of his home town. I do pick up again at the ending where Harrer leaves Tibet for home and meets up with the son he never saw.It is heart-wrenching.The movie was so good, I had to read Heinrich Harrers book, Seven Years in Tibet--what a book, what an experience!

Bon film

This is one of relatively few films where I've read the book it's based on. I loved the book and I love the film. It's very well done on every level. And the story is one well worth telling - that of an Austrian mountaineer who takes part in a climbing expedition in the Himalayas in 1939, is taken as prisoner of war in British India at the beginning of WW2 and finally manages to escape the prison camp to then completely isolated Tibet of all places. And once there, he manages to befriend the young Dalai Lama and become his confidante.Anybody expecting a biopic of the Dalai Lama will likely be disappointed. This is Heinrich Harrer's story. And while he is played by Hollywood's hugely likable golden boy Brad Pitt, Harrer is not a particularly likable character. He is an extremely selfish and ambitious athlete who leaves his pregnant young wife in Austria to travel half way round the world and climb the then unconquered Nanga Parbat mountain. He is a difficult character, a loner who doesn't make friends even with the other members of his expedition or fellow POWs in the camp. Over time he does change some of his ways, but it's a slow learning process, not a miraculous Hollywood transformation.For me the various filming locations standing in for the Himalayas, India and Tibet work very nicely, as does the mostly Asian supporting cast among them the real life sister of the Dalai Lama who appears as his and her own mother. Lovely touch that.The DVD has an unfortunate letterbox format. Yes, you do get the widescreen version (definitely a positive), but formatted for an old 4:3 screen which makes for broad black bars on all four sides. Using the zoom function leads to marked loss of picture quality. On my (rather old) TV anyway. But aside from that the picture and colours are nice and vibrant, the sound is good and subtitles are available for those who may need or want them. Also included are two trailers and making of featurette running to just over eight minutes.

ダライ・ラマが西洋の思想、文化を 早いうちに学べた事は とても良い事ですね。

Sieben Jahre in TibetDieser Film beschreibt nach einer wahren Lebensgeschichte, wie ein Österreicher, der vom Bergsteigen fasziniert, um nicht zu sagen besessen, ist und den Nanga Parbat im Himalaya besteigen will, durch die Kriegswirren auf der Flucht aus einem britischen Gefangenenlager in Indien nach Tibet gerät und dort die Bekanntschaft des Dalai Lama macht.Er wurde gedreht nach Heinrich Harrers Autobiographie, die den gleichen Titel trägt. Heinrich Harrer war bis an sein Lebensende (2006) mit dem Dalai Lama befreundet.Wie weit es Unterschiede zwischen dem Buch und dem Film gibt, kann hier nicht erörtert werden.Zu Beginn (Bahnhofsszene) erfährt man etwas über die Stimmung im nationalsozialistisch besetzten Österreich, sieht den Versuch der nationalsozialistischen Partei, den erfolgreichen Bergsteiger für Propagandazwecke zu missbrauchen und seine Art, sich dagegen zu wehren. Ihm geht es nur ums Bergsteigen. Dafür verlässt er- wie er glaubt für eine kurze befristete Zeit- seine hochschwangere Frau.Dann folgen Szenen über das Bergsteigen - herrliche Landschaftsaufnahmen - in denen der Eigensinn und die Rücksichtslosigkeit des Heinrich Harrer (Brad Pitt) immer wieder deutlich werden. Schließlich werden die Bergsteiger gefangen genommen. Harrer flieht mehrmals aus der Gefangenschaft, wird immer wieder eingefangen, bis er schließlich zusammen mit dem Expeditionsleiter Peter Aufschnaiter (David Thewlis) nach Tibet entkommt.In Aufschnaiter, dem Leiter der Expedition, erleben wir einen Europäer, der bereits vor seinem Tibetaufenthalt Züge trägt, die ihrem Wesen nach buddhistisch sind. Er sieht sich immer wieder genötigt, seinem Kollegen klarzumachen , was "Karma" ist, nämlich das Prinzip von Ursache und Wirkung. Er spricht zu ihm über Verantwortung beim Bergsteigen, Wahrhaftigkeit, Achtsamkeit in Hinblick auf Konsequenzen der eigenen Handlungsweise für andere, Respekt.In Tibet schließlich wird gezeigt, wie wohltuend der Einfluß der Tibeter auf den zunächst auch hier sehr egozentrischen Harrer ist.Man erlebt den Beginn einer Freundschaft zwischen dem Dalai Lama als Kind im Potala-Palast, der "alles wissen" möchte, und dem zwar weit gereisten aber innerlich unwissenden erwachsenen Star-Bergsteiger, der Lehrer des Dalai-Lama wird, die Stadt vermißt und auf Wunsch des Dalai Lama auch ein Kino baut. Harrer seinerseits erfährt Unterstützung , wenn es darum geht, die Trennung von seinem Sohn, der nichts von ihm wissen will, zu verarbeiten und eine Wiederbegegnung in Frieden möglich zu machen.Man erfährt auch - wie beiläufig- etwas über die tibetische Prophezeiung, die besagt, dass die Invasion kommen wird, wenn westlich gekleidete Menschen in Tibet auftauchen und - so wird es hier gezeigt- über die Intrige, die inszeniert wird, um den Chinesen einen Vorwand für die Okkupation zu geben.Man sieht den Dalai-Lama als Kind um Möglichkeiten ringen, seinem Volk zu helfen, und erlebt den Einmarsch der Chinesen; während einer der Europäer in seine Heimat zurückkehrt und seinem mittlerweile 7 Jahre alten Sohn begegnet.Aufschaiter bleibt in diesem Film in Tibet. Er hat eine tibetische Frau geheiratet.Die sehr versöhnlichen und hoffnungsvollen Schlussbilder zeigen Vater und Sohn Harrer in Europa auf einem schneebedeckten Gipfel die tibetische Flagge hissen.Es ist ein Film, der sehr viel Zeitgeschichte enthält und - in zum Teil sehr stiller Weise und leisen Szenen - viel aussagt über die Unterschiede der Weltanschauungen und die mögliche fruchtbare Zusammenarbeit von Europa und Tibet. Für manchen mag ein mehrmaliges Ansehen nötig sein, um das zu erkennen. Das würde ich ohnehin empfehlen. Der Film ist wirklich sehr sehenswert.

Shepherd rating 5Baas🐑🐏🐑🐏🐑. A superb production/cast of specific period of genuine people & events. Protagonist does NOT appear in Scorcese's equally superb "Kundun" (covers broader timeline of Dalai Lama & Tibet), so the relationship with Dalai Lama & "outsider(s)" had profound affects on them, friendship, respect & subsequent perceived consequences/decisions that led to appalling political propaganda/atrocities employed & refusal of U.N. (UK shameful) involvement etc. get/see both movies as Utterly superb. A wonderful tribute & continued relevance as Tibet & Dalai Lama's circumstances/dilemmas have not been resolved... Must see.