It was a slip. Janusz follows through with the escape with Smith, Valka, Voss, Tomasz, Zoran and Kazik during a severe snowstorm that covers their tracks. As they continue south across the Gobi Desert, lack of water, sandstorms, sunburn, blisters and sunstroke weaken the group. The movie sees Ben Affleck portray Jack Cunningham, a former high school basketball star who has since fallen on hard times with the collapse of his marriage following the death of his son. The Way Back press tour has seen Affleck himself be very open in this regard, describing the impact alcoholism has made on both his career and his personal life. Where other sports movie see the coach by his team's side right up to the final game, The Way Back presents a very blunt acknowledgment of the point at which Jack simply cannot effectively function as coach any longer. The rest continue to Ulaanbaatar, but soon they see images of Stalin, Khorloogiin Choibalsan and a red star. For one thing, the movie is a considerably darker story than most sports dramas, and even in comparison to Gavin O'Connor's past work in films like Miracle and Warrior. The movie sees Ben Affleck portray Jack Cunningham, a former high school basketball star who has since fallen on hard times with the collapse of his marriage following the death of his son. Ultimately, The Way Back is a movie not about rising to victory on the court, but about overcoming the emotional toll that loss and addiction can take. Smith is on the verge of death, but after being motivated by Janusz, Zoran and Voss, decides to rejoin the group and the severely dehydrated four find a much-needed water source. [4][5][6][7] In addition, in 1942, a group of Siberian Gulag escapees is said to have hiked into Nepal. So the possibility remains that someone – even if not Rawicz – achieved this extraordinary feat. Affleck's ex-wife Jennifer Garner would also play an instrumental role in keeping The Way Back alive during his recovery. "[15] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 66 out of 100 based on 33 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Watch the full trailer – link in bio. 2020 Showbiz Cheat Sheet, All Rights Reserved. Jack’s demons re-surface as he’s seen drinking on the job, falling down the stairs, carried out of bars, and crashing his car into another vehicle. The Batman Prepares To Take Flight In New Set Photos, Is The Way Back Based Off A True Story? Click the button below to start this article in quick view. “This is a really important story for anyone dealing with the trials of life,” a source told Us Weekly. Here’s your first look at #TheWayBack. “It happens. [2][3] In May 2009 Witold Gliński, a Polish World War II veteran living in the United Kingdom, came forward to claim that the basis of Rawicz's story was true, but it was actually an account of what had happened to him, not Rawicz. While The Way Back may not have a true factual basis, it is a true story in a more esoteric sense of the term. The book sold over 500,000 copies and is credited with inspiring many explorers. Follow Brad on Twitter @BradCurran. Be it family dynamics, redemption, sports or otherwise, there is something to take away from this film.”, The source added that Affleck “has been very vocal about his bouts with addiction and the challenges to overcome it.” The Way Back is “another step in that battle,” the source added. The book sold over 500,000 copies and is credited with inspiring many explorers. Not entirely. We’d be remiss not to say the poignant snapshot of a recovering alcoholic’s journey towards redemption doesn’t resemble the Oscar-winning actor’s own life. The film is loosely based on The Long Walk (1956), Sławomir Rawicz's memoir depicting his alleged escape from a Siberian Gulag and subsequent 4,000-mile walk to freedom in Nepal. Now, with his latest film, The Way Back, Affleck tackles addiction in, what could be, his most emotional project to date. The Way Back is a timely reminder of how powerful addiction can be. His addiction worsens after learning his former basketball coach suffers a fatal heart attack. The final scene of the film shows Janusz, 50 years after being taken captive, again envisioning the door and reaching for the rock; this time he takes a key hidden beneath the rock to open the door and reconcile with his wife. In many ways, The Way Back is far less concerned with being a basketball movie than it being a part of a larger examination of Jack's battle with alcoholism, and this is where the film's true emotional impact lies. [4][8][9] Nevertheless, there is some circumstantial evidence that some sort of trek to freedom occurred, via the route outlined in the book and film. Kazik freezes to death the second night of the trek, after losing his way back to the campsite while looking for wood, and the group buries him. However, The Way Back appears to be a story of fiction. At a glance, The Way Back bears a surprisingly strong resemblance to what many moviegoers would expect to see from a movie based on true events. In 2006 the BBC unearthed records (including some written by Rawicz himself) which showed that, rather than having escaped from the gulag, he had in fact been released by the USSRin 1942. During World War II, after the Soviet invasion of Poland, young Polish army officer Janusz Wieszczek (Jim Sturgess) is held as a POW and interrogated by the NKVD. However, The Way Back appears to be a story of fiction. Directed by Peter Weir. There they meet Irena (Saoirse Ronan), a young Polish girl, who tells them that Russian soldiers murdered her parents and sent her to a collective farm near Warsaw, where they treated her cruelly, so she escaped. In theaters this March,” he wrote on Twitter. NEXT: Every Warner Bros. Movie Coming In 2020. Following a delay from its originally planned release in October 2019, The Way Back has seen a highly positive reception, with much praise going towards Affleck's performance as the struggling Jack. With Affleck making a comeback with The Way Back and having other projects in the works, the film also displays very apparent parallels with his recent struggles. Along with its uncompromising honesty in the damage inflicted by alcoholism, it manages to be a "true story" in another, more abstract sense. At least, not in a literal sense. All the latest gaming news, game reviews and trailers. Affleck has also quite noticeably bounced back in the the lead up to The Way Back, even sharing a heartwarming story of his son's birthday in a recent interview. The actor Jeremy Child had the rights to the book for many years. Captain Rupert Mayne, a British intelligence officer in Calcutta in 1942, interviewed three emaciated men, who claimed to have escaped from Siberia. “It’s a relatable character for people in America.”, Love is in the air! This movie tells their story and that of four others who escaped with them and a teenage girl, Irena Zielinska (Saoirse Ronan), who joins them in flight. While The Way Back shows Jack visibly improving as he coaches the team, it also doesn't sugarcoat the effects that Jack's drinking has had on his life, with Jack remaining in mourning over the loss of his son and continuing to drink even as the team begins to succeed on the court. Brad also offers philosophical musings on martial arts and the filmographies of everyone from Jackie Chan to Donnie Yen on Kung Fu Kingdom, where he's also had the privilege of interviewing many of the world's great stunt professionals, and hearing plenty of gripping stories on injuries incurred in their line of work and the intricacies of designing the acts of death defiance he first thrilled to as a youngster. Where The Way Back most closely parallels real-life is in Jack's alcoholism mirroring Ben Affleck's own public struggles in recent years. Irena collapses several times and soon dies. The film stars Jim Sturgess, Colin Farrell, Ed Harris, and Saoirse Ronan, with Alexandru Potocean, Sebastian Urzendowsky, Gustaf Skarsgård, Dragoș Bucur and Mark Strong. A one-stop shop for all things video games. "The Way Back (2010): Filming & Production", Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Way_Back_(2010_film)&oldid=983967493, Films about the Soviet Union in the Stalin era, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 17 October 2020, at 10:23.
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