Movie Review -- "The Way Back"

I will soon be beginning my annual Oscar movie orgy -- sitting in a movie theater with my teenaged-son for 2 Saturdays in a row, watching all 10 of the Best Picture nominees.   (He's a senior in High School, so this might be our last time to do this together.  What are the odds I'll make it through Toy Story 3 without needing about a box of kleenex?)

Before I submerge myself in the box office winners, I want to bring your attention to a movie that was not so successful, but was still one of my favorites from the past year:  The Way Back.  It tells the story of a band of men who escape from a Siberian gulag in 1940, and trek all the way through Siberia, Mongolia, across the Gobi dessert, to freedom in India.  It has all the elements that go into some of my favorite movies -- Polish, Russian & German characters speaking in combinations of accented English & subtitles (including Colin Farrell fantastic as always as a Russian criminal with Lenin & Stalin's faces tatooed on his chest); incredible scenery;  people struggling with inconceivable adversity -- from the bitter cold of the Siberian winter to the torture of thirst in the desert. 

But I recommend it here on MOJ because it's also just bursting with Christian imagery and symbolism -- crowns of thorns, crosses, images of Mary, etc.  The main psychological thread of the movie involves questions of redemption and forgiveness.  Most fascinating to me, though, is the role played by the only significant female role in the movie, a young Polish refuge who joins this band of men halfway through the movie.  I don't want to spoil anything, but I challenge you to think about the role she plays in the survival of this band -- including in a surprising way towards the end of the movie.  It struck me as an interesting example of how the relative strengths of men and women  can play off each other in different circumstances.