_I know I’ve been a bit of a sad boy in these intros, lately. I am not unawares. I’m not trying to be dramatic or depressing or anything… just trying to be honest. This is typically… what’s going on in my head, constantly. I can’t really stop that part of me, it’s just part of who I am. But I am going to make an attempt to not be as dreary as I’ve been. We’ll see how that goes.
“An Austrian mountain climber’s escape from a WWII POW camp brings him to Tibet, where he builds a transformative friendship with the young Dalai Lama.“
Seven years. Seven years is all I can spare to play with you. Seven Years in Tibet.
_Brad Pitt has one of the strangest Hollywood careers. He rose to stardom in the mid-to-late-90’s, but when you look at his filmography from that era… Interview With the Vampire, Legends of the Fall, Seven, 12 Monkeys, Sleepers, The Devil’s Own, Seven Years in Tibet, Meet Joe Black, Fight Club, Snatch, The Mexican, Spy Game, Ocean’s Eleven. That’s every starring role Brad Pitt had between his breakout in Interview through Ocean’s Eleven, spanning the time frame of 1994 through 2001. Keep in mind that Fight Club at the time of release had none of the reputation it has now, it was a box office dud in its time. Then look over that list again and it’s honestly weird that Brad Pitt became one of the biggest stars in Hollywood.
In the same period, Jim Carrey had both Ace Ventura movies, The Mask, Dumb and Dumber, Batman Forever, Liar Liar, The Truman Show and Grinch. Will Smith became the king of summer with Bad Boys, Independence Day and Men in Black. Tom Hanks did Forrest Gump, Apollo 13, Toy Story 1 and 2, Saving Private Ryan, The Green Mile and Cast Away in that time frame.
I don’t even think Pitt’s filmography in this stretch was bad. It’s just… doesn’t have the same undeniability of those other actor’s stretches I mentioned. I’ve mentioned in years past, I love Brad Pitt’s work and his slightly off-beat choice of roles for an A-list actor. I often times don’t watch Brad Pitt movies because he’s in them, but I often am interested in the movie and he happens to star in them. The fact he stars in the kinds of movies I’m interested in is a perfect example of how weird it is that he rose to stardom from being in them.
_”Music by John Williams / Cello solos by Yo-Yo Ma.” Not a combination I was expecting to see, but you’ve got my attention.
And then it turns out, I didn’t even notice any cello solos during the movie. Welp.
_This was a rough one. Part of it was the movie itself, part of it was my gastrointestinal system acting up during my viewing. A combination of the unrelated things.
The main character, Heinrich is just… an unlikable dick for a long period of the movie. In the opening scene, he treats his pregnant wife like shit, and is like “Sorry I can’t be here for the birth of my son, gotta go scale a mountain.” Shit happens, ends up in a POW camp when WWII breaks out during their climb, and after a few months in a prison, he’s like “You know, I’ve had some time on my hands lately, and you know what? I’d really like to work things out when I get out of here, baby~” Then his wife is like “About that, I sent you some divorce papers.”
Later on, Heinrich and his friend, Peter, are living inside the Tibetan capital city, Lhasa, and they start trying to woo the same girl. Peter ends up with her and marrying her, and he’s a bitter dick about it. And it’s not like, “Oh, there was some serious courtship going on.” Heinrich just tries to impress her with some showboating once and it doesn’t work. Then Heinrich goes over to their place after they get married and is a resentful fuck about it to their faces at their dinner table. Damn dude, isn’t he supposed to be your friend? You feel no joy for him at all?
The movie tries to portray him growing as a person from his relationship with the Dalai Lama, but even then, their relationship starts cause the Dalai Lama spies on this doofy white guy and goes “LOL I wanna learn about the outside world and this guy probably knows more than anybody else that’ll ever be in my local radius,” and basically goads him into hanging out everyday. The only real growth we see is sudden, and it’s Heinrich having a Christmas party in Tibet and actually being nice to people.
But to put it into perspective… that scene with him being a dick to Peter and his wife? That’s more than halfway through the movie. He hasn’t even met the Dalai Lama yet. So that’s how long he’s an ass, and that’s how quickly his transformation happens. It’s just jarring.
_This is actually a drama that feels like it should be a limited TV series. They spend 5 years in prison, and months traveling the land on foot, braving the dangers of the weather and roaming bandits. In a limited series, they could spend an entire episode focused on them surviving the elements, really pushing how dangerous it is for them, roaming the land. As it is, it’s basically just two scenes, telling you “Life is rough out here.” It’s the same with him suddenly turning a corner. “Here’s a scene, Heinrich is thoughtful now.”
One last one, when Heinrich is pissed at this Tibetan official who basically surrendered Tiber to the Chinese. Heinrich gives him back a coat he received as a gift, and the guy is like “Haven’t you learned anything? It’s an insult of the highest order to give back something given as a gift.” and Heinrich goes “I know, I’m trying to insult you.” Two hours into the movie, and they had to have the characters say all of that out loud because they couldn’t fit in that aspect of Tibetan culture into the movie naturally.
Come on with this shit, man.
_Stop by tomorrow, we’re going service hopping again to watch a movie whose title has captured my attention since the first time I saw it written out. Portrait of a Lady On Fire. See you then~
...and one head can never die 