{"id":14982,"date":"2011-05-28T10:31:58","date_gmt":"2011-05-28T08:31:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/?p=14982"},"modified":"2011-05-28T10:32:34","modified_gmt":"2011-05-28T08:32:34","slug":"the-way-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2011\/05\/28\/the-way-back\/","title":{"rendered":"The Way Back"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The other day I watched “The Way Back<\/a>” – a movie,\u00a0allegedly inspired by real events, about a group of people who escaped a Soviet Gulag camp in Siberia back 1940s and walked their way to India. \u00a0I’ve heard nothing of this film until a friend recommended it – no trailer, no nothing. \u00a0When I read the brief plot description at IMDb, I got slightly worried that it would turn into one of those anti-Soviet propaganda movies. \u00a0My wife shared the worries and even decided not to watch the film with me.<\/p>\n

She turned out to be right. \u00a0While there is plenty of breathtaking scenery shown in the film, and there is plenty of good acting, the propaganda makes it totally unwatchable. \u00a0The film basically pictures the Soviet Union as one huge prison, where the government is after every single person, be he innocent or not, old or young, male or female, Russian or not. \u00a0One doesn’t even have to know history to understand that that is a huge exaggeration.<\/p>\n

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining because the film pictured Russians (or Soviets) in such a bad light. \u00a0It has nothing to do with whether they were Russians or not. \u00a0Even if they weren’t of my own nationality I’d be complaining. \u00a0I’m not even too sensitive to propaganda in the movies – Hollywood uses it all the time to praise the United States. \u00a0The problem is that in this movie, propaganda is the primary objective. \u00a0Everything else comes second. \u00a0And it’s really a pity. \u00a0Level down the propaganda and you’d have an excellent film on your hands.<\/p>\n

As it is, I’d give it a 2 out of 5<\/strong>. \u00a0It’s difficult to watch and it leaves a dirty aftertaste.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n

The other day I watched “The Way Back” – a movie,\u00a0allegedly inspired by real events, about a group of people who escaped a Soviet Gulag camp in Siberia back 1940s and walked their way to India. \u00a0I’ve heard nothing of this film until a friend recommended it – no trailer, no nothing. \u00a0When I read … Continue reading The Way Back<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1705,1,24,2478],"tags":[2100,1406,1811,2820,2818,2819,2821],"keyring_services":[],"class_list":["post-14982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2-stars","category-general","category-movies","category-movie-reviews","tag-colin-farrell","tag-ed-harris","tag-jim-sturgess","tag-mark-strong","tag-peter-weir","tag-saoirse-ronan","tag-zahary-baharov"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12400,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2010\/04\/02\/green-zone\/","url_meta":{"origin":14982,"position":0},"title":"Green Zone","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"April 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"A couple of weeks ago I saw \"Green Zone\" in the cinema.\u00a0 I barely heard anything about this film - only that Matt Damon plays the main character and that it was directed by the same guy who did some of the Bourne trilogy - but even that was enough.\u00a0\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "4 stars"","block_context":{"text":"4 stars","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/movies\/movie-reviews\/4-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/green_zone.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8364,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2004\/12\/21\/the-rock\/","url_meta":{"origin":14982,"position":1},"title":"The Rock","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"December 21, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Watched some good old action on DVD - \"The Rock\". It is based on an old story of some cool marine kernel stealing some chemical weapons, taking hostages, setting base ins some secure location (like a prison), and demanding some money off the government. The details vary from film to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All"","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8366,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2004\/12\/22\/the-dreamers\/","url_meta":{"origin":14982,"position":2},"title":"The Dreamers","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"December 22, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Olga and I watched \"The Dreamers\" on DVD. (Martin tries his best to shorten my wishlist). This movie is a very nice drama. It looks very fresh after everything I have seen lately. Somehow it provides a neat mix between American and European cinema. There is plenty of American stuff\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All"","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8575,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2005\/02\/03\/new-jack-city\/","url_meta":{"origin":14982,"position":3},"title":"New Jack City","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"February 3, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Watched \"New Jack City\" on DVD. This is a really old movie (from 1991) and I think I've seen it before. This film is a nobel attempt to show all the bad things about drugs and crimes using the methods of the recently (80-s) popular action movies. The drug scenes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All"","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9554,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2005\/10\/09\/waynes-world-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":14982,"position":4},"title":"Wayne’s World 2","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"October 9, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Since I liked \"Wayne's World\" so much, I decided to try the sequel - \"Wayne's World 2\" - too. Directed by: Stephen Surjik Genres: Comedy Cast: Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, Lee Tergesen, Dan Bell, Tia Carrere, Richard Epper, Jenny McShane, Duke Valenti, Benny Graham, Christopher Walken, Gavin Grazer, Googy Gress,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All"","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7660,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2004\/07\/11\/one-hour-photo\/","url_meta":{"origin":14982,"position":5},"title":"One Hour Photo","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"July 11, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"After fixing all the problems with the sound, I've decided to test the new TV and watch a movie. \"One Hour Photo\" was the next one on the list. It is a kind of movie I wanted to see, but after I've missed it in the cinema, I didn't care\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All"","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14982\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14982"},{"taxonomy":"keyring_services","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/keyring_services?post=14982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}