It would seem that Peter Weir's latest film, 'The Way Back' (2010) is making its own journey and 'Way Back' from
Weir's homeland in Australia to Dubai where it premiered in the Middle East last month and now to its North American
premier at the Palm Springs International Film Festival 2011. It's certainly making its way across the globe. While
it has received mixed reviews and an undecided audience opinion, it seems to be fighting its way beyond negative
popular opinion in its ubiquitous presence. Could it be that despite the seemingly unanimous viewer opinion that 
the film is much too long and drawn out and the characters leave much to be desired, that the sheer epic scale of the
film and Weir's legendary auteurship and artistry speaks volumes, making the film stand on its own as the latest of
a collection of grand oeuvres of the celebrated genius of Peter Weir? Will 'The Way Back' overcome the criticism
because it is Weir's latest vision? Well, I saw the premier in Dubai and didn't love the film, but Weir is an all time
favorite of mine and so the film's imperfections as a film are indeed forgivable. It is entertaining, after all, and the
film does take the viewer on a sweeping journey of epic proportions as the prisoners walk from Russia to China!!!
and Colin Farrell does deliver in his humbling ability to play a Russian convict on the run... Overall, it is worth the journey
to the theater. So, I give a nod to 'The Way Back' by Peter Weir...and a bow to Weir's genius as a director, who has
given us some of the greatest films in cinematic history.

written by, Vanessa McMahon on Jan 19, 2011

me and Peter at PSIFF 

IMDB TRIVIA (from imdb)
The film is based on a memoir by Slavomir Rawicz depicting his escape from a Siberian gulag and subsequent 4000-mile walk to freedom in India. Incredibly popular, it sold over 500,000 copies and is credited with inspiring many explorers. However, in 2006 the BBC unearthed records (including so me written by Rawicz himself) that showed he had been released by the USSR in 1942. In 2009 another former Polish soldier, Witold Glinski, claimed that the book was really an account of his own escape. However this claim too has been seriously challenged.

pics from DIFF premier of The Way Back