How About That - Brad Pitt Can Act!

For the longest time, I’ve held the opinion that Brad Pitt can’t act. Finally, I have been proved wrong.

In “Seven Years in Tibet,” Pitt plays Heinrich Harrer, an Austrian mountain-climber who leaves behind his pregnant wife to climb Nanga Parbat, one of the tallest mountains in the Himalayas. The expedition is led by Peter Aufschnaiter (David Thewlis).

All goes well until an avalanche causes the party to retreat down the mountain. They are met by English soldiers who arrest the hikers because they are Austrian and World War II has broken out.

Pitt vows that he will be with his wife again before the war is over and tries four times to escape the prison camp.

Finally, Pitt and some others make it out of the camp, and Pitt begins hiking toward Tibet.

Along the way, he meets his friend Peter, and they hike together with the hope of making it to China where they can be sent home to Austria. Along the way, however, they choose not to return to Austria but to go to Lhasa in Tibet.

Pitt and Thewlis enter the foreigner-hostile Lhasa impersonating Tibetans on a pilgrimage to visit the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama and Pitt soon become fast friends. Pitt teaches the Lama about the outside world, while the Lama teaches Pitt about the philosophies of Buddhism. Soon, however, the peace is shattered by an increasingly hostile Communist China.

I really enjoyed “Seven Years in Tibet.” I thought the innocence of the Dalai Lama was convincingly portrayed by Jamyang Wang Chuck.

All in all, “Seven Years in Tibet” was a great movie showing a man’s change from a self-centered to a caring compassionate man.

Grade: A