DATE REVIEWED: 9/29/24
TITLE: Seven Years in Tibet
BOX OFFICE RATED: PG-13 (This is not suitable for GOD’s children.)
PRODUCTION YEAR: 1997 Columbia Tristar Pictures / Sony Pictures Releasing / Mandalay Entertainment / Reperage / Vanguard Films / Applecross Productions / Summit Entertainment
RATING [1 LEAST FAVORITE TO 5 HIGHLY RECOMMENDED]: 1
REASON: This movie is based on a true story and began in 1939 as WWII began. The German Nazis ruled Austria, and they wanted a team to plant the German flag on the summit of Nanga Parbat in British India, the ninth highest mountain in the world. Four German expeditions had already failed and eleven people died. A new expedition was formed and led by Peter Aufschnaiter, and Austrian mountain climber and National Socialist Party member Heinrich Harrer joined the expedition. Heinrich’s wife, Ingrid, was pregnant and didn’t want him to go, but he didn’t want a child and left anyway. He planned to return in four months after the baby was born since it would be due when he was supposed to reach base camp. Horst Immendorf was there for Ingrid when her husband left her many months pregnant and he comforted Ingrid and took the place of her husband. The team attempted to scale Nanga, and Heinrich fell and cut his leg. The men roped themselves together, and Peter fell and was left dangling off a cliff. Heinrich had trouble with Peter’s weight tied to him because of his injured leg, but Peter made it to safety. Peter scolded Heinrich for downplaying his injury and threatened to kick him off the team if he did it again. Peter had the team hole up during bad weather and possible avalanches, which Heinrich thought was a mistake and a waste of time. Soon after the team encountered an avalanche and Peter ordered the team to give up and head back down the mountain. Heinrich was angry and wanted to continue scaling Nanga alone, but he wasn’t allowed. England and Germany were at war, so the British arrested the crew when they arrived back at camp because they were enemies in British India territory. They were taken to the British Dehra Dun POW camp on October 15,and Heinrich was unsuccessful in trying to escape. Heinrich continued to make escape attempts and when he was recaptured each time his whole team suffered for it. A year later in 1940 the other team members planned to make their escape into Tibet using Heinrich’s route and they already had hidden supplies for their journey. Heinrich told his team that he wanted to escape alone. Heinrich then mailed off a letter to Ingrid in 1942. However, Ingrid responded and sent back divorce papers for him to sign and explained that their son Rolf was born when Heinrich climbed the mountain two years before and she had no plans of ever reconciling with Heinrich. Ingrid and Horst planned to get married, and Rolf looked to Horst as his dad so Ingrid planned to tell Rolf that Heinrich was lost in the mountains. Heinrich and the others disguised themselves as Indians to get outside the gates, and then Heinrich set off on his own. Peter found Heinrich puking in the woods later and gave him medicine for his sickness and explained that the Italians were captured and two of the Germans fell ill and returned to the camp. Peter announced that the Japanese retreated to Shanghai and he was headed to Tibet and then China. Heinrich didn’t plan on returning to Austria, so he and Peter headed to Tibet and Heinrich won the bet he made with Peter about the distance there. Peter learned to speak Tibetan in prison (learn a lot of stuff in prison). Two Tibetans at the border found Peter and Heinrich. They wouldn’t let the foreigners into the country, so Heinrich scared them off by hitting their horses and told Peter he didn’t need to know the lingo to communicate. In a Tibetan village, Heinrich discovered that one of the men at the border crossing was the Garpon official so he gave the Garpon a picture of the child Dalai Lama as a gift. Heinrich and Peter were escorted to the Indian border by two guards who would shoot them if they tried to escape. Once there, the two traded for supplies at a bazaar and then made a run for it and got away from the guards. Heinrich convinced Peter to trade his watch that he received as a gift from his dad, and then Peter discovered that Heinrich had three Italian watches. The two argued and Peter left, so Heinrich gave him the three watches to make amends and they set off together back into Tibet with Peter in the lead. Peter convinced Heinrich to write a letter to Rolf claiming to be his dad. Tibetan bandits captured Peter and Heinrich, but they just barely escaped and ate one of their horses. They found a group of Tibetans headed for Lhasa where the young Dalai Lama lived. Foreigners weren’t allowed in the Holy City, so Peter gave the men a first aid kit that had a “red cross” on the pamphlet in another language and the men believed the white paper was a permit. Peter and Heinrich tried to steal food from the dogs but were found by Kungo Tsarong who welcomed them to dine with his family. Kungo went to the Lord Chamberlain, the regent and the ministers of the cabinet to achieve an audience with the Dalai Lama. The young boy Dalai Lama granted Tsarong permission to let Peter and Heinrich stay at his guesthouse so they wouldn’t be sent back to prison in India. The ministers’ secretary, Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme, asked female Pema Lhaki, the only tailor in Lhasa, to make new suits for Heinrich and Peter. Pema declared that gold medals like the one Heinrich won in the Olympics were egotistical and Tibetan men didn’t believe the medals were a standard of measurement for a real man. The Communist Chinese were stationed in Tibet, and Ngawang met with a Chinese official and delivered the message that Tibet no longer wanted China to give large gifts of money to the Tibetan monks as bribes. The official tried to recruit Ngawang to serve China, but he said that he was loyal to his country. Pema repaired Heinrich and Peter’s suits, and then they bought ice skates for Pema and taught her how to skate, along with the others. Both Peter and Heinrich were interested in Pema, but she married Peter. In May 1945, Peter and Perma preferred privacy and were living in a house outside the city so Heinrich told the couple that their home wouldn’t be featured on the map that Heinrich was making of Lhasa. The news came that Germany surrendered and the war was over, so Heinrich planned to return to Austria. Before he left, Heinrich received a letter from Rolf Immendorf stating that Heinrich wasn’t his dad and to stop writing letters to him. Heinrich was given a letter from the Dalai Lama’s mom the Great Mother, who offered Heinrich an audience on her monthly visit with the reincarnated Dalai Lama and explained the strict rules. The meeting was unconventional as Heinrich and the Dalai Lama maintained eye contact and Heinrich didn’t follow the rules. Heinrich agreed to come every day to build a movie theater for the Dalai Lama sine the young boy like to watch movies, and they became friends as they continued meeting to play games and teach each other about their different cultures and various lifestyles. The Tibetans believed all animals were sacred and were their mothers in a past life, so they removed the worms at the building site by hand and moved them to safety. A strange light appeared in the sky, and the Tibetans believed it was an evil omen and tried to scare it away with pots and pans. Mao Tse-tung became the leader of the new People’s Republic of China, and he declared that Tibet should join the republic. Ngawang, now minister and no longer in his brown garb but nicer clothing, and the other officials refused and sent all the Chinese in Tibet back to China. Heinrich and Peter brought Christmas to Lhasa, and Heinrich got Peter’s watch back for him and gave it to him as a gift. The Dalai Lama was scared by a dream he had of the Chinese attacking the Tibetan village where he was born and killing the people with guns and explosives. Heinrich comforted the Dalai Lama and told him why he liked mountain climbing. The Chinese then attacked the village just as their spiritual leader dreamed would happen. The few thousand Tibetans were against violence and were vastly outnumbered by the million Chinese troops, but they went to war anyway with the few weapons they had. The Tibetans raised the Chinese flag for the arrival of three Chinese generals and believed there was no honor in politics. The inside traitor Ngawang led the Chinese generals to Lhasa, where they stepped on the sand mandala and ruined it that the monks made to represent peace and spent the last several days working on. The China generals (General Chang Jing Wu, General Than Gua, General Than Gua San) refused to sit lower than the Dalai Lama, so the Dalai Lama boy moved to sit level with the Chinese. The young boy Dalai Lama explained that the Buddhists believed in peace and the regent would remain the political leader of Tibet and not the Chinese until the Dalai Lama was older and more experienced. The Chinese weren’t pleased and left. The Chinese got to Ngawang, and he was appointed governor and sent troops to defend Chamdo against the Chinese. The Chinese attacked the Tibetan camp with artillery and explosives, and the Tibetan retaliated with small guns and bows and arrows. The Tibetan people were slaughtered and Tibet fell to the mercy of the Chinese. A messenger rode to Ngawang with the news, so he issued surrender to China and the soldiers took over the country. The Tibetans believed they could have won and Ngawang made a mistake by blowing up their ammunition so they wouldn’t have a fighting chance. Heinrich returned his jacket to Ngawang and hoped he would suffer for selling out his country. The Tibetans hung signs wanting the Dalai Lama to rule the government. Heinrich wanted the Dalai Lama to leave and go somewhere safe after his enthronement ceremony, but he refused to leave. He declared that he was not Heinrich’s son and advised him to go back to Austria see Rolf. Heinrich attended the ceremony, and then he and the Dalai Lama said their goodbyes and he gave Heinrich his music box. Heinrich went to Ingrid and Horst’s house in Austria in 1951. Rolf didn’t want to see Heinrich and hid in the closet, so Heinrich left the expensive music box gift for Rolf. Henirch and Rolf didn’t speak. Years later Heinrich taught teen Rolf how to climb a huge mountain and pulled the boy to the top with a rope (dangerous for a child) and Henrich planted a Tibetan flag at the top of a mountain they scaled. The movie went on to say that one million Tibetans died and 6,000 monasteries were destroying during the Chinese conflict. The Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959, where he continued to try and make peace with the Chinese. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 and stayed friends with Heinrich to the present day. This movie had a budget of $70 million and grossed over $131 million at the box office. The movie cover art listed, Jim Svejda, KNX CBS Radio “One of the year’s best films.” Bill Diehl, ABC Radio Network “A passionate, courageous, and chilling journey. Brad Pitt delivers a magnificent performance.”