Tip of the Tibetian Iceberg
Director Jean-Jacques Annaud's Seven Years in Tibet
Steve Rabey
October 1, 1997
Seven Years in Tibet Directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud (Tri-Star/Mandaley Entertainment, 1997) It may have been the weeks of pre-release publicity, including a cover story in Time and a flattering piece on 20/20, that helped propel Seven Years in Tibet to the top of the box-office heap when it opened in mid-October. Undoubtedly, some guys went to see scenes of other guys climbing the Himalayas, which have long been a majestic mountainous magnet for those seeking the ultimate high. And let's face it, ladies: many of you would go see Brad Pitt if he starred in a remake of one of the cheesy movies panned on Mystery Science Theater 3000. What moviegoers got when the lights dimmed and the screen did its magic was a moving story of one man's slow and painful redemption through a friendship with a teenaged Dalai Lama. Based on the 1953 memoir of Heinrich Harrer, a complex and self-centered man who earned a Olympic medal in mountain climbing for Austria before joining the Nazi SS and heading for Tibet's fabled "Roof of the World," Seven Years combines a powerful psychological study of Harrer's personal transformation and a National Geographic-style peek at the mysterious and exotic world of Tibetan Buddhism. In so doing, the movie becomes this century's latest offering of Buddhism boosterism via Western artists and cultural influencers. Buddhism boosterism all began in the 1840s when "transcendentalist" writers like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau first introduced American masses to Eastern concepts. "They kind of broke the ice," says Buddhist writer Rick Fields. In the 1960s, the Beatles were high on Hinduism and Transcendental Meditation. But a new group of literary figures called the "beats," which included poet Allen Ginsberg ...
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