Beyond its visual splendors, however, the film achieves searing moral power.
75
Orlando SentinelRoger Moore
Orlando SentinelRoger Moore
An entertaining old-fashioned prison escape movie with a touch of the epic about it.
70
Movieline
Movieline
Weir's artisan's sureness grants a bewitching calm - his trademark ambience - to this harrowing tale.
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
There is an irony here. The film exhibits an admirable determination to do justice to a real story, but the story's not real.
60
EmpireDavid Hughes
EmpireDavid Hughes
Weir couldn't make a boring film if his life depended on it, and for any other director The Way Back would be laudable. It's good, but from this director we have come to expect great.
In its best moments is as big as a movie can be, as big as life itself.
60
Time OutJoshua Rothkopf
Time OutJoshua Rothkopf
The Way Back then takes its time, creeping through gorgeous locations in Bulgaria, Morocco and Pakistan, and basically feeling like a two-hour-plus version of the desert scene from "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly."
This arduous travelogue focuses on the macro (stunning, David Lean-like landscapes) and the micro (countless closeups of blistered flesh) to the virtual exclusion of compelling characters.
50
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
His (Weir) hardship drama is stolidly old-fashioned, more extreme travelogue than exercise in visceral horror.