Seven Years in Tibet a Non-fiction Drama Film
Seven Years in Tibet is a non-fiction drama film about an Australian climber, Heinrich Harrier, who sets out to climb Nanya Parbat; the ninth highest peak in the world. The movie starts out in nineteen thirty-nine and concludes with the Chinese occupation of Tibet. Harrier leaves behind his wife who is seven months pregnant to achieve glory. He winds up being captured and imprisoned in a POW (Prisoner of War) camp until Harrier and his fellow climber Peter Aufschnaiter escape. They travel to Tibet where they then proceed to the Holy city of Lhasa. The director/producer Jean-Jaques Annuad does an excellent job portraying the cultural landscapes of Lhasa. It is in Lhasa where Harrier and the Dalai Lama learn about each other’s cultures’ through contact with each other. Throughout this movie many stereotypes and radicalized identities are presented as we see the fluidity of Harrier’s cultural identity.
Stereotypes and radicalized identities are formed by exaggerating certain traits, then simplifying them (Hall 258). Thus Hall defines a stereotyped person or group as “reduced to few essentials, fixed in Nature by a few, simplified characteristics” (Hall 258). A group in power, most probably a Western society or culture, will create these stereotypes or radicalized identities of a subordinate group, most likely a non-western society or culture. Hall points this out as “binary opposition” or “the powerful opposition between civilization and savagery” Hall 243).
Seven Years in Tibet is overflowing with stereotypes and radicalized identities of both Europeans and Asians. At the center of this movie is the stereotype of German pride. The reason the group is going to climb Nanya Parbat is because the previous four attempts failed, killing eleven climbers. Harrier, the character played by Brad Pitt says: “it’s a national obsession, it’s a matter of national pride.” The German Stereotype of national pride and order is taken even further when Harrier interests the guard escorting him out of Tibet in German boots. He simplifies how the German soldier marches, then shows him how a German soldier runs. On a Macro scale Harrier is personifying German ingenuity and a German unwillingness to give up. He does this by insisting that the guard wear his boots. He does this so the guard can’t run after them when they escape for the fourth time (German persistence). While Harrier is not actually German (He is Austrian) he is perceived by the people...