Nor is the depiction of Tibetan Buddhism as a wholly good institution accurate. Few viewers of this film can possibly be expected to know of the Nazi obsession with Tibet or the reasons for it. Instead, Harrer is made to appear an unjustly imprisoned man, which is very far from the truth. Harrer's internment by the British in India during the War was thus not of an ordinary harmless Austrian mountain climber but of a soldier of the SS, which was a very serious matter in wartime, and the film glosses over this entirely. In the film it is admitted that Harrer was a committed Nazi when he was in Austria, which is very honest, but nothing is mentioned about the SS or that he would therefore have been under SS military orders when he went to Tibet (indeed, he could not have gone in any other capacity, since he was in the SS and had met Hitler). Heinrich Harrer was a member of the SS, and although he is admitted in some sources to have been a sergeant, he may well really have been a commissioned officer. However, I am more troubled by the Nazi issue. I have not read the book, but the consensus of opinion from several reviewers seems to be that this film is highly inaccurate and that many incidents are entirely made up by the screenwriters. But the film raises many disturbing questions and doubts.
The film is very beautiful to look at, and the Buddhist atmosphere is convincing, with a great deal of attention to ritual detail from a Tibetan production adviser. This is a visually and emotionally impressive film, with a fine lead performance by the versatile Brad Pitt and an amazing performance by the young Tibetan Jamyang Jamtsho Wangchuk, who plays the Dalai Lama aged 14 (and whose younger brother apparently played the Dalai Lama aged 8).
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