The movie starts off as a great adventurous tale of a group of Englishmen (and one woman) being airlifted from a murderous revolution in the Chinese boondocks. Still in the air the next morning they realise that their plane is headed the wrong way. When they alert their pilot they find out that he has been replaced by an armed Chinaman -- they are being hijacked! The plane lands in a desert, is refueled from canisters by a wild tribe or horsemen, continues its journey, until its fuel is spent, and crash-lands in the mountains, killing the mysterious pilot. The five passengers find themselves in a subzero wasteland, with the scantiest chances of survival. And that's where the story begins for good ...
Up until this point I loved this movie. Then the story of Shangri-La unfolds, a utopia of moderation, temperance and abundance, and the story inescapably becomes naff and boring because paradises always are. Still, the movie conveys an exciting vision of adventure and parallel reality long before the age of sophisticated SFX and CGI. It's also fascinating to see how every utopia is shaped by the day and age that spawns it -- the idea, for example, that abundance eliminates crime seems naive by modern standards.
Up until this point I loved this movie. Then the story of Shangri-La unfolds, a utopia of moderation, temperance and abundance, and the story inescapably becomes naff and boring because paradises always are. Still, the movie conveys an exciting vision of adventure and parallel reality long before the age of sophisticated SFX and CGI. It's also fascinating to see how every utopia is shaped by the day and age that spawns it -- the idea, for example, that abundance eliminates crime seems naive by modern standards.