in the Himalayas. We see him being extremely rude and evil to his wife and treating her horribly while boarding onto the German Nazi train in 1939.
The next scene we see him and his crew climbing the mountain and him continuously wanting to move forward and his carelessness towards anyone but himself, selfishness. Selfishness is one of the religious themes that he must battle throughout the movie. On their way down the mountain the British ruled the land of India and
arrested them for being on their land due to the fact that the war had started between them. Brad Pitts character continued to try and escape and finally did so with the help of his friends from the expedition party. Throughout this he found out that his son was born and that his wife sent him a letter asking for a divorce and
she wanted to marry the man Brad Pitts character left her with. He struggles through not being a good father or a father at all through the entire movie.After they break out of prison Brad Pitt's character goes his own
way and ends up getting food poisoning from eating a bad rooster and his friend catches up with him and finds him and requests if he can stay the night. Brad allows and they group up together on a quest
towards Tibet. After travelling they find a group of Tibetins that will not let them in because they are foriegners and are escorted out to a camp of traders where Brad tells his friend to barter with his watch. The friend has a high importance on the watch as his father gave it to him. He barters it and later finds out Brad has
three watches he could have given up for him.
After escaping this they travel and find a group heading for the holy city in Tibet, where the Dalai Lama lives. We find out that the Dalai Lama is treated as one of their gods who has been reincarnated.
During their stay in the city a townsman welcomes them into their home and offers them food and bed. They then meet a tailor who comes in to give them clothing as presented by the towns scribe
who's job is to relay messages between the tibetans and the Chinese. The Chinese at this time are switching to communism and are preparing their attacks during the second World War. At the time the Tibetans had a consulate inside of their country.
Throughout their time their Brad Pitts friend falls in love with the tailor and they get married. Brad struggles with his selfishness and pride through this and is continuously having problems with his son. He is constantly writing his son letters and he gets one letter back stating he is not his sons father and to stop the letters. After this the Dalai Lama requests to visit Brad Pitt and learn things from him and asks for Brad to build a movie room for
him which Brad complies and learns about the Buddhist feelings on not hurting any living thing for it might be your mother, (i.e. they were hurting worms and they got very upset). Through this Brad and his relationship with the Dalai Lama grow close and Brad seems to learn more about life and that it's not about yourself. He learns to love and struggles through with his son not knowing him. He then learns the war between Germany and Austria are over and wants to return home.
However, he then learns the Chinese plan on attacking and he decides to stay and help them, the Dalai Lama has nightmares and Brad comforts him and learns more about his need for wanting to know his
son. The Tibetans send the Chinese consulate back home to China and China sends three generals to the Dalai Lama to request political control and smashes the artwork the Buddhists had spent weeks
preparing for them on the ground. He says that Religion is poison and shows no respect. The Chinese start fighting however, the general of the tibetans the scribe becomes a trader and surrenders
to the Chinese who take control of the holy city. At this time the Dalai Lama sends Brad home to see his boy.
When he gets home the child doesn't want to see him but Brad brings in a music box for the child that was a gift to the Dalai Lama. The child comes out and he sees his son for his first time. The last
seen is the two of them conquering the mountain that Brad was sent out to conquer at the very beginning.
I basically picked up on several themes in this movie that most religions teach. To not be selfish, boastful, angry, to be kind, loving, to not talk down to each other. To treat life with respect
and to treat others how you want to be treated. It also showed a transformation of a man who was so rude to someone who you'd want to call a friend. I learned great respect for the tibetans and the
Buddhists through this movie. As a Christian the Chinese to this day execute and murder pastors in their country for teaching Christ, so I understand the pain they must have gone through when the
Chinese killed their monks and the Buddhist religion as well. It really got me riled up when they said that religion is poison. I question as to why we are allowing the olympics to be in a communist
country in 2008 after all the evil things they've done. I guess another theme is forgiveness. We shall see.