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).
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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 around him as German, thus personifying German stereotypes. He is even called a German by a German general. Even though the discourse analysis of this movie is from the “western” perspective it still shows stereotypes that the non-westerners had of Europeans. This movie showed the Tibetans yelling, “devils go away” at Harrier and Aufschnaiter. Then later it shows Tibetans sticking their tongues out at them and making snide comments. These comments tie into power and visibility. Power and visibility is a term that relates making someone or something visible, and at the same time being connected to the operation of power (Notes for second test).
“Being made visible is an ambiguous pleasure, connected to the operation of Power” (Lidchi 195).
The Germans are being made visible to the Indian people as they walk through the market place. This is connected to the operation of power because the Germans are escorted by a Tibetan soldier and being made fun of by the mass of people. This is an excellent example of a gross imbalance of power. Earlier in the movie Harrier asserts his German superiority when given a picture of the Dalai Lama. He states, “this means nothing”. Harrier not only asserts his superiority but also shows a lack of cultural knowledge, a contradiction to the “smart” German. Annuad is challenging the stereotype of the smart, well-cultured European.
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Stereotypes and racial identities are also used in Seven years in Tibet to display the theoretical tool of Power and Knowledge. There are many instances when a simplified national identity is used to show the connections between power and knowledge. For the most part Germans are portrayed as smart and the Tibetans as dumb. Harrier shows the group of Tibetans traveling to Lhasa the instructions from a first-aid kit claiming that it states he has permission to enter Lhasa. This not only portrays the Austrian Harrier as smart and witty; it also portrays the Tibetans as dumb. This image of the non-western, non-cultured, uneducated Tibetan is taken to a new plateau when B.D. Wong, Aufschnaiter’s future wife states that she think a pair of ice skates are knives to put on your feet to cut meat. The German is again shown as smart and cultured when Harrier takes on the job of tutoring the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama even asks Heinrich Harrier: “Do you have all the answers?” This shows the simplification of the German Stereotype of being smart and well cultured.
Stereotypes contained within power and visibility are shown again towards the end of this film when the Chinese generals come to meet in Tibet. The Tibetans are shown as a weak, subordinate, and peaceful culture. The Chinese General refuses to acknowledge the Tibetan custom of sitting below the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama then steps down from his throne and sits below the Chinese General. This creates the stereotype of a weak subordinate culture. Of all the scenes in this movie this one made me feel very saddened. It reminded me of the power shown in Cannibal Tours when the lady snuck up behind the old man to take his picture. Both scenes show utter disrespect for the culture and customs of non-western peoples. Both the Dalai Lama and the old man are made to feel uncomfortable due to the operation of power.
Power and political economy are tied into Seven Years in Tibet when the Chinese take over Tibet. The Chinese power over the Tibetans is shown when the Tibetans are fighting the Chinese’s automatic machine guns with primitive bows and arrows. Because the Tibetans are weak the Chinese assert their power over them. The Chinese take control of the political economy. The Chinese assert local control through army troops; they take control of Tibetan resources. The Chinese control over Tibet is shown most prolifically through the portrait of a Chinese emperor over the holy city of Lhasa. All of the Power and Political economy representation tie directly into gross inequalities of power, Halls third aspect of Stereotyping (Hall 258).
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Part of radicalized identities are carried out by “signifying racial ‘difference’” (Hall 244).
Hall gives an example of the amusement of Whites “from the slaves’ efforts to imitate the customs of ‘civilized’ white folks” (Hall 244).
This “signification of racial ‘difference’” is shown in Seven years in Tibet when Harrier attempts to conform to the social customs of Tibetans pertaining to the Dalai Lama. Harrier screws up when trying to conform; he looks the Dalai Lama in the eye, he speaks before he is spoken to, and he almost touches the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama is amused by Harriers attempts to conform to the norms of Tibetan culture without truly understanding it.
Jean-Jacques Annaud does a great job exhibiting the cultural identity of Harrier. Cultural identity operates on many levels; it is also fluid. “Cultural identity changes according to what space [one] is in” (Geography 160 notes test four).
As Harrier makes his way from Germany to Tibet he progresses from an ego and ethnocentric individual to a more personable and tolerant individual. Brown states that Ethnocentrism is “the application of the norms of one’s own culture to that of others” (qtd. in Hall 258).
As stated earlier Annaud does a good job of avoiding the ethnocentric views of a western society even though this is a “western” film. The Tibetan people are in some senses placed higher than Europeans. A good job is done showing they are a religious people. He represents the Tibetan people well; he describes their pilgrimages to holy places in order to become purified. However the description of these pilgrimages is simplified. The movie does not explain which caste’s go on these pilgrimages, or the specifics of purification. In fact I was only able to find very little distinction of caste throughout this movie. Nonetheless apparent steps were taken to avoid ethnocentrism in the filming of this movie (please do not mistake this as a counter argument of my earlier claims. The character Harrier displays natural ethnocentricity, but the movie tries to take an almost neutral ethnocentric stance).
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Through the fluidity of Heinrich Harrier Jean-Jaques Annuad is able to portray the interaction between the western and non-western cultures. Stereotypes are used, and radicalized identities are broken through the friendship of Harrier and the Dalai Lama that continues to this day. Seven Years in Tibet offers a path to disregard stereotypes and radicalized identities through the sharing and knowledge of different customs and cultures.
