We wanted to talk about countries, but it turned out about people.
Perhaps if you were to characterize “The Long Way Around the Earth” in one sentence, it would sound like that. In 2004, actors Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman embarked on a very dangerous adventure – a trip from London to New York on motorcycles. For greater effect, they decided to make it a kind of travel show, and as a route chose little-known trails running through Eastern Europe, Kazakhstan, the steppes of Mongolia and even the road of bones in Siberia. In short, roads, to the viewer of developed countries hitherto unknown. And, of course, the journey, originally conceived as a purely physical challenge for the travelers themselves, suddenly became the cause of their strongest emotional shock and rethinking of human values in general. McGregor, for example, will decide to adopt a girl from a Mongolian orphanage.
To be honest, The Long Way Around the Earth is very difficult to classify as a movie genre. There is something from a documentary, from an adventure, from a roadmoove, and the format itself generally resembles a vlog on YouTube. Despite the fact that the series takes a little from each genre, it functions in the best traditions of feature films. There are characters (albeit in the form of the actors themselves), there is a motivation, an internal change of absolutely every participant of the journey. The ambitious, a bit proud guys we see at the beginning are completely different from those calculating travelers who think through each step. And a certain degree of drama in each of the issues makes the narrative a multi-part predecessor of Chloe Zhao’s Land of Nomads. McGregor and Bruman, on the one hand, become the main characters of the series, and on the other take the side of passive listeners. And if as the main characters, the actors appear before the viewer as cool guys who can move mountains, then as a result of communication with local residents and the adoption of their experience, they are transformed. Taking help finding shelter, crossing motorcycles or finding medicine, they inevitably get close to everyone who helps them advance on their way to New York. It would seem that unites a miner with a criminal past from the Ukrainian backwater called Red Ray, Mongolian nomads and, say, bull riders from Alaska? You can answer in different ways, but McGregor and Bruman come to an unambiguous answer: all people are united by hospitality, empathy. Despite the local color, we are all alike. And although this is such an obvious truth is already quite boring, it is sometimes useful to remember it. Moreover, it is in the duality of the characters of absolutely every character that the very atmosphere lies that keeps even the most indifferent viewer at the screen. In addition to the physical and emotional challenge, the actors set out to visit UNICEF relief sites in every country they travel, so in addition to entertaining content, we also get information about the details of the international charity’s activities.
Of course, it is extremely difficult to talk about the visual value of Long Walk around the Earth, because the poor quality of shooting manual cameras of the beginning of the two thousandth will not save any reissue of the series. But there is an atmosphere to it. The viewer seems to peek into someone else’s personal archive, but in this manner of shooting there is an obvious plus: we seem to become participants in the journey. And country music, playing in the credits, or periodic singing or McGregor himself, or criminal authorities with a machine gun in hand, or the guys from the Magadan bar complete the homely, cozy atmosphere that the creators absolutely involuntarily turned out.
"Long Let's Around the Earth" is one of the most enjoyable shows I've seen lately. Unobtrusive, but incredibly attractive series did not let me go until the last series, and how sad it was to part with him! It prompted me again to ask the question, What is human happiness? And what does it take? The unambiguous answer has not yet been found, but the desire to wave around the world again loomed on the horizon.