Seven Years in Tibet

            Multiculturalism is shown off greatly in the movie “Seven Years in Tibet”, starring Brad Pitt. The movie starts off showing scenes of the Himalayas and Tibet and then cuts to Brad Pitt at a train station in Germany. Since this movie takes place during the Nazi’s seizure of Germany there is lots of Nazi propaganda in the background and throughout the train station.  Pitt is interviewed by a newspaper reporter and Pitt continuously emphasizes that he is not from Germany and not affiliated with the Nazis, but he is in fact Austrian. He leaves his wife in Germany to follow his dream of expedition climbing. While in the Himalayas (which was British Territory at the time) Pitt’s character was arrested for being “German” because of the war crimes the Nazis were committing. He ends up escaping from jail numerous times and runs away to “Holy City” in Tibet. Here he is taken in and befriends the Dali Lama. Pitt begins teaching the Dali Lama about the civilized world and helps him build things that 3^rd world countries still do not see today.

            Due to Pitt’s character going from Europe to Asia he is constantly crossing lines with other cultures, from Indian to Tibetan to German and British. He spreads the wealth of knowledge he has with the Dali Lama and this is extremely generous. It is generous that he can share his culture with the Dali Lama and that the Dali Lama is accepting enough to keep him as one of his own. The movie portrays it as even more of friendly bond than just a teacher-student bond. Acceptance of other cultures is a rather large deal in this film; it is shown most often with the Dali Lama speaking to the Chinese government officials. Sometimes the officials come in and ruin extremely precious paintings and sculptures but the Dali Lama never raises his tone or gets remotely mad. He keeps his composure and attempts to talk to the officials. I believe that this philosophy can be used in the world today. There is always the bad man and the person who would like to keep it real and down to earth. This is who should be listened to.