their adventures than with what they discover." Ebert believed the film was told from the perspective of the wrong character and thought the casting of Pitt and Thewlis should have been reversed. Derek Elley of Variety praised the film's overall production value but thought: "for a story with all the potential of a sweeping emotional drama set in great locations, too often you just long for the pic to cut loose from the ethnography and correct attitudes and go with the drama in old Hollywood style." Chinese Communist Party reaction As the film was being released, it was condemned by the government of the People's Republic of China, which stated that Communist Chinese military officers were intentionally shown as rude and arrogant, brutalizing the local people. The Chinese government also decried the film's positive portrayal of the 14th Dalai Lama. All future films produced by Sony were banned from playing in China, sending a chilling message that the party would punish studios and their parent companies that made movies it didn't like even if they weren't ever planned for release in China. Annaud, Pitt, and Thewlis were initially banned from ever entering China. However, Annaud was since welcomed back to China in 2012 to chair the jury of the 15th annual Shanghai International Film Festival. In addition, Pitt subsequently visited China in 2014 and 2016. Sony also took measures outside the film to try and appease the Communist Party such as inviting Chinese filmmakers onto their lot in order to boost their exposure, lobbying for China to become a member of the World Trade Organization, and traveling on an apology tour with executives around China in order to be able to resume business in China by 1998. Accolades See also Chinese censorship abroad Film censorship in China Kundun, another 1997 film depicting the Dalai Lama during his youth. List of TV and films critical of the Chinese Communist Party 1938–39 German expedition to Tibet, an actual state-sponsored expedition into Tibet by the Nazi Party to which Heinrich Harrer was an SS Oberscharführer. References External links The Wild Things of God: Seven Years in Tibet Seven Years in Tibet, credits for this film entered into the Cannes Film Festival in 1956 1997 films 1990s adventure drama films 1990s biographical drama films 1990s war drama films American adventure drama films Adventure films based on actual events American biographical drama films American war