After This Bold 1997 Movie, Brad Pitt Was Banned from China for Almost 20 Years

Summary:

• Brad Pitt’s 1997 period drama Seven Years in Tibet earned him and his colleagues a ban from visiting China.
• The movie showed the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet in a good light and “slandered” the Chinese military, upsetting the government.
• Despite the ban, Pitt visited China 17 years later with his then wife Angelina Jolie and didn’t suffer any repercussions.

As much as we’d all love the world where art is disconnected from politics, that just isn’t the case: they both inevitably influence each other. Brad Pitt learned this lesson in 1997 when his underrated period drama earned him and his colleagues an official ban from China. What movie and why upset the Chinese government so much?

Brad Pitt Got Banned from Visiting China

Brad Pitt and David Thewlis’ 1997 period drama Seven Years in Tibet follows an Australian climber who travels to the holy city of Lhasa, Tibet and becomes an instructor and a friend to the 14th Dalai Lama. While having a seemingly innocent premise, the movie went on to infuriate the Chinese government with its execution.

Historically, China and Tibet have a very troubled relationship, to say the least. In Seven Years in Tibet, the Dalai Lama is shown as a kind and compassionate man, and the Chinese military is portrayed in a distinctly negative light. The country’s government didn’t appreciate the notion and specifically banned Brad Pitt, David Thewlis, and director Jean-Jacques Annaud from entering China.

For the next 17 years, Pitt stayed away from China, but in 2014, he visited the country together with then wife Angelina Jolie for her Maleficent promo tour and didn’t face any repercussions. So, Pitt returned again in 2016 to promote Allied.

Seven Years in Tibet Went Underappreciated

Back in 1997, critics didn’t exactly give Pitt’s movie a warm welcome, but as usual, it became a classic years later. Today, Seven Years in Tibet still has an underwhelming 58% Critic Score on Rotten Tomatoes, but the audience disagrees — viewers gave the film 73% on RT and 7.1/10 on IMDb. It’s totally worth a watch if you like the story.

Still, it didn’t perform as well as another Dalai Lama movie that earned its creators an official ban from China. Martin Scorsese suffered the same repercussions for his film Kundun that also followed the life of the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet and received more love from critics than Brad Pitt’s flick, boasting a 74% Tomatometer Score.

Source: Interview