British author James Hilton introduced the world to Shangri-La, a hidden kingdom secreted among the treacherous valleys of the Yunnan Mountains, which lie in close proximity to Tibet. His novel, Lost Horizon, written in 1933, described a land where people neither got sick nor died—a happy, utopian paradise free from the hunger of the Great Depression and the gnawing angst of the approaching world war. The fact that Hilton called it a “horizon” suggests that it was visible, though somehow inaccessible.
The characters in Lost Horizon have been carefully chosen, and their personal circumstances are vitally important to the movie. For example, consider the book/movie Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose. A man is on trial, and his life is at stake. Twelve jurors are chosen to determine guilt or innocence. In real-life situations like this, one juror goes into the deliberations with his mind set on the guilt of the accused, whether there is evidence to support that or not. Another juror is firmly of the opinion that the accused is innocent. A different juror is in a hurry because there is an important basketball game about to start, and he doesn’t want to miss it. However, he will if yet a fourth juror, who wants to review the evidence and needs more time, gets his way, and so on. Somehow, everyone must put aside their competing interests.
So it is in Lost Horizon. A group of Europeans evacuates a Chinese city during a time of rioting in the years before war breaks out in Europe. Their rickety rescue plane arrives, but the normal pilot is missing or dead. Some revolutionary has been ordered to hijack the plane, which the villain does. The plane crashes in a remote mountain range that resembles the Himalayas, and it looks like certain death for the passengers due to the elements and the remote location of the wreck. However, they are visited by a strange group of people who take them to a tropical oasis tucked away in a secret mountain valley called Shangri-La.
The leader of the passengers is a British diplomat suffering from an ulcer caused by the drums of war. When he learns of the perpetual peace in Shangri-La, he is sorely tempted to stay to escape the madness of the hour. A young woman in their party, full of idealism and life, has a deadly disease. If she returns to the world, it will kill her, but if she remains in Shangri-La, she will be cured and perhaps live for a hundred years or more.
One of the rescued individuals is a developer and entrepreneur. He sees the secret community as people who possess the fountain of youth, which he hopes to bottle and sell. Still, another wants to return home as soon as possible. The promise of immortality and outstanding health, free of disease, means nothing to him if he must remain cooped up. Here in this utopia, the focus is on spirit and spiritual development under the tutorship of a Lama.
The characters in Lost Horizon have been carefully chosen, and their personal circumstances are vitally important to the movie. For example, consider the book/movie Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose. A man is on trial, and his life is at stake. Twelve jurors are chosen to determine guilt or innocence. In real-life situations like this, one juror goes into the deliberations with his mind set on the guilt of the accused, whether there is evidence to support that or not. Another juror is firmly of the opinion that the accused is innocent. A different juror is in a hurry because there is an important basketball game about to start, and he doesn’t want to miss it. However, he will if yet a fourth juror, who wants to review the evidence and needs more time, gets his way, and so on. Somehow, everyone must put aside their competing interests.
So it is in Lost Horizon. A group of Europeans evacuates a Chinese city during a time of rioting in the years before war breaks out in Europe. Their rickety rescue plane arrives, but the normal pilot is missing or dead. Some revolutionary has been ordered to hijack the plane, which the villain does. The plane crashes in a remote mountain range that resembles the Himalayas, and it looks like certain death for the passengers due to the elements and the remote location of the wreck. However, they are visited by a strange group of people who take them to a tropical oasis tucked away in a secret mountain valley called Shangri-La.
The leader of the passengers is a British diplomat suffering from an ulcer caused by the drums of war. When he learns of the perpetual peace in Shangri-La, he is sorely tempted to stay to escape the madness of the hour. A young woman in their party, full of idealism and life, has a deadly disease. If she returns to the world, it will kill her, but if she remains in Shangri-La, she will be cured and perhaps live for a hundred years or more.
One of the rescued individuals is a developer and entrepreneur. He sees the secret community as people who possess the fountain of youth, which he hopes to bottle and sell. Still, another wants to return home as soon as possible. The promise of immortality and outstanding health, free of disease, means nothing to him if he must remain cooped up. Here in this utopia, the focus is on spirit and spiritual development under the tutorship of a Lama.
However, not everyone is cut out for this life; utopian living can be fairly bland. Sir Thomas More coined the term “Utopia” in 1516 for a book he published, which represented an ideal society. However, the Greek words he compounded—topos, meaning “place,” and ou, meaning “not” (or perhaps he intended eu, meaning “happy”)—reveal the contradiction: there is no perfect place. There is no truly happy place from which one might escape the ills and evils of the world. Even religious communities, such as Plymouth Plantation, discovered this.
These characters, amid the backdrop of the mythical Shangri-La, each navigate their personal journeys, experiencing transformation and exploring the conflict between the modern world’s chaos and the timeless peace of an ideal society.
Their interactions provide insight into the novel’s themes of escapism, the search for meaning, and the spiritual quest for a better life.
Under this heading, I’ll be introducing utopias, dystopias, and so on, beginning with the very first one: the Garden of Eden.
Caption: Horizons perdus Lost horizon 1937 Real Frank Capra Ronald Colman Thomas Mitchell. Edward Everett Horton. Collection Christophel © Columbia Pictures (Alamy).
Read more about utopias and dystopias, the increasingly elusive American Dream, and our fallen world in the months ahead and engaging! If you have further questions or specific concerns you’d like me to address, feel free to share.
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