Drug addict photographer Sally Hughes is initially suicidal, but begins counseling with lamas Chang and To Len, eventually finding inner peace.

Richard is summoned to meet the High Lama, who informs him that the plane was hijacked on purpose and that he was brought there for a reason, to succeed him as the leader of the community.

This led to some critics, notably Judith Crist in Texas Monthly observing that the (largely non-musical) cast fared better when they were not involved in musical numbers.

The dance sections of "Living Together, Growing Together" were cut, and "If I Could Go Back", "Where Knowledge Ends (Faith Begins)" and "I Come to You" were removed, but restored for the laserdisc release.

Bacharach felt that the producers were sanctioning weakened versions of his music, and he attempted to exert greater influence over what was being developed.

Commercially successful singles were issued of both the title song, performed by Shawn Phillips, and "Living Together, Growing Together" by The 5th Dimension, the latter being the band's last top 40 hit on the Billboard pop charts.

Richard Harris sang "If I Could Go Back" to the original musical arrangement made for the movie in the 1973 TV special Burt Bacharach in Shangri-La.

In April 1971, after 20 years of association, Hunter departed Universal and set up operations at Columbia where his first film was to be Lost Horizon.

[citation needed] However, the deal he engineered for his work on the film—hot on the heels of his Oscar nomination for the screenplay for Women in Love—combined with skilled investments, made it possible for him to live the rest of his creative life free of financial worries.

In that sense, this film enabled Kramer to devote himself to the gay community activism and the writings (e.g., his AIDS play The Normal Heart) which came later.

[20] Attempts to update the idea of Shangri-La with its racial inequalities intact, coupled with old-fashioned songs, effectively sealed its fate, according to The New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael.

She noted that Shangri-La was depicted as: a middle-class geriatric utopia [where]...you can live indefinitely, lounging and puttering about for hundreds of years...the Orientals are kept in their places, and no blacks...are among the residents.

It's entertaining, the sets really do evoke the spirit of a benevolent Buddha whereas the Capra film gave us an odd mixture of Mandarin and Frank Lloyd Wright...The Himalayan scenes are awe-inspiring-ant-like men plodding in single file across a breathtaking snowscape-the sheer excitement of the uprising in Baskul, the stunning aerial photography and incredible moment the passengers of the crashed aircraft are confronted by the escort party from Shangri-La, moving slowly towards them in the midst of the blizzard is a genuine cinematic feast."

Arthur Knight of Saturday Review acknowledge that "For a new generation, however, imbued with the ideals of peace and love, this LOST HORIZON may prove very satisfying.

Director Jarrott explores each scene carefully, there's certainly nothing lazy about his work....The Bacharach score is best in light breezy songs...Robert Surtee's photography is never soupy soft-focus.

Boxoffice Magazine reviewed Lost Horizon in its issue of March 19, stating in part: "...As G-rated entertainment with a screenful of stars, lavish sets and song and dance numbers galore, the new film should please a large portion of the population.

Critics are apt to turn a scornful eye at the Larry Kramer screenplay, as directed by Charles Jarrott, but this is an audience film in the purest sense.

Peter Finch is an excellent choice for the part of Conway and there are some gems in the casting, most especially Sally Kellerman singing and dancing as the neurotic ex-idealist who finds salvation in Shangri-La and Charles Boyer as the High Lama."

[citation needed] Pauline Kael gave the film a negative review but also acknowledged that "It's entirely possible that to the nostalgic viewers Ross Hunter is aiming at, this torpor will be soothing".

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film one star out of four and wrote that "it sinks altogether during a series of the most incompetent and clumsy dance numbers I've ever seen.

"[23] Vincent Canby of The New York Times called the film "a big, stale marshamallow" that was "surprisingly tacky in appearance" despite its large budget.

[24] Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the film looked "tacky and uncomfortable" and described the songs as "mechanical and uninteresting.

With the exception of Bobby Van, a kind of poor man's Donald O'Connor, the cast has no aptitude for singing and dancing.

On December 11, 2012, Screen Archives Entertainment (Twilight Time) issued an exclusive Blu-ray, with a 5.1 lossless soundtrack and an isolated film score.