…………………………………………………

Kundun Movie Review

Kundun is a 1997 biographical drama film directed by Martin Scorsese. It’s one of Scorsese’s middle of the road movies – one that is not bad, but not great either.

………………………………………………….

“I see a safe journey, I see a safe return“

…………………………………………………..

When the Chinese communist forces evade Tibet, the 14th Dalai Lama comes to India in exile. With the communists threatening to execute him, it seems impossible for him to return to his homeland. This movie belongs to the cycle of Scorsese’s spiritual films along with ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’ and ‘Silence’. While I love both of the aforementioned movies, I did not quite care for this one unfortunately, though I still appreciated the departure from the crime/gangster genre.

The film was nominated for four Academy Awards and all four of these technical nods were very much deserved. Yes, this is one of those highly cinematic, gorgeous to look and hear films that are best seen for that purpose alone. The production design is staggeringly beautiful and believable, the costume design is fantastic and the movie is so well shot by the great Roger Deakins. The highlight, however, is the score by Phillip Grass – the music here is very moving, grandiose and timeless in quality, elevating the script significantly.

But the story remains problematic. It’s very simple for the subject matter at hand and the overly excessive narration hurt it in the long run as well. There is a very important and strong story here about the importance of Tibet’s religion and national identity, but it wasn’t explored nearly as well as it should have been. The movie was buried by Disney in order not to offend China, which just goes to show where their allegiance lies – in the money and money alone.

…………………………………………………..

Kundun benefits from a cast that is predominantly Tibetan, which was quite groundbreaking for the time. This led to an authentic-feeling picture, though I did wish that it wasn’t spoken in English as that diminished that authenticity a bit. While the cast did a good job, their roles were poor and underwritten, leaving me in the cold. I did not care for these people as they weren’t well developed at all, including the Dalai Lama himself. The movie did not take a realistic approach, but a spiritual one, but it lacked that emotional and spiritual feel that would have taken it to the next level. It was there, but only in sporadic moments.