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The Kite Runner by Marc Forster
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DVD detailsActor: Homayoun Ershadi, L. Peter Callender, Larry Brown, Sa?d Taghmaoui, Shaun Toub Director: Marc Forster Brand: PARAMOUNT PICTURES Cinematographer: Roberto Schaefer Composer: Alberto Iglesias DVD: Region Code 1 Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; Russian (Original Language); Urdu (Original Language); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 5.1 Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen Picture Format: 2.35:1 Running Time: 127 minutes DVD Release Date: 2008-03-25 Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) Studio: Dreamworks Video
DVD Reviews of The Kite RunnerDVD Review: Outstanding Summary: 5 StarsI bought the DVD and was so impressed by the story - growing up in Afganistan before,during and after the Russian presence, the acting - especially from the two main young actors, well everything really, that I bought the Blu Ray as soon as it became available. The benefits over the DVD are quite simply better sound and picture quality - not that the DVD is deficient, it just doesn't quite have the edge over the blu ray. One of the best foreign (non English speaking) movies I have seen.
DVD Review: 3 stars out of 4 Summary: 4 StarsThe Bottom Line:
Marred somewhat by poorly CGI-ed kites (not a huge deal) and a fundamental disconnect between the two halves of the film (a bigger deal), The Kite Runner is a capable and interesting adaptation of Hosseini's novel but perhaps not the film it could have been.
DVD Review: Does not ring true Summary: 1 StarsThere are many points in this movie where the plot runs thin. Is is being implied that Assef is a homosexual pedophile? That both Hassan and Sohrab would be the defenders of Amir with slingshots is a just a bit too coincidental. It's all just a bit too much. I can't recommend it.
DVD Review: Loyalty and betrayal Summary: 5 StarsA lesson in loyalty and betrayal. A beatifully made movie with very few props. It's about loyalty and responsibility and how that sometimes it's not always good enough. It gets to your heart. It makes you think and consider the people around you. The subtitles are hard to read sometimes, but besides that it is a great movie to watch.
DVD Review: A beautiful story -- Blu-Ray format makes it even more beautiful Summary: 4 StarsKhaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner is such a beautiful story. I read the book a year and a half ago, which sets me up perfectly to enjoy an on-screen adaptation of the book (My recipe for success in this area? Read book. Love book so much that I want more. Let time pass -- at least a year -- so that the details of the book have softened in my mind. Watch movie.).
It truly is a beautiful movie -- the type that plays out wonderfully in high-definition format. There are also some great special features, including interviews with the director and the author of the book, which I enjoyed. Khaled Hosseini is even featured in the commentary on the movie (that I haven't watched yet), which shows his active role in adapting his book to the screen.
He's pleased with the movie. Yes, there is a lot cut out, but there are no significant changes, so even book purists will probably be pleased with this movie.
There are even elements that play out better on screen. Somehow Hassan's loyalty seems more real and less archetypical. I am physically reminded of Amir's youth at the time he makes the regrettable decisions.
If you've avoided this story because of its difficult content, I recommend this movie to you. You'll get a taste of the story, but in a two-hour chunk with an uplifting ending, as opposed to having to invest in reading 400 pages -- 400 beautifully written pages -- but nonetheless. . . . On that note, I have to say that you will be reading a fair bit if you watch the movie. Most of it is subtitled, and this surprised me, even though I knew that the majority of it took place in Afghanistan.
Description of The Kite RunnerAmir is a young Afghani from a well-to-do Kabul family; his best friend Hassan is the son of a family servant. Together the two boys form a bond of friendship that breaks tragically on one fateful day, when Amir fails to save his friend from brutal neighborhood bullies. Amir and Hassan become separated, and as first the Soviets and then the Taliban seize control of Afghanistan, Amir and his father escape to the United States to pursue a new life. Years later, Amir - now an accomplished author living in San Francisco - is called back to Kabul to right the wrongs he and his father committed years ago. Like the bestselling book upon which it's based, The Kite Runner will haunt the viewer long after the film is over. A tale of childhood betrayal, innocence and harsh reality, and dreamy memory, The Kite Runner faces good and evil--and the path between them, though often blurry and sorrowfully relative. Director Marc Forster (Monster's Ball, Finding Neverland) presents a painterly vision of Afghanistan before the Soviet tanks, before the Taliban--lush, verdant, fertile--in its landscape and in its people and their history and hopes. The story follows two young boys' friendship, tested beyond endurance, and the haunting of their adult selves by what happened in their youth--and what horrors befall their country in the meantime. The performances of the two boys--Zekeria Ebrahimi (Amir) and Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada (Hassan)--are the film's strongest, unforced and gently evocative. The penance paid by their adult selves is foreshadowed, but never predictable--and the metaphor of innocence lost, a common theme in Forster's work, keeps the film, like the title kites, truly aloft.--A.T. Hurley
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