The Kite Runner
by Marc Forster
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DVD details
Actor: Atossa Leoni, Khalid Abdalla, Sayed Jafar Masihullah Gharibzada, Shaun Toub, Zekeria EbrahimiDirector: Marc Forster
Brand: PARAMOUNT PICTURES
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language); Russian (Original Language); Urdu (Original Language); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Dubbed); Spanish (Dubbed)
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 Runner
DVD Review: Uplifting but formulaic
Summary: 3 Stars
"Kite Runner" has "First Novel" written all over it. Its depiction of 1970s Afghanistan is interesting, but its hackneyed and heavy-handed plot points of boyish antics, fathers, bullies, sexual assault, betrayal, ethnic prejudice and civil war seems too calculating by half, as if designed for the sole purpose of including all the requisite ingredients for one of the middlebrow choices of Oprah's Book of the Month Club. It's an uplifting story, and with fairly likeable characters, but there's just something about this movie that was too predictable and unsatisfying.DVD Review: Brotherhood, Love and Redemption
Summary: 5 Stars
I fell in love with Khaled Hosseini's novel `THE KITE RUNNER'; the story is sad, beautiful and inspiring. The writer relates the story in a way that makes you feel like it's poetry. The adaptation of this film captures the essence of the novel.
This is a story of unconditional love, brotherhood and redemption set in Afghanistan.
I like the way that the film is in the Afghan languages (Dari, Pashtu,Urdu) with English subtitles. If the film was in English, a lot of the realism would be lost and the story wouldn't have been as effective.
The two young boys who were chosen to play the role of Amir and Hassan were well-cast. The characters are best friends living in a household where Amir is the son of the rich owner of the house and the Hassan is the son of the house keeper; the class differences become an important factor in the story. The boys appear to have an inseparable friendship, they go to the cinema together and fly kites in competitions. An event occurs (I don't want to ruin the film for those who haven't seen it) in which Amir's strength of character and loyalty is tested. His actions, or lack there-of, will severely affect the friendship between the boys and they will never be the same again. Amir will be haunted with guilt becuase of the consequences of that fateful day for the rest of his life.
As a man, many years later, Amir discovers that there is hope, redemption is possible: `there is a way to be good again'.
DVD Review: A Terrific Film Every American Should See
Summary: 4 Stars
While the movie is not quite as good as the book -- few are, of course -- The Kite Runner should definitely be on every American's "must see" movie list. I specify Americans only because, as one myself, I am all too familiar with our overall ignorance of the actual people living and dying in the Middle East, despite the war going on there. While this film doesn't depend on that, since it's a story that in many ways could take place anywhere, it does provide a great inside look at the many layers of the Afghan culture and the challenges they face every day.
Above and beyond that, this is also simply a very well told, well acted, and skillfully directed film. The keenly nuanced performance of Khalid Abdalla is exceptional throughout, as are the performances of all the main characters. There is some explicit violence, so keep that in mind if you intend to show it to your family, but that's also a key part of what the protagonist is striving to overcome, so there's no getting around it.
So...why buy the DVD instead of just renting it? Well, mostly because the Special Features on this DVD are exceptional. While a lot of movie DVDs show "behind the scenes" activities, the nature of this story lends itself to a lot of terrific back story reflecting0 the Afghan culture they are trying to capture in the film, as well as showing and discussing areas where the actual filming took place and the cultural challenges involved in that. And while you could see these on a rental, owning it will allow you to show and talk about these cultural differences (and similarities) with more people, over and over again. I know I have already.
DVD Review: "There is a way to be good again."
Summary: 4 Stars
"I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid, overcast day in the winter of 1975."
- Amir (the narrator in The Kite Runner)
For me, the movie The Kite Runner was like an abbreviated Greek epic fraught with all of the demons and obstacles which must be overcome to atone for one or another tragic flaws. These imperfections cause internal suffering and conflict for our beloved hero. The hero has to endure some protracted personal suffering and soul searching before being allowed to embark on a course of action which will cleanse his soul ridding him of a tempest which seems to thwart his every attempt to survive or complete himself. Such is the fate of Amir; not a Greek tragic hero; but simply an Afghani 12 year old boy when we meet him.
The film has many scenes in Farsi with English subtitles which may be difficult for some to accustom themselves to; but more disturbing might be some of the allusions and images of child rape and sexual slavery (although very delicately handled); nonetheless included as powerful symbols of the film.
Aside from the above, the story deals with two young boys who grew up in Afghanistan; one privileged (Amir) and one not (Hassan). Their two very different lives and paths develop into a storyline which reveals how different their past, present and future would be. The movie also evaluates friendships of all kinds: friendship of the boys themselves, of their fathers (Baba and Ali), of Baba (Amir's father) and that of Rakim Khan and of Baba and other Afghanis who find themselves in a foreign land which is never like the dust of Kabul. Once most of them were rich and well established and now all have found themselves in a different strata of society in a strange new country. Baba seemed to like the idea of America; but not the place itself. To his way of thinking even the flies were in a hurry.
Themes relating to conflicts and tensions between fathers and sons were examined as well as themes of betrayal and redemption. How does one forgive others and probably most difficult: how does a person forgive oneself.
Amir, the privileged Pashtun son of Baba, finds himself in the unenviable position of desiring love from his father at a very early age and seeking the affirmation of that love throughout his life; most likely the result of his mother dying in childbirth. This constant feeling of being unworthy causes him to feel and act unworthy of his truly noble spirit which seemed at times to be camouflaged by his bratty and selfish behavior. His boyhood friend was a Hazara and lived a very different life than Amir; Hassan was Amir's closest friend as well as being his devoted servant; however, what causes much of the tempest within Amir was that Hassan possessed many of the qualities that Amir's father Baba seemed to quietly admire in Hassan.. other than those qualities of excellence shown in his own son Amir. This, of course, disturbed Amir and brought out the worst in him.
Amir felt in retrospect that somehow while growing up, he aspired to cowardice and really did not know why. The story tells the outcome of these two different ways of life and different choices and gives at least one of the characters (Amir) a way out of the darkness and a way to redeem himself; most importantly for his own personal salvation.
The book which I read when it originally was released and the audio read by Hosseini himself were terrific and memorable. You would be hard pressed to not be moved by this tale. The movie, however, did not follow the book to the letter nor did some of its major plot sequences especially after the meeting with the town bully, his old nemesis Assef. I was a little disturbed by this detour; but still found the movie to be well done, memorable and very worthwhile.
This is as much a story of life and love as it is of death and separation; as much a story of hope and salvation as it is of war and devastation. There are so many parallels in this story; that lead you back to your own life and how you handle your own friendships, your own loyalties and how in the end you not only have to forgive others; but most importantly yourself. You come away from watching the movie with a message that we indeed might all be flawed; and that we cannot be too hard on ourselves. Hosseini has put a human face to the turmoil suffered by the country of Afghanistan and its people.
The acting was superb; I enjoyed all of the cast especially the actors playing the young boys (Amir and Hassan). They did a stupendous job and captured these characters' inner essence perfectly.
The movie succeeds where others would have failed in discussing very sensitive cultural and moral topics and delivers a moving, heart felt story. I hope you are moved by this movie as much as I was: "For you, a thousand times over."
Bentley/2008
Recommended 4 starsThe Kite Runner
DVD Review: Succeeds in painting Arabs in shades of grey unlike most Hollywood films
Summary: 4 Stars
"The Kite Runner" is a well-made tale of betrayal and redemption set in Afghanistan and San Francisco. With both western and arabic collaboration in making this film we end up with a strange mixture of Arabic sensibility, gritty art film, and Hollywood soap opera. In addition the sexual perversion element of the film is very hard to take. Nevertheless this is a very well acted film and succeeds in portraying Arab people in shades of grey in contrast to most Hollywood films.
Description of The Kite Runner
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. HurleyAmir 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.System Requirements:Running Time: 127 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA/INNOCENCE LOST Rating: PG-13 UPC: 097361179742 Manufacturer No: 117974
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