Kundun

Kundun was beautifully done, adding true portrayals of the practices of the Tibetan Buddhists - their chants, artwork, dances and costumes. Also, Philip Glass did a wonderful job with the soundtrack- combining the sound of damarus, ghantas, conch-shells and mantras with his own unique sound. Unlike Seven Years in Tibet, Kundun concentrates on the plight of Tibet through the life of the Dalai Lama. This perspective allows for the audience to realize the ideals and morals that define the people of Tibet, through the eyes and life experiences of their own chosen leader. Focusing on a character other than the Dalai Lama allows for too many distractions within the plot of the movie, especially when the script for Kundun was taken from a biography of His Holiness. This film employs most of the senses in order to allow the audience a fuller understanding of the Dalai Lama, his people, and their struggle against the Chinese. Kundun may be lengthy, but it is well worth the time.

I rented Kundun to further my quest to see all the Scorsese movies I can. I never expected such an incredible movie. I didn't want this movie to end. It's really difficult to describe how I feel about this movie since I have only viewed it once and was completely blown away, it left me in complete awe.

Like most when I first started watching Scorsese I thought that he did brilliant gangster films and that was his thing, but I have recently discovered that this couldn't be further from the truth. Fist seeing The Last Temptation of Christ and now Kundun I wouldn't care if Scorsese ever made another gangster film. It is easy to see that he is an artistic genius, the acting in the film was great, but I could have watched it on mute and still have been amazed.

If, like I was, you are unfamiliar with the Buddhist religion and the Chinese takeover of Tibet this film has even more to offer. Scorsese's risk of using real Buddhists to do all of the acting payed off better than I ever expected it would, the fact that we are hearing the story through the people it affected adds another level to this movie.

I cannot believe that this film only has a rating of 7 on this site. If you are a fan of Scorsese and are not sure you are going to like this just give it a chance, it deserves at least one viewing, if you give it that I am sure you will be amazed as I was. Scorsese's vision's in this movie are unlike any of his films, not to mention a great score by Phillip Glass.

I live in South Korea, so I didn't think I would get some insights about buddhism from a Western movie. But this movie shocked me a lot. Very beautiful and meaningful visuals, quiet but spiritually forceful atmosphere every single moments are in the movie, I could hardly breath during playing. This movie is not just about one man, but about the pain of all mankind and the way to transcend the pain and sin of ours in a very buddhist direction. China in this movie got a bad part. Ironically they were also victims of imperialism but learned the exact way to extort, destroy the property and beliefs of others by the power of machines. It was just sad to watch. But as Kundun implied, those violence's are in the shadow of our minds which should be overcame by the power of spirit. For me, this movie tells that.

You don't need to be Buddhist to love this movie. It's the story of the rape of a nation along with the biography of the man who leads that nation. The images, the dialogues and the music are very powerful. Of course it omits the question of democracy under the rule of Dalai Lama but anyway nothing can be worse than Chinese oppression and total violation of Tibetans' human rights under the eyes of an indifferent West which seems to think that human rights must not be equally valued everywhere and that human rights of Kosovars are more important than human rights of Tibetans. And we won't discuss either in this context if religion is the opiate of the people or not. In this case we prefer to state that we respect all religions and beliefs. As a matter of fact Buddhism is more a philosophy than a religion. The important thing to say is that this story is true and we hope that movie will contribute to open the eyes of the so called democratic countries to the drama of those people and force them to condemn Chinese authorities overtly for it and stop the hypocrisy of showing great indignation (sometimes feigned)for some human rights' violations while at same time disregarding some others even more brutal.

Though I see a lot of films (usually 100+ in theaters per year), I can't say that I'm much of a student of films. I go to be entertained and/or moved. And Kundun moved me in a way I don't think has ever happened before.

I saw the film in the multiplex in Phipps Plaza, probably Atlanta's most upscale shopping mall. At the end of the film, when I walked out the theater exit into the mall, I was emotionally stunned. Scorsese had hypnotized me into the world of Bhuddist simplicity and wonder. Seeing the activity and commercialism (which I normally love) of the mall was a shock.

Peter Weir once said: "The true test of it is when you come out of a picture and you can't remember whether it was day or night when you came in." I think that barely remembering what country I was in shows that for me, this film passes that "true test".