THE KITE RUNNER [2007] review
August 8, 2008 · Print This Article
I value loyalty above almost all else. The character Hassan in THE KITE RUNNER personifies true, absolute loyalty. His loyalty stems out of purity. His loyalty is to Amir, and he may not exactly be worthy of such loyalty. The two boys are growing up in Afghanistan right before the Soviet invasion. In their carefree lives, there is no hint of this coming threat, save for the times the adults mention “the communists.”
A kite runner is not what I could have ever imagined. I will not describe what a kite runner is here. I will only say that boys in Afghanistan have a unique game involving kite flying. The kite flying scenes are filmed beautifully. It is good to sweep out of the rather harsh landscapes and up into the sky for awhile.
This is a movie where characters have secrets you never thought such a person could have. They are revealed unexpectedly in the story. There are surprising coincidences that clever scriptwriters like to employ. Yet nothing felt too gimmicky.
On the contrary, THE KITE RUNNER has a lot of heart, a lot of purity, and all of that stems from the childhood loyalty of the boy Hassan. Even I, not often moved by children, wanted to hug the boy and take care of him. His loyalty touched me deeply and I feel great affection for him, even now. To have such a loyal friend would be blessing.
The movie touches on the recent political situation in Afghanistan with the Taliban. The grip upon the country by the Taliban is revealed slowly, first only with facial hair rules, but then the ultimate laws are shown. And they are baffling to a person living in the modern world. In an excellent piece of editing, the director, Marc Forster, shows us the ludicrousness that in the year 2000 in certain places people are being stoned to death for adultery, by cutting to another place where such a thing is mentally and physically a world away.
The movie can make you emotional, and angry at characters and countries. Yet the kites continue to fly, not necessarily as they used to, but still they fly.
(I often mention about watching movies in HD. I watched THE KITE RUNNER via some manner of blu-ray, and it was stunning. I don’t want to say if you are not watching movies in HD you aren’t watching movies, but rather that watching a movie in HD is a whole other experience entirely.)
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I loved your review because it brought back the memory of this film, and the soaring kites, always the soaring, colorful kites.
I also greatly loved this moving film.
I didn’t think it could live up to the book, (films seldom do), but I was pleasantly surprised.
I, too, wanted to adopt the noble young Hassan, who sacrificed everything for honor, out of loyalty for his cowardly friend. Friends like him are hard to find in this world. Unfortunately, I don’t think the friendship was deserved in this case, and the twist of the “secret” was almost painful to learn in lieu of the very separate lives of these boys.
This film, based on the book, however, was an amazing story and one that I highly recommend.
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Jason Collin Reply:
August 11th, 2008 at 10:37 PM
Thank you Susana.
I agree, the friendship was certainly not deserved. And the twist did seem somewhat implausible given the living conditions.
THE KITE RUNNER is one of those movies that makes a war zone real, not just something one sees on TV every now and then. I now feel new sympathy for Afghanis.
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the child actors had to relocate to other countries for fear of their lives. they were paid small amounts of money, and after a while, the boy who played amir relocated back from dubai (where he had been living, to afghanistan again. he said he regretted doing the movie.
it was a lovely movie, just saying they should of given the kids more money and not put them in a situation like that. they were only allowed to take ONE relative to live with them overseas, so they had to leave their whole family behind. they could have gotten actors who didnt live in afghanistan and whose lives werent at risk!
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