Studio: Dreamworks Street Date: March 25, 2008 Director: Marc Forster Number of Discs: 1 MPAA Rating: PG-13 Cast: • Khalid Abdalla
• Atossa Leoni
• Said Taghmaoui
• Shaun Toub
• Homayoun Ershadi Running Time: 127 minutes Format: DVD Specs: Video: Widescreen 2.35:1 Color
Audio: ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 5.1, SPANISH: Dolby Digital 5.1, FRENCH: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English, Spanish, French Special Features: Commentary with Marc Forster, Khaled Hosseini and David Benioff
Words from The Kite Runner
Images from The Kite Runner
Theatrical Trailer Version: Standard Store Exclusives: N/A Review: I’m about to admit something that makes me sound a bit like an old lady who takes in too many cats and lives alone in denial about the state of the world around her; I can’t handle movies like this any more.
The Kite Runner was an amazing film; a heartbreaking story about the horrors that we are able to perpetrate upon one another, and then about the ability of the human soul to rise above its own limitations and to realize one’s own potential.
Superbly acted by a group of people most Americans won’t recognize, and scenic to a degree that shocked me (I never even considered there could be beauty to be found in Afghanistan), it’s the first movie in a long time to leave such an impression without relying on megastars, wild effects, or shocking plot twists.
Instead, the Kite Runner tells a story that we only know from the scrolling ticker on the bottom of CNN screens, instead from the perspective of the people I previously only thought of generically as Refugees and Immigrants. We meet citizens of Afghanistan who are real people, good citizens and parents, living a life not too unlike our own and trying to imbue character in their children while building a world in which those children can prosper. Then the Russians invade, sending them fleeing, only to later leave the country to the Taliban and turn their country into a permanent war zone. We find that these citizens are not only as much victims of these militant tyrants as we are, but more so; they are victims later of prejudice (their own, and ours) that turns them into ghosts of themselves once they manage to find their way to the relative safety of America.
The main message that I took from “Kite” is that through indescribable horror and hardship, even the most shameful and weak-spirited of us can be redeemed. I take comfort in that – I just hope that my own redemption isn’t contingent on going through the same character building horror that Kite’s own Amir endures.
All in all, if you don’t mind an all too real picture of the true human condition, can handle soul-crushing reminders that the problems we shamelessly whine about here in America are less than a grain of sand in the shoes of others, and are capable of knowing what children suffer in war zones, then this really is worth your time. Meanwhile, you can find me with my head safely buried in the sand (watching far safer fare). Buy It Now: Rating:
