The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner is one of those films that is extremely hard to pin down. On the surface it’s a moving story about friendship and redemption, but I have to wonder if that is really the collection of themes intended by either the original novel’s writer Khaled Hosseini or the film’s director, Marc Foster. The story begins with two young Afghan children who appear to be friends, but they are from different worlds. Hassan (Mahmoodzada) is the son of household servants. Amir (Ebrahimi) is the son of the household’s masters. Yet they appear to share a common bond and fondness for one another. We quickly learn that the friendship is one sided. Hassan pledges that he would do anything for Amir. He vows he would eat dirt if Amir asked, but adds the belief that Amir would never ask him to. Even a look at Amir’s guilt tells us that’s certainly not true. Soon Hassan is approached by bullies and asked to give up a kite he captured and promised to Amir. Rather than break his promise to his friend, he is savagely beaten and sexually molested by the bullies. We are shocked to see that Amir is witness to the entire event and does nothing. To make his sin worse, he decides he can no longer be friends with Hassan because to see him reminds him of his shame, so he accuses the boy of theft. To complete his unconditional loyalty Hassan admits to the fictional theft to allow Amir to save face. Amir eventually flees Afghanistan as the Soviets invade. In America he becomes a successful writer and has nearly put his past behind him until he learns a startling secret about Hassan, now dead at the hands of the Taliban. In an effort to redeem himself, he decides to rescue Hassan’s son from the Taliban.

I question the idea that Amir’s actions have earned him redemption. I’m led to believe that this is a journey of courage, but I find Amir’s motives to be selfish even to the end. There can likely be no redemption for what he had done to his friend, and I find the rescue to be more about making him feel better than doing anything to make up to Hassan. It is because of this belief that I do not get the wonderful feeling that so many claim to get from The Kite Runner. The film would serve more of a purpose if it had lingered more on Hassan and allow us to see what his life was like leading up to his own death. Perhaps we could have bonded more with his son, and then the rescue would have meant more to us. Instead we are given far more attention to Amir and his rather dull life after fleeing his homeland. It is here that the film loses its focus and, for me at least, its interest.

To be sure the film’s location shots were extremely convincing. The film was shot in China on the other side of the mountains that separate that country from Afghanistan. The atmosphere provided in the film’s first third is a compelling one indeed. The local actors add yet another element of authenticity that serves the film well by really drawing us into the story of these two boys. Both of the children gave remarkably strong performances. Again, the film falls apart when Amir goes to America. Without the locations and local talent the film drags mercilessly until Amir’s return to rescue the boy. That climatic rescue is shortchanged, and we’re given a rather lame beating as all Amir suffers in his “courageous journey to redemption”. I have to say Amir’s beating is one of the worst choreographed beat downs in cinema history. By the time the film ends we feel as though the genius of the first third of the film was thrown away, and I, for one, felt cheated by the time it was all over. So much promise finally wasted in the end.

Video

The Kite Runner is presented in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio. I was overall very disappointed in the film’s visual presentation. The picture is often muddy and offers poor detail throughout most of the film. I understand part of this might have been to present the drab earth toned quality of Afghanistan, but the picture did not need to be so dull. Black levels were only adequate. There were moments of nice color rendition, most notably during some of the kite scenes. The film’s final scene was also a nice contrast of greens and blues away from the tans and yellows that had been prevalent.

Audio

The Dolby Digital 5.1 track was far more impressive than the video. The dialog was always very clear: however, unless you can speak Dari which is what most of the dialog is spoken in it doesn’t really matter. Of course, there are English subtitles so that actually catching the words isn’t as important. There are some fine moments of subtle uses of surrounds that become not so subtle during the Soviet invasion. The music appears reserved most of the time, making the overall quality appear rather undynamic, but for the most part the audio fits the atmosphere quite nicely.

There is an audio commentary with novel writer Khaled Hosseini, director Foster, and screenwriter David Benioff. They engage in some very serious discussion that makes it impossible to listen and still follow the film. If you liked the film this track is certainly worthwhile, as they go very much in-depth in all aspects of the story and filming.

Special Features

Words From The Kite Runner: The same three from the commentary talk more about their feelings for the story and what it meant to put it on the screen. There is a lot of overlap here with the commentary. Much of it is verbatim from the commentary.

Images From The Kite Runner: This works pretty much as a companion piece to the previous feature. Here the story isn’t so much the focus as are the locations and actually filming.

<>A PSA From Khaled Hosseini: The film can be viewed with this intro which is a public service announcement for nongovernmental agencies that help with the problems of countries like Afghanistan.

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Final Thoughts

I started out by liking the film, a lot. There is so much about the beginning story that makes it such great filmmaking. The actors were wonderful and the cinematography just sucked you into the world they were attempting to create. The story itself was a moving one, although it did make it impossible for me to ever like let alone actually root for Amir. He’s a despicable person, and there was no way this film was going to get me to like him. My feelings were so strong here that once that part of the story ended, the film itself really ended for me, and I was unable to enjoy the rest. Betrayal like that is one of the few things in life that I believe to be nearly unforgivable. Try renting the film for yourself “and leave the judging to Allah”.