The Kite Runner, the original novel of which I have not read, could have been a very powerful film if it were not swept up from the intense substance of its surface and up into the clouds where commercial sensibilities go about their stale algorithms. This takes nerve to say, I know, when it does not fear confrontation with its subject matter to the point of including a very bothering scene halfway through involving the rape of a very sweet, selfless and sensitive child. It is not that I would rather pick away at the film's characters being too plot- functional to have an emotional impact, because that is where the film remained on my good side. I enjoyed the movie because of the frustration, fulfillment, and sympathy ignited by each main character. For instance, I loved the character of the father, such a maverick willing to find the middle ground and combine principles but never compromising the fabric of his own existence.
However, the film is not memorable or affecting in the long term because of its, well, just a movie. Those three words declare silence to serious filmgoers who take cinema into account rather than jamb it at arm's length as a mere pastime like bowling, however those words are mere themselves as they are quickly forgotten by the speaker when serious movies successfully shake the nerves of the mainstream. A film, a real film, is a depiction of an idea, why and how that idea is expressed being left up to the particulars of the subject matter and every creative element applied by the filmmakers and actors to express or create an impression of the idea on film. The Kite Runner indulges weakly in the perspective of the careless attitude towards the effects of movies, those who tell you it's just a movie, not including your parents when you were young and shocked by Jaws or The Wolf Man.
The Kite Runner standardizes and thus shrinks the balls of its material. The film is compressed to a point where there are good guys and bad guys, which is why I lost my investment in the main character following his immature and parasitic reaction to what happened to his best friend, when I should not have judged him. In the introductory sequence of The Departed, Jack Nicholson says, "When I was your age, they used to say you could become cops or criminals. But when you're facing a loaded gun, what's the difference?" That should be the mantra of a story like this. Facing the terror and subjugation that suddenly comes crashing down on the lives of these reasonably peaceful people, we shouldn't judge the insensitive things they do. We should understand them rather than subjugating them ourselves in their portrayals.
Marc Forster is a very talented director. I normally don't care for high-tech directors of my generation but with films like Stranger Than Fiction and Finding Neverland, Forster created riveting and affecting visual portraits, but with The Kite Runner, he panders.
However, the film is not memorable or affecting in the long term because of its, well, just a movie. Those three words declare silence to serious filmgoers who take cinema into account rather than jamb it at arm's length as a mere pastime like bowling, however those words are mere themselves as they are quickly forgotten by the speaker when serious movies successfully shake the nerves of the mainstream. A film, a real film, is a depiction of an idea, why and how that idea is expressed being left up to the particulars of the subject matter and every creative element applied by the filmmakers and actors to express or create an impression of the idea on film. The Kite Runner indulges weakly in the perspective of the careless attitude towards the effects of movies, those who tell you it's just a movie, not including your parents when you were young and shocked by Jaws or The Wolf Man.
The Kite Runner standardizes and thus shrinks the balls of its material. The film is compressed to a point where there are good guys and bad guys, which is why I lost my investment in the main character following his immature and parasitic reaction to what happened to his best friend, when I should not have judged him. In the introductory sequence of The Departed, Jack Nicholson says, "When I was your age, they used to say you could become cops or criminals. But when you're facing a loaded gun, what's the difference?" That should be the mantra of a story like this. Facing the terror and subjugation that suddenly comes crashing down on the lives of these reasonably peaceful people, we shouldn't judge the insensitive things they do. We should understand them rather than subjugating them ourselves in their portrayals.
Marc Forster is a very talented director. I normally don't care for high-tech directors of my generation but with films like Stranger Than Fiction and Finding Neverland, Forster created riveting and affecting visual portraits, but with The Kite Runner, he panders.