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Kundun
***1/2
Cinema
Releases - April 3, 1998
Rated on a 4-star
scale; USA; Directed by Martin Scorsese. Written by Melissa Mathison. Starring
Tenzin Yeshi Paichang, Tulku Jamyang Kunga Tenzin, Gyurme Tethong, Tenzin
Thuthob Tsarong, Tencho Gyalpo, Tsewang Migyur Khangsar, Lobsang Samten,
Sonam Phuntsok.
"Kundun" is a film as captivating,
commanding and hypnotic in presence as Geoffrey Reggio's "Koyaanisqatsi".
Accompanied by a similar Philip Glass score, photographed in rich, bold,
towering details by British cinematographer Roger Deakins, with art direction
creating the biggest cities of Tibet and China most effectively, it is held
together as a stunning epic by director Martin Scorsese. This is the kind
of film that takes the breath away.
Once it has established that it is going to be
a piece of filmmaking that keeps the viewers' eyes constantly glued to the
screen, its story begins, in a dusty shack on the Tibet-China border in the
1930s. A family greets some travellers with a chance to wash and have something
to eat, and they take notice of their young son. The travellers are searching
for the new Dalai Lama. Soon they find that he is the one they are looking
for, and we follow his life from learning to adapt to his position, beginning
to believe in it, and his eventual flee from Tibet as his pacifist ideas
are reacted to with war.
Through various stages, played as cute by Tenzin
Yeshi Paiching, energetic by Tulku Jamyang Kunga Tenzin, ambiguous by Gyurme
Tethong and mature and responsible by Tenzin Thutob Tsarong, the "kundun"
is always a fascinating character. Scorsese and screenwriter Melissa Mathison
don't take the side of sceptics or Buddhist monks, and present "kundun"
as a figure who could be a reincarnation of former great men, or simply a
figurehead raised to be intelligent. We see that from childhood he acts as
a pacifist and also passes the tests to prove himself as Dalai Lama, but
also plays and fools around like a regular kid. Such a stance both provokes
thought and helps us concentrate on the story -- I walked out neither shaking
my head nor converted to Tibetan Buddhism, but I did realise that the film
had made me open-minded enough about the faith to let me absorb the nature
of the time and place. This puts into context both who the "kundun" was as
a man and how the revolutionary events happening to his world felt through
his eyes. This is shown not only in emotions that Tsarong shows and the dialogue
he is given, but in creepy vision/dream sequences which show nightmares of
blood and destruction.
This is all very effective, since Scorsese's editor,
Thelma Schoonmaker, lets all sequences flow into one another to provide a
strange, unsettling mixture of a film, with Glass hanging his score over
everything, tying it all together hauntingly.
There are, however, a few small problems. Despite
the film having the epic structure of so many former Academy Award-winners,
like the biographies "Gandhi", "Amadeus", The Last Emperor" and "Braveheart",
and dealing with the same themes, it does not seem as intimate or personal.
If Scorsese thought this was his ticket to Oscar glory, he was wrong, and
maybe that would be the case even if it weren't up against "Titanic". Part
of the reason is the choice of material -- we get the feeling that the Dalai
Lama is a man who hides his emotions to maintain composure. In fact, Scorsese
proves his talent further by being able to engage us in this
story.
A lot of the other characters do not seem personally
involving either, at least not as much as in Scorsese films like "GoodFellas",
where we felt like we knew every last detail of everybody's lives. We remember
the names of nobody after the film is finished, and only recognised who was
being talked about during the film's conversations because of how they were
described. This is not helped by the fact that there are many similar characters
being played by actors who look a lot like each other.
"Kundun" is prevented from being a great film,
though, not by these reasons but because of a simple one about its nature.
I feel that great films should be watched over and over again, known inside
out, loved like a member of the family, and be as vital to survival. "Kundun"
is too heavy for that kind of following. I would recommend it among the best
of the year, and it left me feeling as moved as any film I've seen. But it'll
be a long time before I re-watch it.
COPYRIGHT©
1998 Ian Waldron-Mantgani
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