Kundun (1997)

Directed by Martin Scorsese. Starring Tenzin Thuthrob Tsarong, Gyatso Lukhang, Tencho Gyalpo, Sonam Phuntsok, Tulku Jamyang Kunga Tenzin, Tsewang Migyur Khangsar, Henry Yuk, Robert Lin, Losang Gyatso, Tsering Lhamo, Tenzin Trinley. [PG-13]

Martin Scorsese’s ambitious, finely-textured story of the 14th Dalai Lama (from a script by Melissa Mathison) has visual beauty and poetry in spades, but the hagiography falls short on heart. Since no effort is made to suggest fallibility within the vessel for a reincarnated holy spirit, he exists as an icon, struck by dreams and doubts but secluded by divinity. The episodic story covers numerous chapters in the holy man’s life over the course of more than two decades, from his “discovery” on a farm in northeastern Tibet to his eventual escape to India from Chinese oppressors who were intending to kill him. Since Scorsese is only able to tell the story from a quizzical distance, he never gets around to fully exploring the film’s own subject, and it fails to ever become consistently involving (or moving), using dramatic moments to stand-in for spiritual discoveries. Where it does seize focus throughout, however, is in the physical production, which has been strikingly photographed by Roger Deakins—it may not be promising to state that the movie’s meditative soul is upstaged by intricate colored sand mandalas, but all the same, what a sight they are. Shot primarily in Morocco, more than 5,000 miles away from its Tibetan setting, but if you think that the filmmakers were going to get permission to film there… (Needless to say, the distributor, Disney, caved in and apologized for the film’s very existence to preserve their pipeline into China’s markets.) Kim Chan makes an appearance as a Chinese general.

72/100