Kundun
Director: Martin Scorsese
Year Released: 1997
Rating: 1.5
Luscious cinematography (the most easy thing to get right in a movie like this - beauty is everywhere) and mindless adoration takes the place of profound goings-on in Scorsese's film of the spiritual leader's life - as the Dalai Lama grows up, he becomes confronted with the problem of dealing with Communist China, with the Tibetan elders looking up to the teenager for advice (he's not sure what to tell them). Unfortunately, when compared to Bertolucci's handling of a similar figure in The Last Emperor, this movie looks like a fluff piece. Complaints about being 'too long' don't make much sense - why is it that I think Scorsese needed even more time to get in everything he had to? Feels like Act One, so where's the rest? Oh, right, it's still taking place....
