Review of Kundun (1997) by Alexandria M — 19 Oct 2011

The movie Kundun is a great film that gives some of the real life accounts of the Dalai Lama. I like the way the film starts off showing the early childhood of the Dalai Lama. In one scene he could be no more than 5 or six years old at the dinner table playing around with his family.

Even at this young age you could see the independent and single-minded nature of this future Lama. He has the nerve of wanting and eventually getting his fathers seat at the table. His two brothers clearly dislike this action, but his father allows him to sit in his seat.

I really thought the placing of the pillow on his head as though he was a king was funny. Later in the movie he is visited by a group of men traveling on the road not knowing that the men are actually Lama's on a journey to find the next Dalai Lama.

One of the men seems to already know that this young child is different and sets up a series of tests to see if he is the 14th Dalai Lama reborn. The young child passes all of the tests and is sent back to the temple to be groomed as the next Dalai Lama.

As he is groomed and tauhgt the ways of religion and culture of a Tibetan monk life around him and his country will soon change. Close to the time of his 18th birthday Tibets all time interest China has there sights set on controling their country and their way of life as war is about to hit the country doorstep.

As China continues to invade and set policies for control of Tibet. The young 14th Dalai Lama shows why he was selected by skillfully managing his country affairs while holding off China through spritual diplomacy and humanistic strong will.

This buys the Tibetan people time in perparing for the worst but still having hope for the future. He's dealing with all this while those close around him are dying. I particularly liked the scene when the Dalai Lama is in Peking meeting with Chairman Mao.

The first meeting has the media attending with all of the camara's flashing and the Dalai Lama notices how the Chairmans hand is placed and what type of shoes he is wearing. This for some reason makes the Chairman a little uneasy, then in the second meeting the Chairman trys to make the Dalai Lama uneasy but this doesn't seem to phase the young Dalai Lama when near the end of the meeting takes a galnce at his shoes once again.

Which I took it as meaning that ones life may seem different but it just cosmetic we both still have to walk on the same ground.