The Kite Runner (2007)
**Posted by Anx at 12:24 AM
I watched 'The Kite Runner' recently, after I read the book with the same title, written by Khaled Hosseini.
The Kite Runner it's a story about friendship, but also about the political turmoil and the violent fights from Kabul, Afghanistan. Amir (a boy coming from a wealthy family) has to live with the guilt that he abandoned his best friend, Hassan, the son of his family's servant, in one of the worse moments of his life. Him and his father will run away in USA, after the Soviets occupies Kabul.
Even though, as usually, I liked the novel better, the movie was pretty good. I give The Kite Runner
The movie starts with Amir being in America and having published his first book. He remembers his childhood, back in Kabul, when he was reading stories for his illiterate best friend, Hassan. Hassan was the son of his father's Hazara servant and he was totally devoted to Amir.
Amir's father loves both of them the same, but he doesn't like that Amir spend so much time reading and writing. The little boy thinks his father blames him for his mother's death, when she gave him birth.
Hassan and Amir run kites and Hassan has a real talent for that. He can take off a kite without even looking at it. Amir wins the local running kites tournament and his father's admiration.
Hassan goes to get back the last broken kite, but he will meet Assef and his friends. Assef is an older boy, who keeps bullying Amir for having a Hazara friend (Hazara was considered an inferior race). Assef will rape Hassan and Amir watches the entire scene, but he's too coward to interfere.
The boys won't say anything about the rape, Amir because he thought he will lose his father love and Hassan was too embarrassed to tell the truth and this will create a gap in their friendship. Amir wants Hassan out of his life, so he plants his watch under Hassan's mattress, so Hassan can be accused of stealing. Even if Amir's father forgives him, Hassan's father takes him and they leave the house.
Five years later, Amir and his father are forced to leave Afghanistan, whereas the Soviet Union invade Afghanistan. After many adventures, they reach USA. There, he will meet and fall inlove with Soraya, a fellow refugee. They will get married soon after and learn that they can't have children.
After 15years, Amir receives a phone from his father's best friend, asking him to come to Pakistan. When he goes there, he will find out that in fact Hassan was his brother so he went back to save him, but he's already dead. He found that Hassan had a son and his mission is to save him from the orphanage.
He will disguise (wears a fake beard and moustache) to enter the Taliban territory. He had to, because all Afghan people who ran away were punished. Amir couldn't find Hassan's son, Sohrab, in the orphanage, but the director tells him that a Taliban official comes often and takes a girl back with him, sometimes a boy. Last time he took Sohrab and he never came back.
Amir found the boy, dancing dressed in women's clothes, in a house of a rich people and being raped by Amir's acquaintance from the past, Assef. He will agree to release Sohrab, only if he can cruelly beat Amir who will be saved by Sohrab's slingshot. Amir takes Sohrab back with him to America and him and his wife decides to adopt him.
At the very end, Amir is teaching Sohrab how to run a kite and he's talking about Hassan and what talented kite runner he was.
- THE END -
LMAO, SO harsh...if you rate the movie a mere 3 stars out of 5..and you thought it was pretty good =]
I think the book is excellent, but yep, it's hard to bring a book entirely into a movie.
One of the few times I've really preferred a movie to a book is actually Antony Minghella's brilliant The English Patient. That's a great movie =]
I will never be able to judge a movie correctly after I read the book, but yeah, I've been too harsh to this movie. That's why I'll change the rating...
I have so far 2 favourites movies based on books: The English Patient and Gone With The Wind...
Lolz...I love GWTW...I read it when I was at High School n really love Ms Mitchell's writing. I read the sequel book as well, which is not bad, considering.
Have you seen Name of the Rose, which is an EXCELLENT film, and only exceeded by the book, cos the book is SO great, lolz (Umberto Eco).
Oh, yeah... Eco is just marvelous and I loved Name Of The Rose and Foucault Pendulum. By the way, I didn't see the movie based on F.Pendulum. Do you recommend it?