Kundun (1997)
Directed by Martin Scorsese
From childhood to adulthood, Tibet's fourteenth Dalai Lama deals with Chinese oppression and other problems.
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What critics compared Kundun to
In fact, it almost seems to be a remake of "Kundun" at times, what with the protagonist, Aang (Noah Ringer), being the reincarnation of a spiritual leader not unlike the Dalai Lama... except that he does martial arts and can control the elements!
Filmed in 2-D with 3-D applied after the fact - with marginal results - its muddled mythology is a patchwork of influences, from "Compass," "The Chronicles of Narnia," "The Lord of The Rings" and "The Neverending Story" to, of all things, the Dalai Lama parables "Little Buddha" and "Kundun."
Only God Forgives is in some ways reminiscent of the fashionable obsession with eastern religions, rituals and colourful social practices that some American film-makers exhibited a few years ago in films such as Paul Schrader's Mishima , Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun , Martin Scorsese's Kundun and Jim Jarmusch's Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai .
It’s arguably closer to Scorsese’s faith-based trilogy, “The Last Temptation of Christ,” “Kundun” and “Silence,” asking the big question: What does it all mean?
It actually has more in common with Scorsese's faith-based trilogy, The Last Temptation of Christ , Kundun , and Silence .
And although he’s known for his New York crime movies, his work spans a variety of genres (The Last Waltz, Kundun The Last Temptation of Christ).
You’re allowed to like both Ant-Man and The Aviator, or Ironman but not Silence, or neither Kundun nor Captain Marvel.
With the appearance of a Catholic priest trying to save the dying Sheeran's soul, Scorsese's religious connection re-emerges, as in Kundun, Silence, and of course The Last Temptation of Christ.
This was as true of “Kundun,” “The Last Temptation of Christ” and “Silence”—to name three examples of Scorsese-ian magnificence and spiritual humility—as it was of “The Departed” and “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
Ace cinematographer Roger Deakins (Fargo, Kundun ) shoots a bowling lane the way Martin Scorsese shot pool tables in The Color of Money.
Saving graces include the photography by Roger Deakins ("Kundun"), the music by Carter Burwell and most of the performances.
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It was shot by the fine cinematographer Roger Deakins (known for his work with the Coen brothers; he was also the director of photography on Martin Scorsese's marvelous "Kundun").
The first 30 minutes of “Hugo” are absolutely absurd, perhaps more so than “The Age of Innocence” and “Kundun” combined.
"Hugo" has far more in common with Scoresese's underappreciated "Kundun" than the gritty gangster pictures he's widely recognized for.
He has demonstrated in the past, especially in “ Kundun ,” his underrated film about the boyhood of the 14th Dalai Lama , a strong affinity for childhood wonderment.
Then again, plenty of people might describe “The Last Temptation of Christ” or “The Age of Innocence” or “Kundun” that way, in that they don’t have guns or gangsters in them and don’t resemble his most iconic work, and I’d argue those are three of his best movies.
In its fascination with religious and cultural tradition, and respect for the members of communities of faith, the film exists in the tradition of Kundun and Silence, but the tragic romance at the heart of this film is something unique in Scorsese's filmography.
Yet, if we think of Scorsese's films as alternating between violent urban stories often about gangs or lawlessness and other stories about other things, in which violence sometimes but not always plays a part – Silence (2016), Kundun (1997), The Age Of Innocence (1993) – Killers Of The Flower Moon, in essence a sprawling, true crime drama about lawlessness, seems somehow to belong in the ‘other' films category.
Some may recall that he followed up Casino with Kundun, that he entered Merchant-Ivory territory with The Age of Innocence , or that he predated the Coen Brothers in surreal comedy with After Hours.
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Scorsese may be pushing us into uncommonly rarefied multiplex territory — much as he did with “Kundun,” his epic portrait of the Dalai Lama — but he has no intention of leaving us in the dark.
Scorsese has lately reveled in excess, eager to play fabulist ( Hugo ) or satirist (The Wolf of Wall Street) as the occasion demands, but the more than two-and-a-half-hour-long Silence is rather unshowy even compared to his other monumental religious works, The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) and Kundun (1997).
“Silence” is the largest, most serious-minded examination of faith since Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life,” rounding out a trilogy on the subject from the director of “Kundun” and “The Last Temptation of Christ.”
Scorsese isn’t working in his usual busy late style, which is meant to make you say, “Can that man cook!” He’s in the self-abnegation mode of The Last Temptation of Christ and Kundun, shaking off the accumulated layers of film-consciousness in an attempt to make you see things as no one has before: with pity, terror, and — maybe hardest of all to induce — a gnawing ambivalence.
He has flirted with and danced around the subject in many of his other films, most often those featuring transgressive and violent characters, but of his explicitly religious dramas, specifically including Kundun and The Last Temptation of Christ, this is, by a considerable distance, the most eloquent and coherent.
…and once considered joining the priesthood — even though he’s already made two holy epics, 1988’s The Last Temptation of Christ and 1997’s Kundun.
It’s a film project Spielberg’s longtime producers Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy had developed for more than two decades before it finally went into production, and its script comes from the late Melissa Mathison, who also wrote the filmmaker’s iconic “E.T.” and understood how to craft engaging family-friendly screenplays and three-dimensional children characters as well as any of her peers, though her previous film was Martin Scorsese’s “Kundun” in 1997.
The first this decade is The BFG and, with the collusion of director Steven Spielberg (Bridge of Spies) and writer Melissa Mathison (Kundun) for the first time since E.T., it’s supposed to be a pretty impressive undertaking.
It seems that Spielberg and his gifted screenwriter, the late Melissa Mathison (Kundun, The Black Stallion), who forged a classic partnership on E.T., are striving to achieve a poignancy that isn’t there and isn’t necessary anyway.
It’s adapted by Melissa Mathison, who wrote E.T. for Spielberg and Kundun for Martin Scorsese.
In her final screenplay Melissa Mathison (“The Black Stallion,” “E.T.,” “Kundun”) adapts the 1982 novel by Roald Dahl, which every thirtyish person I know seems to have read (and enjoyed) as a child.