The film is beautiful and I loved how it showed two sides of Afghanistan.
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The tagline of Marc Foster´s adaptation of Khaled Hosseini´s novel "The Kite Runner" is "There is a way to be good again." It is important to be aware of this tagline before viewing the film "The Kite Runner," because it is quite easy falling into the trap of loathing the main character during his stages of cowardice during the first three quarters of the film and then not feeling overly excited when redemption is found in the closing act of the film. From the early goings in the movie when the main character seems locked in an not-entirely happy marriage to the controversial scene where innocence is lost and the main character undergoes a nasty metamorphosis of character, "The Kite Runner" is a film that paints a rather ugly picture of its protagonist.
The film centers around an Afghanistan youth named Amir (Zekeria Ebrahimi) and his relationship with his friend and family servant boy Hassan (Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada). Hassan is the son of Ali (Nabi Tanha), the faithful servant of his father Baba (Homayoun Ershadi). Amir and Hassan are virtually inseparable as they grow up together. Hassan, while being the smaller of the two youth, acts as a bodyguard for Amir. He uses a makeshift slingshot to fend off bullies such as Assef (Elham Ehsas), but Hassan is criticized for being a Hazaras servant boy and a popular target of ridicule and anger from Assef and his friends. The two boys find their strongest bond while serving as a team in kite fighting and Hassan shows impeccable skill in recovering kites as the ´kite runner´ of the duo.
Baba is well to do in Afghanistan and drives around town in a Ford Mustang and takes his son and Hassan to see American movies, such as "Bullet" and "The Magnificent Seven." His close friend Rahim Khan (Shaun Toub) supports the love of literature held by Amir, but Baba is upset that is son is unable to stand on his own two feet and leans on Hassan for support. He has known Ali for his entire life and provides for Ali and Hassan by allowing them to be his servants. Baba goes out of his way to give them the best life possible for a servant. Baba is publically anti-communist in his views and takes any opportunity necessary to state his dislike of the Russians and any communist sympathy as the Russians slowly move to take Afghanistan.
Amir and Hassan follow in the footsteps of Baba and become kite fighting champions. This brings great pride to Baba and Hassan leaves to run down the blue kite that the two defeated to win the championship. When he recovers the kite, Assef stops Hassan and demands the blue kite, or states that Hassan will have to suffer the consequences. Hassan tells Assef that it is a gift to his friend Amir, but Assef shows his great dislike for Hazaras by beating and then raping Hassan. Amir succumbs to cowardice and watches the attack on his friend, but does nothing to help Hassan. From this moment of time on, Amir ends the friendship with Hassan and eventually succeeds in forcing Hassan and Ali to leave the employment of Baba.
The story moves along and Baba and Amir must flee Afghanistan for Pakistan when the Russians invade. They move to America where Baba must work for poor pay at a gas station and Amir attends community college to become a writer. He meets the former Afghan general Taheri (Qadir Farookh) and falls in love with his daughter Soraya (Atossa Leoni). After some initial difficulties in winning the young ladies affections, Amir and Soraya become married. Baba suffers from failing health, but is able to witness his son´s graduation and marriage. After the passing of his father, Amir is contacted by Rahim Khan to return to Pakistan to do something ´good.´
The final act of the film revolves around Amir trying to make amends for the poor treatment he had given to his closest friend Hassan. It is revealed that Hassan has a son and that Amir must go and fetch the boy from the Taliban rulers that now control Afghanistan. He is forced to wear a fake beard as they look to locate Hassan´s son Sohrab (Ali Danish Bakhty Ari). Amir and Soraya were unable to bear children, so Amir decides to bring the boy home as his own son and do something to be good again after he betrayed Hassan, who felt strongly of Amir until his death. The return to Afghanistan is a hard lesson for Amir and he discovers that his old world holds very little for him.
Redemption. That is the key plot line of "The Kite Runner." For much of the middle section of the film I disliked the character of Amir and felt he was a horrible coward that should suffer for the way he treated Hassan. Amir threw away true friendship after peer pressure and guilt for his own cowardice. I didn´t think it was a forgivable act and cared far more for what happened to Hassan than the boy who fled to America to be a writer. Once Hassan leaves the Baba homestead, he is not seen again. Amir wasn´t an unlikable sort and he grew up to be a pretty good person, but his treatment of his best friend was inexcusable. I rooted for Amir to find Sohrab and bring the son of Hassan to a safe place for a good life, but even after Amir did the ´good´ deed asked of him, I still could not find much warmth towards the character.
My dislike of the main character and belief that he didn´t do enough to redeem himself for his earlier cowardice did prevent me from enjoying "The Kite Runner" to the fullest. The film currently sits with a score of 7.9 on the IMDb web site and the movie has generally achieved strong acclaim from critics. I cannot deny that "The Kite Runner" is a wonderful education on the state of Afghanistan before the Russian occupation and the sad revisit of the once beautiful nation after the Taliban had taken over. A pomegranate tree shown in the film is a perfect reminder as to how much beauty and innocence was lost. I still found "The Kite Runner" to be a good film, but really feel that young Amir needed one spanking he would never have forgotten.
The acting of "The Kite Runner" is absolutely solid and the direction by Marc Foster is very good. The majority of the film takes place in Persian with subtitles across the bottom of the screen. Foster does a remarkable job of creating an Afghanistan film with actors and language of a tongue he wasn´t fluent in and required a translator to work with many actors that could not speak in English. Screenwriter David Benioff worked with novelist Khaled Hosseini to bring the best-selling book to the big screen and I felt that Benioff did a fine job of bringing this Afghan story to screen and preserved the cultural aspects of the story. This is a film where the nation of Afghanistan is an important character and both Foster and Benioff deserve some credit for not betraying the war-torn nation´s history.
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