The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner was one of my favorite novels that I read in high school. So much that I put off watching this movie for years because I hadn't heard stellar reviews of it. This film has been on my Netflix watchlist for a long time and I'm only watching it now because of an incredible interest in the Middle East and foreign affairs. On top of that, I am trying to thin out my Netflix list before the end of the year.

I am in an interesting predicament with this movie. I want to review this movie on its own merits. I don't want my bias of the book influence what I think of the movie. That being said, this was my favorite book in high school and one that really had an influence on me in my life after I read it. On the other side of things, it has been so long since I've actually read the book that even while I was watching the movie, I was trying to remind myself what happened in the book and how it compares to the movie and I failed. I remember the main points of this story, but more the way they made me feel, not so much what exactly happened. I couldn't tell you how close to the book this movie is. So I hope I can give a unique look at the movie and hopefully not be influenced so much on comparing how I felt between both mediums.

The Kite Runner takes place in Afghanistan in 1978. The 70's were a different time for Afghanistan and it's not the world that you see on the news today or in movies set there. It's almost modern with a lot of western influence, especially before the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1979.

The story centers on a young boy by the name of Amir (played by Zekeria Ebrahimi). Amir's best and only friend is a young Hazara boy who works in his father's house by the name of Hassan (played by Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada). Amir and Hassan are the best of friends but Amir has a little bit of trouble as he grows up and understands Hassan's role. He feels conflicted because he gets made fun of for not having friends who don't work for his father. He loves Hassan but he feels ashamed of him almost. And of course, Hassan is just the most loyal of companions, sticking up for Amir when he gets bullied and just being the most faithful friend ever.

An important element of this story throughout is the relationship between Amir and his father Agha Sahib (played by Homayoun Ershadi).

Agha (or Baba as Amir calls him) is a strong stern man. He's basically the definition of the kind of father that heroes always want to impress because they have these huge expectations that they feel they can never live up to. You see this even when Amir grows up that his relationship with his father is probably one of the best parts of the story and it really shows in this film.

Homayoun Ershadi is definitely the best actor in the film and he gives the best performance. It doesn't hurt that along side Hassan, Agha is the best character in this movie. Regardless of any criticism I may give of this movie, I feel like Homayoun Ershadi portrays the character from the book almost flawlessly. You realize the powerful conviction of the character and you just come to love him more and more with everything he does in this story.

But he also brings the most conflict for Amir. There are moments where Agha compares Amir to Hassan and Amir feels less of a son to Agha than Hassan does. There are great family dynamics in this story that the film does a decent job at portraying.

But the key relationship that really anchors this entire story is the relationship between Amir and Hassan.

These two are the best of friends and you do see how they get along like peas and carrots. They are really into kite fighting which was an old Afghanistan tradition (hence the name of the film) and they do show the really good relationship between these two boys. I will say the movie does face a little bit of a double difficulty. First off, these kids were 11 and 12 at the time of shooting this film. Child acting is very difficult to perfect and its even more difficult with the second difficulty. the majority of this movie is spoken in Dari, the native language of Afghanistan. So even if the kids did a good job (which they did), you have a language barrier that does create a difficulty for this film. Like I said, I think the kids did a good job, but there were a couple of barriers the film had that made it probably not as great as it could have been. I do applaud them for doing a lot of the film in subtitles, but that does create some hurdles that I'm not sure they always cleared.

There is an event at the beginning of this film that I don't want to spoil but if you've read the book or seen the movie, you know what I'm talking about.

It's a powerful change in the story and if you don't know what it is, it will take you by surprise. It's this event that changes the whole dynamic of the story and makes this more of a redemption tale for Amir. Not long after this event, the two boys are separated and Amir and his father move to America. Now this is a little bit of a criticism that I have with the book because when the boys are separated, the story totally focuses on Amir. You see him get to America and grow up and live his life. And while there is a call back to Hassan before the story comes full circle again, it really doesn't have much to do with the Hassan or the event that drives this whole story. The story focuses on this flawed character of Amir and that's a little bit difficult especially since he's not even the most likable character.

Amir grows up in California (now played by Khalid Abdalla). He lives with his father, eventually finds a woman he falls in love with and wants to be a writer. But eventually he must go back to Afghanistan and face the shadows of his past and find redemption from the horrors of his past.

That's really the maximum information I can give about the plot without giving away anything.

Like I said, A LOT of this film is spoken in Dari or Urdo and requires you to read subtitles. Furthermore, the entire cast is played by actors of Middle Eastern descent. I have to kind of wonder if that had anything to do with why this movie didn't make much of an impact when it was released in theaters. Not necessarily because it was all middle eastern actors, but because there were not big names to market this movie with. I don't know, but I barely remember this movie coming out in theaters and I barely know anybody who has actually seen this movie or even knew that it existed. I however do applaud the makers of this film for doing all those things. Its a story about Afghanistan, why wouldn't you have Middle Eastern actors playing these roles?

And even if you don't know who these actors are, they do give some really great performances. I already mentioned Ershadi. I thought Abdalla did an okay job but nothing really to write home to.

I thought the kids did a really good job despite the barriers that they found themselves in. That's more the barriers and problems of the movies, not the kids. Unfortunately, after doing some research into the film I figured out that the kids were actually from Afghanistan and one of them actually regrets doing this movie due to the fame and the exposure, making him and his family a target to threats and danger, so much that they had to be relocated for their safety. I still think they did a good job but its unfortunate that they had such an unfortunate aftermath from this film.

And here's the thing. This movie tapped an emotional response from me. It's a great story! I could talk about some of the pacing issues of this movie, and there are some, and I'm not totally sure that this story is exactly the kind of story you adapt directly from the book, but it is a great story nonetheless.

But here's the issue. I keep on asking myself, did I get an emotional response from the acting and the storytelling done by the movie, or was the emotional response from me remembering how I felt reading the book?

I think the only recommendation I can give is that you will really enjoy this movie if you have read the book. Now you might be critical. You might be in my shoes where you start thinking of things that perhaps worked better in the book that maybe didn't carry over to the movie as well, but if you loved the book as much as I did, if you loved the story as much as I did, it's hard to say if the emotions that you develop in this film are coming from the way the movie is telling the story, or if its just emotions from recalling the book.

There is obviously an element that the movie did right, for sure. If they were doing something wrong, it would feel fake or just not trigger an emotional reaction. But I can't say if I'm getting it from the movie. I'm actually interested to see if someone watched this movie and were able to tell me how they felt, not having that additional context and emotional connection to this story. Because I'll be honest, I'm not sure if I can separate that and give you a straight answer. If you can, please let me know in the comments or on Twitter.

This is a powerful story. I'm not sure if all of it was adaptable to the big screen, and if it was if it was done correctly in this case, but it does keep to the book very closely. That's a good thing and a bad thing in my opinion of the movie.

I think The Kite Runner is a movie worth checking out but I would definitely recommend the book before watching this. I feel like you might get more out of the book then movie then you would if you just watched the film. Overall, its a good film. Nothing incredible, it's probably not going to end up on my best of films I watched in 2016 list (and yes I am doing one of those this year) but I'm glad I finally got around to seeing it. If its been on your Netflix list as long as it was on mine, do yourself a favor and check it out.

And let me know what you thought of it! I want to know, especially if you haven't read the book before! Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If follow me on Twitter you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I'll leave you with this. Maybe this is inappropriate and doesn't really fit, but I don't really want to do a review of this trailer because the short answer is, I really liked it. I also could not find a video that fit with The Kite Runner so I considered this a good time to point out the new Guardians of the Galaxy trailer. Baby Groot is my new Spirit animal. Enjoy!