The Kite Runner

Review By: Rocco Passafuime
RoccoPassafuime@TheCinemaSource.com

Since the beginning of motion pictures, it’s almost always inevitable that a big-selling novel will instantly be a possible candidate for a feature film adaptation. And with the exception of Jaws and maybe Jurassic Park, it’s almost always widely concluded that the novel is better than the book.

Now, Monster’s Ball and Finding Neverland director Marc Forster attempts to turn one of the biggest-selling novels of 2005 into a feature film. This is none other than Khalid Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, which is now available on DVD.

In 1978 Kabul, Afghanistan, young Amir Qidiri (Zekeria Ebrahimi) and Hassan Khan (Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada) are the best of friends. However, their close friendship is complicated by several cultural factors.

Hassan and his father Rahim (Nabi Tanha) are servants to his father Baba (Homayoun Ershadi), a wealthy critic of the growing radical mullah influence in Afghanistan. Also, Hassan is of the minority and racially-reviled Hazara ethnicity, while Amir is of the elite Pashtun community.

One day, the two boys participate in a massive kite tournament, in which boys compete against each other to knock kites off each other, till the last kite stands. However, his moment of glory turns into sadness when he witnesses Hassan being raped by a group of young Pashtuns. Unable to shake feeling disgrace with his friend, Amir conspires to get rid of Hassan and his father.

Now in 2000, years after having fled to America after the Soviet Union’s invasion of the country, Amir (Khalid Abdalla) is married and a successful author. However, still haunted by Hassan’s rape, he must now travel back to Afghanistan to face his past after an opportunity arises where he can finally atone for his personal shame.

Faced with the arduous task of condensing a dense 300 page book into a two hour film is no easy task. While much of the political background of the original novel has largely diminished, director Marc Forster does a fairly good job capturing much of the firm foundation of the original novel.

The film does benefit by a fairly skilled cast of unknowns, who do a great job bringing the characters to life. Unfortunately, stripped of much of the deep cultural context and layered background needed for it to fully resonate with the viewer, a luxury more greatly afforded in a novel, the story, as a film, becomes a bit lacking as a result.

The DVD’s picture quality is in the 2:35:1 anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio, with the sound quality in Dolby Digital Surround 5.1. The DVD also comes with plenty of special features.

The first is a public service announcement introduction by original author Khalid Hosseini, which goes into the continuing struggle of Afghanistan after the U.S.-led removal of the Taliban. The second is audio commentary provided by Hosseini, director Marc Forster, and screenwriter David Benoiff.

While the commentary is fairly informative, the audio becomes barely audible when Benoiff chimes in, which will prove to be annoying for people who ...