The Kite Runner Review

Bottom-Line: The Kite Runner takes us to a world few of us have experienced, and fewer understand.  But it is still the story of us.              

Afghanistan: the south-central Asian country is an enigma to most Americans, indeed most of the world.  The people that inhabit this mostly barren stretch of Earth seem to live in an age far removed from modern human civilization.  And yet for the last 30 years Afghanistan and its 32 million inhabitants have seemingly occupied the center of the world.  And the Afghan capital of Kabul City is the setting for The Kite Runner (2007), based on the novel of the same title by Khaled Hosseini published in 2003. 

My Viewpoint  

I was touched and moved by The Kite Runner; it is at its very core the story of us all.  Race, ethnicity and class are the forever thorns in the side of human society.  We have brutalized, debased, humiliated, and killed one over the slightest differences in color, texture, and facial features since man formed the first societies.  One would have thought that in the age of enlightenment we would have transcended such brutal and primal thought patterns and prejudices, but nothing could be further from the truth. 

The Kite Runner is skillfully made and superbly acted, especially by the two actors who portrayed young Amir and Hassan.   The film features an improbable hero (Amir), a disarmingly human protagonist whose efforts seem all the more real, given both his human weaknesses (think anti-Hollywood super hero; i.e. the man is no Bruce Willis in a Die Hard film) and the movie's all-too-authentic feel.  A bit slow to develop in the early scene in Kabul City, the rhythm and tenor of Amir and Hassan's relationship is central to fully appreciating the conflict that follows.

The Kite Runner takes us to a world few of us have experienced, and fewer understand.  But it is still the story of us.