The Pelican’s Perch

The Kite Runner
Dir. by Marc Forster
Score: 8/10

I watched this movie last night on a whim, which is what I tend to do a lot over Christmas break, but not since Once have I felt like sharing a movie with you guys.  The Kite Runner moved along swiftly the first 3/4ths of the movie with not a lot to write home about, but then the last fourth of the movie hit and I sat watching the credits reflecting on everything I’d just seen.  Rarely does this ever happen anymore for me, so when it does, I make sure to make a point of it.

The Kite Runner is based on the best selling book by Khaled Hosseini and after seeing the movie, I can see why it was so loved by readers.  It is the story of two best friends growing up in Afghanistan, one the son of a rich man, the other the son of that man’s servant.  Jealousy of the servant boy’s constant courage leads the other boy to devise a plot to rid himself of the servant boy.  It’s a move that only further proves his cowardness and ends up haunting him the rest of his life.

His father flees Afghanistan for America and that is where we find the lead character as an adult.  I won’t say much more besides the fact that a phone call from an old friend leads to him journeying back to Afghanistan, now overrun by the Taliban, to find the servant boy’s son after his murder by the Taliban.  All this is told at the beginning, but it’s the story retold of their childhood that really makes this movie great. 

I’ve gotten too busy to keep up on my movie review section, which has kind of become obsolete in the last half year, but if you see one movie this holiday and don’t mind its sad nature, then I’d highly suggest The Kite Runner.  I’m almost positive I’ll be picking up the book now over the break because it just seems like one of those books that, even as good as the movie adaptation was, there was so much detail left out that made the book so good.  
 

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