DVD Review:Kundun
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Kundun
Buena Vista Home Video
2.35:1/Dolby Digital 5.1/Trailer
One of the worst experiences I had in a theater last year was watching "Seven Years In Tibet", the dull, overblown Brad Pitt epic focusing on his character's relationship with the Dalai Lama. Unfortunately, although I wanted to see it, I missed Martin Scorsese's "Kundun", which seemingly never went wider than a few hundred theaters due to problems with distribution and box office business.
After watching this film, I'm sorry that happened. This is easily the far better film and deserved much more success than the earlier "Seven Years". "Kundun" tracks the young Dalai Lama from his days as a young child to his adulthood, and it's fascinating in so many different ways; in this picture we get a sense that even the filmmakers are awestruck by this life, and we can't help but feel the same. This film is a far smarter, richer, more wonderous and awe-inspiring look at the life of a child who grows up to lead his people in spirit. It is made up of many stories along the way, and each of them is simply fascinating. It's not a "quick" film by any means, but it's a film where you begin to lose track of time because it is so beautifully involving. Especially incredible are the Tibetan actors, who all do a really remarkable job.
Roger Deakins is, really, one of the finest cinematographers in the business, and it shows here. His compositions are astounding, like paintings in themselves. On this DVD, it's likely that you'll use the pause button many times to simply stop in disbelief at the beauty on-screen. Thankfully, the film is letterboxed in it's original aspect ratio, keeping Deakins's compositions intact.
"Kundun" is an outstanding film, and one that was definitely criminally overlooked in terms of best picture nominations last year.
In terms of the DVD:
The picture quality is outstanding providing rich, deep, beautiful colors that the VHS copy I'm sure could never come close to. I'm fairly new to DVD, and it just keeps on amazing me. "Kundun" is really an outstanding transfer, bringing a sharpness and clarity to the details of the objects on screen that's incredible. Audio is really good too, providing all of the full, rich Tibetan sounds. "Kundun" is simply a wonderful experience on DVD. It's not a real agressive sounding film, but I think that the audio has been transfered well to disc.
Where it faults:
Extras. Anything besides the trailer would be nice. There are no other languages that the DVD can be played in but English, and the only subtitle option is English(for the hearing impared, which should be on all DVDs..) I would definitely liked to have seen a "Making Of", because I know that the task of shooting this film in a foreign land must have been a very huge and detailed production. Maybe a commentary from the writer(I doubt Scorsese would do a commentary, but that would be cool.)
The film, though, I found to be outstanding. Something you should see only on DVD.
Grades:
Transfer:A-
Audio:A-
Film:A
Extras:D-
Overall Package:B(would have liked extras! The film, though, is very, very good.)
