tibet has entered the american consciousness slowly during the past few years and burst into the forefront recently .
the dalai lama has made speaking tours , tibetan designs and artifacts are showing up in shops , the plight of the people has captured the imagination of major actors and artists and now there are two big budget films within as many months .
” kundun ” ( ” presence ” , a name the monks call the young dalai lama ) opens in 1937 with the search for the 14th incarnation of the tibetan leader .
a group of monks enters a village and a two-year-old child catches their attention .
the young boy proves himself by identifying possessions of the previous holy man as ” mine ” .
he and his family are then moved to a monastery in lhassa where he is to be prepared to take his position as the religious and political leader of the country .
he is forced into difficult decisions when china invades the country in 1950 .
the peaceful and isolated country is ill-equipped to fight off the intruders and diplomatic attempts over the next years yield no results .
eventually he must make the painful choice to flee to neighboring india .
comparisons to ” seven years in tibet ” are inevitable .
both films cover much of the same ground although the earlier movie does so from a westerner’s point of view and features boxoffice draw brad pitt .
” kundun ” features only native actors and is more of an insider’s story .
in some ways , this makes this film a superior concept , but it lacks the movement and spark that made ” seven years ” such an audience-pleaser .
the actors contribute to the realistic feel of the movie ( filmed in morocco for obvious reasons ) .
the only disappointment is chairman mao who looks like a wax dummy and moves as if he were a computer-generated character .
on an intellectual level , it is interesting to see how two different approaches handle the same facts .
some events are depicted differently and pitt’s austrian mountain-climber who was portrayed as a pivotal influence in the dalai lama’s life isn’t even mentioned here .
glossed over in ” seven years ” , the problems with the tibetan political system is hinted at here as the dalai lama muses ” we were just about to change things ” after the chinese attack .
the film is magnificently beautiful thanks primarily to the cinematography of roger deakins .
his lingering camera shows the exotic tibetan culture with luscious detail .
especially striking is an extreme moving close up of a sand mandala grain by grain .
the visual treats more than make up for the movie’s faults creating a poetic meditation for the audience .
walking out of the theater you feel like you have awakened from a transcendental experience .
martin scorsese , known for his dark tales of the underworld ( ” goodfellas ” , ” taxi driver ” , ” casino ” ) has shifted gears .
something of a thematic follow-up to his ” the last temptation of christ ” , this is his slowest film yet .
oddly enough for a director with a history of graphic violence presenting a history filled with atrocities by the chinese , most of these events take place off-screen .
his decision to not over-explain rituals is commendable .
the stumbling oracle who spits out his prophecies while in a trance state is much more effective as a mystery than if we were spoon-fed interpretations .
philip glass’s score is impressive although at times it is too overwhelming and distracting .
i talked to a tibetan i met outside the theater who had just seen the film and was walking back in to see it again .
hearing his description of how he escaped from tibet at the age of seven and how his father was one of the soldiers accompanying the dalai lama during his trip to india , i was struck by what was missing in the movie .
as grand as it looks and as historically accurate as it is , there is a distance between the audience and the movie .
the film is more concerned with visuals and history and less so with human beings .
with the exception of a few scenes , involvement with the characters is slight .
one of those exceptions is the portrayal of the young dalai lama , shown as a mischievous boy who can’t resist being a kid sometimes .
an encounter with his older brother thubten j . norbu ( a retired indiana university professor ) who tells the young leader the chinese have ordered him to persuade him to accept communist rule or kill him is an outstanding moment , but there aren’t many of these .
even with its problems , the ” kundun ” experience is phenomenal , but one that i fear most will miss .
many people who saw ” seven years in tibet ” will have a ” been there , done that ” attitude .
it’s likely that the film will miss a wide-spread appeal and public response will be the sound of one hand clapping .