01/16/98
MOVIE REIVEW: Kundun
'Kundun' is too reverent for its own good

By MICHAEL JANUSONIS
Journal-Bulletin Arts Writer

** (out of five)
Starring Tenzin Thuthob Tsarong, Gyurme Tethong, Tulku Jamyang Kunga Tenzin, Tencho Gyalpo. A Touchstone picture written by Melissa Mathison, directed by Martin Scorsese. Rated PG-13, contains violence. Running time: 134 minutes.

Just where is Brad Pitt when you need him?

Pitt, among other things, was the star of Seven Years in Tibet, an adventure film based on the true story of an Austrian who fled to Tibet during World War II and befriended the young Dalai Lama, who is revered as an incarnation of Buddha.

Most critics dismissed Seven Years in Tibet because not only was it really a Westerner's view of that exotic land, but shortly before its release it was discovered that Pitt's character, Heinrich Harrer, in real life had been a card-carrying Nazi and a member of Hitler's dreaded SS.

Yet Kundun, Martin Scorsese's film which looks at the life of the Dalai Lama from childhood to the epoch-making moment when his nation was invaded by the Chinese Communists in 1950 and he was forced to flee, could have used a little of Pitt's dazzle and a little controversy. It's reverent and relatively passionless; beautifully photographed, but sometimes downright plodding and dull.

That's surprising for a film created by the master moviemaker who has given us Mean Streets and GoodFellas. But here, Scorsese is far off his turf, an outsider looking at a mystical religion with awe. Not to mention the fact that the film was made with the cooperation of the Dalai Lama himself. (The title refers to the name by which the Dalai Lama is known to his followers).

One of the main reasons Kundun rarely comes to vibrant life, despite its impressive red and gold pageantry, is that much of it follows the life of the Dalai Lama through his formative years. He's played, from age 2 to manhood, by four different people, none of whom resemble each other. This removes us from close involvement with the character they're playing.

A peasant boy who was born Tenzin Gyatso near the Chinese border, he was only 2 1/2-years-old when he was thrust into the role of the 14th reincarnation of Buddha. This was based, from what we see on screen, on the fact that the boy could correctly pick out items used by the late 13th Dalai Lama from a collection on a table. Also, we're told that when he was born crows were flying overhead, just as they did at the birth of the 13th Dalai Lama.

But the boy knows nothing of the world, an open page on which his teachers write. The film follows his education by those teachers, a not-very-lively group played by non-actors who are not all that familiar with the English language. Sometimes their lines are delivered with great deliberation.

Much of what the Dalai Lama learns of the outside world, including all about Mao Zedong, whose Chinse Communists will eventually take over Tibet and force him to flee, is picked up from newsreels. (In Seven Years in Tibet, it was Harrer who showed the young man the newsreels and acquainted him with the world beyond Lhasa, the Tibetan capital.)

Following the Chinese invasion, the Dalai Lama flees to a monastery near the Indian border where he has awkward meetings with Mao's representatives. Later he travels to Beijing to meet Chairman Mao himself (Robert Lin), who alternately coddles him and warns him that religion is poison.

The Chinese are seen as a brutal lot who massacre many Tibetans. This has caused great friction between China and the Disney organization -- a legacy of Michael Ovitz, the former Hollywood talent broker who came to Disney, pushed this film into production and then left under a cloud, but with a controversial big payout from the studio.

The Chinese brutality is powerfully brought home in a scene where the camera pulls back from what looks like thousands of bloody corpses. It would have had even greater power if it hadn't been done before, and better. It's Scorsese's homage to the Gone With the Wind crane shot, that memorable moment in the 1939 classic where the camera pulls back to find Scarlett O'Hara among hundreds of wounded and dying Confederate soldiers at the Atlanta railroad depot.

While it's well-meaning and informative and beautiful to see, Kundun recalls those films made by religious groups who want to expound their point of view. But like them, I'm afraid that Kundun will preach mainly to the already-converted.