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Kundun
EMAILPRINTBuena Vista Pictures

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 25 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 4 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by: Melissa Mathison
Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Release Date:
Theatrical: December 25, 1997
DVD: May 6, 2003
Running Time: 128 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Language(s): English / Tibetan
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for violent images
Starring Tenzin Thuthob Tsarong, Gyurme Tethong, Tulku Jamyang Kunga Tenzin, Tenzin Yeshi Paichang, Tencho Gyalpo, Tsewang Migyur Khangsar, Geshi Yeshi Gyatso, Gyatso Lukhang, and Robert Lin
Martin Scorsese directs the incredible true story of one of the world's most fascinating leaders -- Tibet's Dali Lama and his daring struggle to rule a nation at one of the most challenging times in its history. (BV Entertainment)
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Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
New York Daily News Jami Bernard
Brilliant. [24 December 1997, p. 24]
Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
Throughout the film cause and effect, the mainspring of most narratives, is replaced by a sense of spiritual synchronicity.
Read Full Review >Newsweek David Ansen
Think of it as an epic poem, in which Scorsese's swirling, headlong baroque camera searches paradoxically for the stillness at the meditative heart of Buddhism. [22 December 1997, p. 86]
Time Richard Corliss
This is rapture in pictures. [22 December 1997, p. 81]
Salon.com Charles Taylor
Kundun, which was written by Melissa Mathison ("E.T.") from interviews conducted with the Dalai Lama, doesn't make you greedy for its images the way some gorgeous films do. It allows you to drink each one in tranquilly.
Read Full Review >Empire Ian Freer
The net result is difficult and demanding viewing yet strangely thrilling.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Ron Wells
Scorcese has made one of his best and most personal films...Kundun is also mercifully free of white teachers or saviors, such as, oh, say, Brad Pitt?
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Peter Stack
Stunning, odd, glorious, calm and sensationally absorbing.
Read Full Review >USA Today Mike Clark
Stately but static. [23 December 1997, p.3D]
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Taking great commercial risks, director Martin Scorsese avoids movie-star performances and the psychological storytelling that Hollywood movies normally thrive on.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
It provides a deep spirituality, but denies the Dalai Lama humanity; he is permitted certain little human touches, but is essentially an icon, not a man.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
May not be the ultimate word on the Tibetan situation, or even the Dalai Lama, but its heart seems to be in the right place; and it's entertaining enough to give audiences an emotional sense of the story. [16 January 1998, p.N32]
The New York Times Stephen Holden
It's all very beautiful, not to mentioned high-minded. But the loftiness comes at a sacrifice.
Read Full Review >Variety Emanuel Levy
Ultimately Kundun emerges as a movie that's hypnotic without being truly compelling, sensuously stunning but not illuminating.
Read Full Review >Slate David Edelstein
The music ties together all the pretty pictures, gives the narrative some momentum, and helps to induce a kind of alert detachment, so that you're neither especially interested nor especially bored. Perhaps that's a state of Buddhist enlightenment.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
A stunningly beautiful object offered in tribute to a holy man, a gorgeous film that is nevertheless burdened by the defects of its virtues. Careful and respectful, it is everything a movie about the Dalai Lama should be except dramatically involving.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine David Denby
Gorgeously shot and utterly respectful of the story of the fourteenth Dalai Lama, but its dramatically inert.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Sandra Contreras
Unlike this year's earlier Tibetan-themed biopic, "Seven Years in Tibet", Martin Scorsese's quietly devastating film really IS about the Dalai Lama.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
Most of the film is dull and soporific. Breathtaking photography without emotional involvement can take an audience only so far.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
A slow, meditative movie-an appropriate choice given the subject matter-that ultimately fails, in spite of clearly heartfelt good intentions, because of its almost inhuman detachment.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Peter Rainer
I wanted to be transported by this movie; I wasn't quite. But I respect it.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
For a film focusing on such a rich emotional tapestry, Kundun is strangely lacking in its emotional core.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Examiner Barbara Shulgasser
Martin Scorsese is certainly one of the great living movie directors. Sadly, this does not mean he can't make a mistake. Kundun is a mistake.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
At once spectacular and inert -- a mosaic impersonating a movie; an empty-shell epic.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.7 (out of 10) based on 4 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Eugene Y. gave it a6:
I could have given it a higher rating if the filem has more emotional impact and the main characters speak their natural languages. Every time someone opens their mouth, I was constantly and immediately reminded that it is a (made in Hollywood) movie afterall.
