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Kundun

EMAILPRINTBuena Vista Pictures

Kundun reviews
72
8.7 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 25 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 4 votes
Read user comments
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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)

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...

100

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Brilliant. [24 December 1997, p. 24]

100

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Throughout the film cause and effect, the mainspring of most narratives, is replaced by a sense of spiritual synchronicity.

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100

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

A great film about a good man.

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90

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]

90

Time Richard Corliss

This is rapture in pictures. [22 December 1997, p. 81]

80

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.

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80

Empire Ian Freer

The net result is difficult and demanding viewing yet strangely thrilling.

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80

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?

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75

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Stack

Stunning, odd, glorious, calm and sensationally absorbing.

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75

USA Today Mike Clark

Stately but static. [23 December 1997, p.3D]

75

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.

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75

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.

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70

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]

70

The New York Times Stephen Holden

It's all very beautiful, not to mentioned high-minded. But the loftiness comes at a sacrifice.

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70

Variety Emanuel Levy

Ultimately Kundun emerges as a movie that's hypnotic without being truly compelling, sensuously stunning but not illuminating.

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70

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.

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70

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.

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70

New York Magazine David Denby

Gorgeously shot and utterly respectful of the story of the fourteenth Dalai Lama, but it’s dramatically inert.

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70

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.

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63

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Most of the film is dull and soporific. Breathtaking photography without emotional involvement can take an audience only so far.

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60

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.

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60

Dallas Observer Peter Rainer

I wanted to be transported by this movie; I wasn't quite. But I respect it.

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50

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

For a film focusing on such a rich emotional tapestry, Kundun is strangely lacking in its emotional core.

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50

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.

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50

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

At once spectacular and inert -- a mosaic impersonating a movie; an empty-shell epic.

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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.

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