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Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion
EMAILPRINTArtistic License Films
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 20 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 10 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Documentary
Written by:
Victoria Mudd
Sue Peosay
Directed by: Tom Peosay
Release Date:
Theatrical: September 19, 2003
Running Time: 100 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: Not Rated
Starring Martin Sheen (narrator), Edward Edwards, Ed Harris, Shirley Knight, Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, Robert Thurman, and Dalai Lama
A sweeping and compelling look at the struggle of the Tibetan people for freedom over the course of more than five decades. (Artistic License Films)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer 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...
San Francisco Chronicle Jonathan Curiel
Documentaries can be informative, entertaining and provocative, but rare is the documentary that makes you feel so engaged (and enraged) that it prompts you to action somehow. Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion is that kind of film.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Dave Kehr
A more concise and affecting summation of the Tibetan crisis would be hard to imagine.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
Each revelation seems more disturbing than the next. But Chinese treatment of Tibetans is only half the heartbreak. The other is the amazing resilience of the Tibetans, who are overwhelmingly Buddhist.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
Each revelation seems more disturbing than the next. But Chinese treatment of Tibetans is only half the heartbreak. The other is the amazing resilience of the Tibetans, who are overwhelmingly Buddhist.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Assembles varied and remarkable digital video, archival footage, photographs, interviews and personal reflections and academics' perspectives to convey the scope and history of the Tibetan story.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Marta Barber
It is pretty convincing in its argument that China has every intention of destroying the culture of Tibetans.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
The most comprehensive and devastating documentary yet on that tragic country.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman
More than worthy viewing. What it lacks at times in elegance it possesses in intensity and feeling.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
The exiled Tibetans who are interviewed display a lack of bitterness, a sympathy for their enemies and hope for the future that is inspiring.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
Though the Chinese government won't be too happy about it, everyone else ought to be deeply moved by the tragedies Peosay records.
Read Full Review >New York Post V.A. Musetto
Part political thriller, part National Geographic travelogue, Tom Peosay's documentary is a distressing look at China's 50-year repression of the people of Tibet.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
Less a documentary than a cry of outrage -- a series of exotic images that slowly turn horrifying.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
A passionate, well-made documentary that stresses how time is running out for a peaceful solution.
Read Full Review >Variety Robert Koehler
The film is, at times, emotionally riveting -- yet also has an institutional feeling, largely because it attempts to cover too much ground in too little time.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Thulani Davis
Pitched for a sympathetic American audience, the documentary goes for shock with the filmmakers' first trip to "the altar of the world" in 1987, when they happened to be caught in an uprising of monks that was violently crushed by the Chinese army.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
I appreciated its cogent history lesson, which details China's brutal treatment of Tibetan nationals from the late 1940s through the Cultural Revolution and into the '80s, when it executed 15,000 dissidents.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Ellen Fox
The film itself is such a measured primer of talking heads and footage -- a broad, slick Tibet 101 -- that it seems better suited to the classroom than the big screen, despite its Himalayan scenery and rustic colors.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Rather than rage, Peosay's film radiates sadness over a singular way of life in danger of imminent obliteration.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Hazel-Dawn Dumpert
The film is exhaustive -- and ultimately exhausting.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.6 (out of 10) based on 10 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Everett D. gave it a 10:
Hey, Charles... I have never been to "Tibit", but I have been to Tibet, and I saw that sort of thing happening all around me. Nothing on the scale of riots or killings, but disturbing things none-the-less. For example, while watching the a World Cup game, this Tibetan man cheered when Team China was scored on, and was promptly dragged out into the street, cuffed, and sent to jail for 5 years. I also got to see one of the prisons and the condition that these prisoners have to live in, and they were appalling. I can name story after story of situations of this kind, but this is not really the place to do so. Did you not even notice the definite border between the outright 3rd-world slums of the Tibetan Section and the nice modern Chinese section of Lhasa? Did you notice that it was only Chinese stores in this area, with only Chinese employees? And this is only Lhasa! Did you bother talking to the locals (both sides, Tibetan and Chinese) to hear THEIR take on the situation of things in Tibet? This is the thing I admired most about this movie, I could tell that the filmmakers spent a lot of time doing this very thing. They portray the emotions (fear, disillusionment, sorrow, hope) shared by the Tibetan people honestly and sincerely. This movie was not made to undermine China's image, its to urge China to adopt a better image. According to Amnesty International, they are one of the biggest offenders of Human Rights violations in the world, this is the image they have NOW. The image they COULD have is one of benevolence if their policies towards their ethnic minorities were overhauled. Keep in mind that these issues are not exclusive to Tibet, but in Xinjiang as well (the province to the north of Tibet). The exact same thing is happening to the Uyghur people of that area, only it gets no press at all.
Jay W. gave it a 6:
A well-crafted documentary whose moral force is seriously undermined by a failure to explore the oppression of Tibetan peasants during 700 years of rule by the Lamas, whose temples and monasteries drained nearly eighty percent of the country's budget.
Charles L. gave it a 0:
Total non-sense. I have been to tibit. And all of the stuff they shown in the movie is either total bullsh.t or extremely dramatized. In essence, it is just a political film used to undermine the image of China.
Dhondup C. gave it a 10:
What a Movie.
Tsering P. gave it a 10:
My Hats off to all involved in this project. The Tibetan people will never forget what you have done in terms of accurately telling the world what has happened in Tibet: a non-violent nation brutally invaded and occupied by a very violent nation.
Kunsang D. gave it a 10:
I found it to be the best documentary on the last 50 years of Chinese repression of my people, Tibetans, in Tibet. There is a lot of compassion in Tibetan people due to our strong religious beliefs and practice but one that the the film touches slightly is of the new generation of Tibetans who are questioning the path of non-violence as a means to obtain freedom. I am one of them. Without taking any further space, please do see it. It will question your ideals, your morals, your view of the world, Tibet, and China, and your compassion. A must see documentary for a caring human being.
