Soccer got cancelled last night. Consequently, I have all my male angst building up inside that will probably bubble over in the next two weeks until I can play again (anybody up for some skeet shooting again?). Faced with this unexpected allotment of time, I decided to head over to the theater near the church and see a movie I've been wanting to see for some time now, The Kite Runner. This is a review from the guys over at Powerline.
I've been thinking about this recently, but stories can be compelling for two main reasons. Either the story itself is very engaging, or the actual storytelling is. I just recently wrapped up The Count of Monte Cristo (finally) and have just started On the Road by Jack Kerouac. These are two great examples of this. I love the Count of Monte Cristo because the story itself is just so great - prison break, revenge, redemption - but that it comes to English speakers as a translation, it probably loses some of the art that goes into the storytelling. On the Road, on the other hand, is amazing as far as the storytelling. The events in the story aren't that exciting, but the prose will blow your mind. I just absolutely love his writing style. I find myself underlining so many parts and dog-earring so many pages (and now I'm wondering...does anyone else do that to their books? I mark every part that I really like in the books that I read, but then again, I also am one of the only people I know who always carries a pen on my person. But this is part of why I don't like checking out books or borrowing them, I always want to buy them because I know there is always something that I'm going to mark, anyway...) and I'm only 50 pages into the book so far. His writing just really grips me though. I feel like the story behind The Kite Runner falls into the compelling story category, at least as far as the movie is concerned.
It is rated PG-13, but the content is very much geared towards an adult audience. The movie captures beautifully true friendship and devotion. I think one of my favorite things about it is how the main character at the end embraces and comes to grips with the past mistakes of his youth, as well as the equivocations of his father. Some other interesting things about the movie is how it portrays the Taliban, and the Afghani (not Afghan, right? I think that's just used to describe things like those blankets, not sure though) culture. One thing that inspired me about the movie was wanting to learn more about middle eastern cultures. Unfortunately I haven't had a lot of good experiences with middle eastern peoples, but I absolutely know that there is a lot of noble aspects to those people and their culture. So if you have any middle eastern friends, send them my way. I'd love to become better acquainted with the good that they have to offer.
Anyway, I wanted to commentate more on a variety of things, but I'll confine this post to just the movie. I think it's definitely worth watching, and now I have yet another book that I'd like to read.
2 comments:
I was gonna make a joke about your male angst building up and your invitation to participate in skeet shooting as a release of said angst but I am much to classy and dignified to do that.
I know you've been wanting this so here it is: excellent comment. I totally walked into that one and you exploited the opportunity. You have every right to be proud of that comment.
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