Kundun

Utterly dazzling whenever it isn't totally boring, Martin Scorsese's poetic, almost avant-garde (for a Hollywood movie, anyway) Dalai Lama biopic is as frustrating an experience as you're likely to have in front of your television set all year. Visual metaphors are all well and good, of course, but I suspect that I'm not entirely alone when I say that I'm still ultimately more interested in people (i.e., character) than in virtuoso displays of expressionistic technique, even when said displays sort of obliquely reveal character. For all of its undeniable cinematic force--and make no mistake, this movie is a wonder to behold from beginning to end--Kundun is likely to be a bit of a chore for most viewers; Scorsese focuses on images to the exclusion of virtually everything else, and consequently there's no emotional foothold to be found. Nonetheless, the first and final half-hours of Kundun are so exquisite, so magical, so obviously perfect, that it's almost possible to forgive the exceedingly lengthy hour or so in-between during which nothing, but nothing, is happening. Optional. (M. D'Angelo) [Blu-ray/DVD Review—Nov. 5, 2019—Kino Lorber, 134 min., PG-13, DVD: $19.99, Blu-ray: 2 discs, $39.99—Making its latest appearance on DVD and debut on Blu-ray, 1997’s Kundun features a fine transfer and a DTS-HD 5.1 soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition. Extras include audio commentary by film historian and critic Peter Tonguette, 'EPK Extras' with cast and crew (39 min.), and an interview with director Martin Scorsese (33 min.). Exclusive to the Blu-ray release are the 1993 Dalai Lama documentary 'Compassion in Exile' (62 min.), an 'In Search of Kundun' making-of documentary (85 min.), interviews with 'In Search of Kundun' director Michael Henry Wilson (54 min.), composer Philip Glass (44 min.), and screenwriter Melissa Mathison (37 min.), plus a booklet with an essay by filmmaker Zade Constantine. Bottom line: Scorsese’s visually striking but dramatically inert film sparkles on Blu-ray.]