The Kite Runner: A Portrait of the Marc Forster Film

I had resisted the hoopla surrounding the publication of The Kite Runner and the subsequent release of the movie. But the book was thrust on me as a birthday gift with an injunction to put it at the top of my reading list. I recall reading it in two or three sittings and still remember the rapt attention of my two young adult daughters as I later recounted the story to them. My wife, on the other hand, said the story was too painful and she couldn't bear to read it. Simply put, Khaled Hosseini has written a masterpiece. His story is a powerful one narrated with total verisimilitude and with the sure voice of a master raconteur, not the debutant he was at the time. The frustration I felt at the flaws and weaknesses in the narrator's character was overcome in the end by the slow realization that flawed is how we humans are. My only enduring disappointment was in discovering after finishing the novel that the author's own comfortable childhood was worlds removed from the one so realistically depicted in The Kite Runner.

Khaled Hosselini delivers us to his experiences of watching his novel The Kite Runner coming to life in "The Kite Runner: A Portrait of the Marc Foster Film". A touching and heartwarming film looked at from another angle, this is a full on behind the scenes look on the film, detailing every process of creating the film, with over one hundred color photos from the border of western China where the movie was shot, along with the full screenplay for the film. Highly recommended for lovers of the movie and for anyone who wants a behind the scenes look at the movie- also for community library film collections.

This is a wonderful film. Still, I would strongly recommend that you read the book first. Like the "Lord of the Rings" and "Harry Potter" movies, this film is faithful to the book, and very evocative of it. If you have read the book, watching the movie is like remembering something you already love. Watching the movie first is fine also, but you lose some of the depth, the explanations of why things are important, the backgrounds. For those who HAVE read the book, I say this: Don't be hesitant about watching the movie. It will not spoil the magic of the book, and it is not too graphic to allow its positive side to shine. At first, after reading the all-English book, I found the Dari/Farsi speakers with English subtitles to be off-putting, but I quickly got over it. The realism of having people speak their own languages quickly becomes enchanting. This movie presents a part of the soul-wrenching history of Afghanistan. If you are not familiar with that history, this movie is an excellent if bittersweet recounting of parts of it. It will make you laugh and cry while educating you.