Film Response: The Kite Runner (part 1)

First of all, I have to say that I absolutely love this story! I have read the novel "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini and have also read his other novel "A Thousand Splendid Suns." Both stories, I think, are very well written and worthwhile reads.

This is my reflection of what on the first fifty minutes or so of the movie The Kite Runner. Although I think that the book version of this story is even better, I do like this movie a lot. The two main characters, Amir and Hassan are nearly inseperable. Their relationship is odd however. Technically, Hassan and his father are the servants of Amir and his father Baba. Baba decided to employ the pair, and has grown extremely fond of them. Hassan and his father are Hazaras, meaning that they are a certain race of Afghanistani people who are widely considered the "inferior ethnicity" compared to the Pashtun people. Amir and Hassan were instantly friends. Hassan runs after broken kites whenever Amir competes in a kite-flying competition and is able to cut the string of his adversaries. Amir is also more educated than Hassan. He knows how to read and write, and is often off reading fantasy stories to Hassan. Hassan is obsessed with learning to read. He is also unnaturally loyal to Amir. After one scene, in which Amir cowardly runs away from bullies while Hassan is attached and raped, Hassan refuses to admit that anything bad has happened and is intent on running another kite for his friend. As Amir's guilt begins to grow about his cowardice, Hassan's loyalty does not waiver. He even allows his distraught friend to pelt him with fruit without any defense. Hassan even smears his own head with one piece of the fruit. I think that his attachment only drives Amir deeper and deeper into sorrrow and guilt. He knows that he treats his "friend" horribly and doesn't deserve such love. Yet, he receives unconditional love and respect anyway. Amir will most likely grow to resent Hassan because of this. I think he's also jealous of him because he never complains or shows any hatred, especially because Hassan has every right to do so. Amir has everything handed to him on a silver platter, yet he is still not content with this life. His father seems to enjoy being around Hassan more than his own son, and he regards him as a coward also. Amir and Hassan's relationship is bittersweet. As I see it, Amir has taken advantage of Hassan's friendship for a very long time. After Hassan is raped, he begins to realize how much of their friendship he actually takes for granted. At this point in the story, Amir is going through somewhat of a transitional period in his maturity and in his relationship with Hassan. Their relationship will only continue to change as the story progresses.

Film Response: Everything is Illuminated

The film Everything is Illuminated incorporates a variety of genres, including both comedy and drama. The beginning of the film introduces the viewers to Alexander and his grandfather, two Ukrainian misfits whose individuality suprisingly and ironically bonds them together. The pair are hired to escort a young Jewish American man whom they affectionately name "Jon-fen" around Ukraine in search of a town he believes to be called Trachembrod. "Jon-fen," otherwise known as Jonathan Safran Foer, tags along with Alex, his grandfather, and the elderly man's seeing-eye dog (of whom he is deathly afraid) on a long journey to discover more about his family history. He believes that at Trachembrod he will find a women who was connected, romantically or otherwise, to his grandfather. Along the way, these three men and their dog discover new things about each others' lives, culture, and their shared connection in humanity.

Alex's grandfather acts as a rather static character during most of the story. Towards the end, however, he changes his demeanor radically. The group of travelers meet one of the last remaining Jewish survivors of the Nazi raid on Trachembrod. It is also revealed to the audience that Alex's grandfather was a Jewish man who also survived the attack many years earlier. The grumpy old man's behavior suddenly seems justified. Not long after all is revealed about Trachembrod, the grandfather kills himself, bleeding to death in his bath tub. There's no clear reason for why he does this. My guess is that he finally came to peace with this past and the pain he had to deal with at Trachembrod. I can't even imagine how I would feel to be the one of two survivors of an horrific ordeal during which all of my friends and family were killed. It seems to me that one result of the "post-traumatic guilt" that he was experiencing was that he tended to bottle up all of his memories of and feelings about Trachembrod. This was why the only emotion he seemed to display was animosity or bitterness. Then, after talking to the woman who survived, he was able to connect with someone who truely knew the turmoil he was going through. In a way, that unload of guilt and emotional connection comforted him. He was at peace. In his mind, there was nothing else to live for. The sadness surrounding Trachembrod was the only thing that had any meaning to him, and now that it was lessened, there was nothing else that could have kept him alive. This is why I suspect that he committed suicide.