Film Analysis 2 - The Kite Runner PDF

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The Kite Runner...

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Hirani 1 Rajan Hirani ENG 2100 Professor Robert E. Rubin March 11, 2018 The Kite Runner The film “The Kite Runner” directed by Marc Forster in 2007 based on a novel published in 2003 by an Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini. The film “The Kite Runner” is exceptionally touching and sensitive story of two friends living in the same house in Kabul, Afghanistan. The film also shows the era where Russian invaded Afghanistan in the early 1979s. The central character of the film is Amir, a son of a wealthy merchant from a Pushtun community whereas Hassan, Amir’s father’s servant’s son who belongs from a minor community of Hazara. Although the difference between their communities and standards, the two kids were great kite flyers and showed their friendship for each other at every possible situation. They both share a healthy friendship until the day when Amir and his father flees to the U.S. during the Russian invasion on Afghanistan. After a long time, Amir Jain comes back to Afghanistan on the call of Rahim Khan who is his father’s best friend and Amir’s all-time story listener. Amir pays the respect to Rahim Khan’s health and flys to see him at Pakistan where he discovers that Rahim Khan did not call him for complaining about his health, but to let Amir know the profound down truth that his father lied to Hassan and himself by hiding Hassan’s real identity. Hassan is also the son of Amir’s father due to Amir’s father sleeping with his servant’s wife. Amir’s father lied to him for a long time hiding their identities as brothers.

Hirani 2 The movie, “The Kite Runner,” depicts the racial harassment that is rampant in the Middle East nations. The movie showcases the racial discrimination practiced on the streets of Kabul. Amir who belongs to the dominant community Pushtun and his illegitimate brother Hassan who belongs to the minority community of Hazara and the story revolves around the discrimination faced by Hassan by being a Hazara boy. The first part of the movie shows the relation of Amir and Hassan sharing their bond of friendship with entirely of love at the streets of Kabul. They loved flying kites and participating in the kite festival. Amir was a storyteller, and he loved writing stories. Whereas Hassan being the son of the servant used to spend time helping Ali (his unauthorized father) at Amir’s place. Amir & Hassan were great friends until when the situation arises on the day when Amir won the kite festival by breaking his father’s record of turning down 14 kites in a row. Hassan loved to follow the shadow of the kite, which is falling, but he was collecting the kite for Amir. Unfortunately, Hassan got messed up with the young streets boys of the Pushtun community namely, Assef. Assef and his friends physically harassed Hassan for not trading Amir’s won kite. Hassan showed the braveness & a true friendship by sacrificing physical and getting tortured mental at the cost of his friend’s kite.

However, at the same time when Hassan got into trouble with Assef, Amir witnessed that but showed how coward he is to face physical and mental tortures. He escaped from the scene & waited for Hassan to show up with his kite.

Hirani 3 The character of Hassan plays a crucial role in this movie and is portrayed very well. Hassan does not meet Amir often after Assef beats him up since Amir showed cowardice. At the same time, Amir feels the shame and guilt of not saving his illegitimate brother Hassan’s life but accusing him of stealing his watch given by Baba (Amir’s father) on his birthday. Amir did not want Hassan & Ali to leave the house, but his sense of shame & cowardice to protect Hassan made them leave houses. I carefully noticed a part of the movie where Baba asks Hassan & Ali to show up at their house and questions Hassan whether he theft Amir’s watch? Hassan did not theft his watch, but Hassan admitted that he did while Amir a very innocent look. At that point of time, Amir feels extremely ashamed of himself, and he tries to avoid eye contact with Hassan. In the entire scenario, Amir was the one who purposely put his watch on Hassan’s bed in his absence & accused about his theft to his to Baba. Amir’s father never showed inequality of love between Hassan & Amir since he knew that they both are his children. When Amir accused Hassan of stealing his watch, Amir’s father forgives Hassan and lets him & Ali go. However, Ali feels guilty of spending a fraction of time there as a servant, so he quits his job and leaves the house along with Hassan. The principal theme of the movie “The Kite Runner” is fundamental for people to understand the difficulties others suffering from discrimination and social inequality. The main character of the movie Amir who belong from a Pushtun community and had freedom regarding class and race had a privilege of going down the streets of Kabul without wearing a fear of getting molested or teased. Amir did not let his social privileges go down by not supporting Hassan. Whereas Hassan was a brave boy who stood of Amir and it

Hirani 4 is evident when those boys bullied Hassan for Amir’s kite, and Amir was intentionally a silent spectator. Throughout in the movie, Hassan tends to be the most influential character of the movie that is in command and influences Amir from time to time. Throughout the movie, Baba knew that Amir is his legitimate son and Hassan is his illegitimate son. Baba cannot freely show love for Hassan, but there were many incidents in the movie where he let Hassan have some privileges over Amir. As an example, On Hassan’s birthday, Baba insisted Amir sit back in the car and let Hassan sit in the front seat. Such privileges are very obvious to see for a father-son relation. Other than that, Hassan gets a gift as a kite from Baba which is shown later in the film that Amir flies a kite & Hassan is playing the supportive role while holding the strings. Such moments again depicts Hassan’s friendship over his valuables for Amir. Later in the film, when Russian invades on Afghanistan and Agha family had to escape to the United States of America, it was the turning part of the movie as a whole for Amir & Baba to start a new life. Baba was not at his best of his health, and Amir graduated from community college and was taking steps ahead of time to be a writer. Meanwhile, Amir used to look after his old Baba and once took him to the Doctor who was initially from Russia. This part of the movie was again very saddening to see when Baba pushes away the doctor who was trying to help is health. This act again shows disrespect against a nationality even though the person is here to cure health. Later, in the movie, after Amir gets married and publishes his first book he gets a call from Rahim Khan to visit him in Pakistan and be a good man again. Amir flees to Pakistan and comes across

Hirani 5 the real truth that Hassan is real brother & now his son is in the custody of an orphanage in Afghanistan. Amir after years, he feels this is the correct time to improve his mistake and rescue Sohrab who is the son of Hassan from Afghanistan. The short journey of Amir to Afghanistan with a fake beard and arguments led with much violence to find and rescue Sohrab. During the time Amir was in Afghanistan, he comes across Assef who is the culprit of allegedly keeping Sohrab as his dancer and treating him as a slave. This section of the movie was very hurtful to see a small boy wearing female ornaments and dancing like a female for the audience on Sufi music. I felt extraordinarily awful & sorry for the character of Assef for not having any sense of shame and respect. Eventually, when Amir & Sohrab escaped from Afghanistan to the United States of America, it was charming of her aunt Soraya to welcome Sohrab and give him a space in the family house. After a long time, I felt Amir found himself guilty later in the movie and wanted to do something better for Hassan, so he took the risk of bringing Sohrab back from Afghanistan. However, at the same time, I strongly feel Sohrab fills the emptiness of Amir and Soraya’s childless (after a couple of tries for baby) life, and they treat him as their child. The film “The Kite Runner” is overall a very touching movie and it displays racial discrimination, braveness, an absolute class of friendship, a feeling of getting loved and violence led by uneducated people. Our society needs to get educated and learn to welcome peace while dropping ego and greediness at the doorstep.

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