Oscar nominations 2008

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by JazmenFlowers

don't feel bad...I haven't seen most of them

Well, they just started showing talkies in Jackson

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by Stew_Matthews

I was thinking yesterday, whether I would have liked Kite Runner as much if I hadn’t read the book first. I think I came to the conclusion that you had to have read the book first, to fill in some key details, in order to best enjoy the film. The more controversial issues were subtly nuanced, to avoid offence I suspect. Anyway that wasn’t your question.

I haven’t spent time working in Afghanistan so I don’t have any first hand experience of whether it was a fair reflection of life there. Some of the Taliban in the film were portrayed as alcoholic, murdering, paedophiles which could be seen as being a bit subjective I guess. There is little doubt however, that the incredibly strict application of Sharia law in that country is barbaric.

My colleagues and I who are placed in either the Middle East or Russia are sent on what I guess you’d call an awareness programme to inform us how to behave, act and dress, if we are likely to be working or living alongside citizens of that country. If we are just on a rig at sea we get flown in and out and you don’t see much other than the sea. I’m really only supposed to work either in the Arctic or at out at sea but in the last year I’ve spent my time learning how to run/manage an oil refinery and I have had to do this in the middle east. I see a number of things I don’t like but we are encouraged to respect the local people and adhere to rules. So in Iraq and Iran, I do not wear Western clothes. I wouldn’t be clean shaven. I don’t listen to music, watch TV or read magazines etc on a Friday as it would be considered by some to be disrespectful. I was in Iraq during Ramadan and we fasted in the same way that Iraqi’s did. You just have to fall into line and not draw attention to yourself. The culture is so different it is really easy to offend people and I’d like to stay alive, so I follow the company rules.

Having said that, I haven’t seen fundamentalism in the Middle East such as that portrayed in Kite Runner. I have seen it writ large in Chechnya in Russia. I spent four months there and it was hell – public lynchings – the whole lot. It is also why I only spent four months working for Shell. A tale for another day though.

The thing I really want to learn though is why both Iran and Afghanistan moved from what were pretty liberal Middle East states into what they are now. I understand the basic facts but I’d like to really understand what happened.

Yea - I thought the whole (SPOILER)








bad military Islamic man is a child rapist was trite, esp. considering it summoned all the repressed homosexuality hinted at earlier in the film.

I did love the scenes when they were flying kites as kids. Stunning visuals IMO.

In the end, I kept thinking their was some scene cut from it that would have made it flow better.