Kundun

Though I see a lot of films (usually 100+ in theaters per year), I can't say that I'm much of a student of films. I go to be entertained and/or moved. And Kundun moved me in a way I don't think has ever happened before.

I saw the film in the multiplex in Phipps Plaza, probably Atlanta's most upscale shopping mall. At the end of the film, when I walked out the theater exit into the mall, I was emotionally stunned. Scorsese had hypnotized me into the world of Bhuddist simplicity and wonder. Seeing the activity and commercialism (which I normally love) of the mall was a shock.

Peter Weir once said: "The true test of it is when you come out of a picture and you can't remember whether it was day or night when you came in." I think that barely remembering what country I was in shows that for me, this film passes that "true test".