The Kite Runner Film compared to Novel

Plot Summary in Brief (Spoilers omitted)
Based on Khaled Hosseini’s best selling novel, The Kite Runner depicts the life of a young Afghan coming of age. Born in Afghanistan, shortly before the Russian invasion, Amir enjoys a privileged life with his father (Baba) and loyal friend, Hassan. While Amir’s mother died shortly after (or during) his birth, Amir has little strife besides his inability to truly please his father. Amir spends his days playing with and reading stories to Hassan, watching American movies, and Kite Running. Amir’s life is inexorably altered after witnessing a tragic event happen to Hassan, of which he does nothing. Shortly after this occurs the Russian invasion takes place, which eventually forces Amir and Baba to flee
to Pakistan and finally America, where they begin a new life in California.

I’ll say upfront that my viewing of Kite Runner was perhaps “tainted” by the novel. While viewing the film with a friend who did not read the novel, I often found myself (much to his chagrin) pausing, saying things like, “O.K. in the novel it happens like this….” Or, “At this point in the novel you’d already know this…” and explain something the film left out. Annoying, I know. Yet I felt compelled to do this as I felt he may have missed much of what made the film so powerful. In this sense, while the film retains the basic story line and plot, it often fails to exact the same emotional intensity… even a redemption borne of agony that the novel so brilliantly inspires.


Kite Runner is essentially a story of courage, forgiveness and redemption. Concepts and words easily expressed although much more difficult under real-life circumstances. Amir must atone for his past. He must find courage under heart-wrenching circumstances and in doing so forgive both those from his past and most importantly himself. In this way the film does a so-so job at intertwining the personal trials of Amir…umbrella-d within the political circumstances occurring in Afghanistan.

In terms of characterization the film inadequately depicts the emotional connections which Hosseini’s novel so painstakingly develops. While the film audience “gets” that Amir is not the boy his father desires, that Hassan is a loyal friend to Amir, that Rahim Khan supports Amir’s artistic endeavors, little is done to show exactly how such relationships are forged. This narrative-lack loses the emotional gravity that the novel beautifully uses to suck the reader in. Simply stated it is difficult to care, for example, when Ali (Hassan’s father) decides that they must leave Amir and Baba or to truly empathize with the older Amir and his wife when we learn that they do not have children. The film takes little time to engross the audience in Amir’s internal monologue. Where the novel uses (Amir’s) first person narrative, the film approaches Amir from a third person, over-the-shoulder perspective. Again, my point here may be tainted by the reading of the novel, but the film might have done well for itself by using voice over at certain intervals.

The “I” is unfortunately omitted. In this way we might have been more engaged with certain decisions he makes throughout the film. Thus while we “get” that Amir must redeem himself and thus atone for his past “sins” we ultimately are not truly engaged with his “becoming good again.” When called by Rahim Khan after many years to “return home,” Amir’s going seems like a narrative snap- of- the- finger decision employed simply to move the plot along. Unlike the novel, the film audience may find this unexpected. While a film translation certainly cannot mime a novel in its entirety, I found certain omissions inexcusable. I may be nitpicking here but the film’s complete deletion of Amir’s hospital stay after Assef beats him to near death as well as the difficulty he faces in attempting to adopt Ali’s son, Sohrab, were most difficult to swallow. The latter omission negates the importance of Sohrab’s emotional vulnerability when arriving in America.

We “see” neither the guilt Amir has lived with for so long nor the strengthening relationship he had with his father while in America. At best, Kite Runner, while occasionally offering goose-bump moments seems like another rushed version of a spectacular novel, a la The Da Vinci Code. The Kite Runner film seems to rely on the fact that its audience has already read the novel and in so doing risks loses that same audience in the process. It is true that a film must remain (and be viewed) as an independent artistic piece, separate from the novel upon which it is based. Yet the paradox for films like Kite Runner, screening shortly after a popular novel’s publication, is that it will be indelibly associated with that novel. Often, the only place to go is down and this Kite comes close to crashing. But Because I love the overall "message" of the story the Kite Runner remains a HUNG JURY

who knows, but you may love it, especially if you haven't read the novel.