Rated PG13 and includes child rape scene?........

The movie is a bit of a failure, but the book is a marvelous heart breaking gut-wrenching story of guilt and semi-redemption.

Yes rapist are scum who deserve to be castrated and punished to the fullest extent of the law in any country. But the rape is the catalyst for the entire movie/book. It was causes Amir utmost guilt, it what makes him drive his friend away, it what eats away at him for 30 years. So as horrific as it is, it was essential to the plot.

Also PG-13 movies are not family movies PG and G are. And the preview of The Kite Runner with it's ominous background music, shows it's going to be serious and not something to take a 6 or 10 year old child to. It also hints at war and other violence so you should have been prepared for that. No you shouldn't have been prepared to witness a child being raped but again it was a major plot point and anyone who read the book would have been pissed if they toned it done to a simple beating or something.

I agree the film was rushed, had mediocre acting, and bored me at times which is a shame because Khaled Hosseni wrote a beautiful book that left me tearing/crying in several scenes.

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PG13- meaning suitable for people 13 and older. If you haven't discussed the ugly side of human nature with your 13 year old, you haven't done your job. You can't shield children forever. This wasn't marketed as a family film.

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Dear Original Poster,

For starters, I sincerely apologize for responding to your post 2 years overdue. I watched the film for the first time about 7 years ago. At that time, I was just a passive reader on IMDB. I read but didn't review. It happened that I had the chance to watch this film for the second time the day before yesterday. And I was in the mood. So, please bear with me.

The person who told you about

this great movie

was definitely touched and moved by it. Otherwise he/she wouldn't have told you about it. As for mistaking a PG-13 film for a family-friendly one, that was hardly that person's fault.

Just what parents want to show their kids. Great movie to watch with mom..... Oye....

Yeah! Blame it on that poor guy/gal. Because

You HAD to watch it

with your mom and kids just by hearsay?

Maybe his/her trying to broaden your horizon by telling you about the film, but apparently failed miserably - really really miserably - is his/her miscue. Nonetheless, I salute him/her for having the courage to take the risk.

Child rape happens in all around the world every day, even in the US of A. Talk about 'Tunnel Vision'.

In 'an ideal world'(Sorry, maybe I took the word right out of your mouth),

'Adults who rape children (or in general) should be put down, and children who rape children should be put down as well.'

Get real, darling, there's no such thing as an ideal world. And surely those bad persons should be put down, but... by what army? Are you volunteering?

Let's not forget about George Stinney, either.

Yea..... Violence and orphans and rape, yea........

that scene made me sick. Oooooooh, touching and moving movie! Then rape... so not touching and moving.....

Do you by chance have a very weak stomach？ If a less-than-60-second and very inexplicit child rape scene in a film make you sick to the point of trashing all the good quality of that film, try living in the real world and watching some news on TV. You would probably get sick everyday.

Pardon me for making such an inhumane suggestion to you, anyway. On the other hand, getting sick all the time, although not very healthy, is probably the fastest way to lose weight.

I sometimes wonder whether it was the rape scene that offended people or the fact that it was not only a child rape scene but a sodomy rape scene that really made certain people uncomfortable. Well, to each their own!

...then I'd still think child rape is evil...

The acting, rest of the story, everything, ruined by child rape....

So 30-odd minutes into the film, the crucial child rape scene had to be played out, although the director handled it in a very subtle way. From that point on, all you could think about was THAT scene, and you decided that everything was ruined for that film???

The film was about 2 hours long, for goodness sake. No wonder you weren't touched and moved, because it was ruined by a less-than-60-second scene. The other 119 minutes were apparently a waste of time and torture for you.

I sincerely hope the film wasn't a waste of money for you, either.

If you think the child rape scene is offensive to your sensibility, try reading the book. And look up the definition of 'tone down' in a dictionary, or on the web.

I've seen many movies, violent ones, and moving/touching ones, ...blah, blah, blah

Obviously, you haven't seen enough, sweetheart. Don't you know there's a world outside of Hollywood special effects?

and this my friends, shows a child being raped and it's all fun and games for the other children who did it........

I can't speak for others, but I have to be honest with you. I'm not one of your friends. On THIS subject. My apology.

To my limited knowledge, for most sex offenders, whether they are children or adults, it's all fun and games. It's about asserting total control over the victims. It's about rendering the victims powerless, helpless and hopeless. It's the rape victims that suffer. Some of them distressfully suffer for a lifetime.

Yea.... thanks foreign film directors!

Yeah, you really should be grateful to some 'foreign film directors, or are you being

(sarcastically)......?

The director Mr. Marc Forster, foreign to you, happened to be the one who directed 'Monster's Ball'-the one you saw Ms. Berry and Mr. Thornton doing all the notoriously nasty, the same one that Ms. Berry won her Oscar for. Mr. Forster also directed some blockbusters, such as the 007 film 'Quantum of Solace', the Brad Pitt hit 'World War Z', and the Peter Pan origin movie 'Finding Neverland'. I can't help but mention 'Stranger than Fiction', that intriguing Will Ferrell trying-to-breakthrough film, although not a lot of people knew about it.

The truth is, although 'foreign' in your word to the US of A, Mr. Forster had in fact moved to the US of A when he was at the tender age of 20, and had since mid-90' relocated to Hollywood to pursue his film-making career after he finished his education. This film is actually a US of A film funded by Hollywood budget, one of its production company being 'Paramount XXX', the one with the pyramid-like mountain logo, not the roaring lion.

While we are on the subject of 'foreign' film directors, would you kindly inform me about some of the not-so-foreign but well-known film directors, by your definition? I know about Mr. Woody Allen, Mr. George Lucas and Mr. Steven Spielburg. They were all born in the US of A. And the unenlightened me really would like to be enlightened. Thank you kindly.

Morals:
Do not deem a film 'foreign' by its cast, languages, and filming locations.
Be thankful that a lot of 'foreign' film directors work in Hollywood, the US of A.

If the movie were rated R and it was marketed NOT toward families, then I'd still think child rape is evil, but I wouldn't have posted on this message board the way I did, because the film would've been marketed toward the proper audience....

Perhaps you misunderstood the MPAA rating system by yourself. I don't remember that the movie was ever marketed

toward families.

, and it WAS marketed toward the proper audience....

PG-13 – Parents Strongly Cautioned (MPAA,Wiki )
Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13. Parents are urged to be cautious. Some material may be inappropriate for pre-teenagers.

Just to be clear, the keywords are 'strongly' and 'under 13'. No need to panic if you unwisely took you pre-teenaged child to watch it in the theater, dear. None of us is infallible. Even the most sagacious parents are liable to error.

And make no mistake, CHILD RAPE IS EVIL. I totally agree with you on this. I think most sensible persons would agree with you on this. Rape, be it physical or ideological, per se, is evil. The child rape in this film is, however, a pivotal point. There wouldn't be a best-seller, which was later adapted into this film, without that child rape scenario.

By the way, you were told by whom? Were

'this great film'

his/her exact words, or your own misinterpretation? Did he/she tell you that you HAD to watch it absolutely, or did YOU decide that you HAD to watch it, by yourself?

To tell you the truth, I was also told that ‘The Interview’ was a great film……. Talk about a big mistake made by myself. No one to lay the blame on but the naive me. I wrongly thought 'The Interview' was 'THE INTERVIEW'. Maybe you also incorrectly assumed that 'The Kite Runner' was 'THE KITE RUNNER'?

Fortunately for me, I didn’t have to

walk out of the theater, hoping never to see that film again.

I just didn’t mind paying $$$ for it. Bravo, North Korea, free promotion for 'The Interview'. If The Interview were ever on TV, maybe 2 years later, and if I had some spare time,I would probably sit on the couch, watch it again and get some good laughs out of it while doing my knitting at the same time. ‘Never’ is truly too strong a word for me.

Dear Original Poster, I sincerely apologize for my rude and blatant rebuttal of your feelings regarding this film . Thank you kindly for giving me an opening(actually, it's perhaps too many openings) to write this reply. Thank you again for giving me the opportunity to organize my thoughts and put them into words about a not-so-perfect but not-so-bad-either film. Well, we live in a realistic world. Just like there is no such thing as an ideal world, there is no such thing as a perfect film. Even Gone with the Wind, Citizen Kane, The Godfather, and LotR Trilogy drew some unfavorable criticism upon their original releases.

I really had a lot of fun practicing my English writing.(evil grin).

Thank you one more time.

Best wishes

ps.
I often wonder how the child actors in this film are doing these days. Don't mind me, I sometimes wonder about the whereabouts of the child actors in 'Slumdog Millionaire', too.

pps.
While writing a response to 2-year-old film 'preview' about a 7-year-old film, do I need to use 'spoiler' all the time so as not to give away the plotlines of that film????? Just don't want to ruin all the fun for people that hasn't watched this film yet.

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Yeah, it should've been R.

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@OP
Agreed

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