Its many levels of interpretation will reward seeing again

Author: nioc from Dublin
27 December 1998

This film is a perfect introduction to Buddhism for anyone with his child's eye still intact. This being said, the film has several levels and will reward study. The mythic level has been criticised for its lack of sophistication, but mostly by those who have no knowledge of Indian visual art. Where the film really succeeds is showing the nature of impermanence. Westerners, for the most part, frightened of such a concept shy away from the film for this very reason.

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21 out of 23 people found the following review useful:
 
worth watching...

Author: becarooh from Sunnyvale
13 February 2000

This was a very enjoyable movie. If for nothing else, it is worth watching for the beautiful scenes. I was fascinated watching Keanu as Siddhartha. He really seemed to lose himself in the role. I would really recommend this movie when you are in the mood for something gentle, beautiful to look at and at the same time, providing an interesting insight into the Buddhist world.

A gentle introduction to Buddhism

Author: (fulano@pipeline.com) from New York
21 January 2000

If you suspend your need for believable characters, this film does have moments that take you to another world where good and evil are at odds and how one man, Prince Siddharta (Keanu Reeves), deals with the inner demons that reside within us all.

The scenes in which you learn about the life of Prince Siddharta are beautifully done. We get a Buddhist primer of sorts, and learn about the trials that Prince Siddharta had to go through on his quest for enlightenment.As for the rest of the movie, well, it just dragged in a lot of places and the characters just were not all that believable. If you know little or nothing about Tibetan Buddhism and would like to get a sense of it without getting into heavy dogma and spiritual practice, this movie is a nice intro.

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18 out of 20 people found the following review useful:
 
Beautifully filmed

Author: Reina from Chicago, IL USA
11 October 1999

Outstanding for its cinematography. Bertolucci makes a clear distinction between the coolly modern Seattle (by giving it a blue tint) and the older, earthier India and Nepal (shot with an orange and red theme). Chris Isaak turns in a subtle and tender performance as the conflicted Dean Conrad. Ruocheng Ying's performance as Lama Norbu is superb. And Keanu Reeves looks beautifully serene as Prince Siddhartha and later the Buddha.

Easy On The Eyes But A Little Too Easy On the Mind

Author: alexkolokotronis from Queens, New York
2 July 2008

This movie was actually not that bad in fact it had some good parts to it. One major problem though was Keanu Reeves. They are also other glaring and not so glaring problems with this movie.

The acting was adequate throughout except for of course Keanu Reeves. He was not the only one I was not happy with though. Bridget Fonda did not exactly show off anything special either. She was just there nothing great, nothing to horrible just there. Why does she continue to get roles? Is it her name? Her looks? Her acting ability? That is pretty easy its her name. The only thing does she does share with Henry Fonda, Peter Fonda and Jane Fonda is their name definitely not her acting ability.(Mmmm sévère le môssieur...mais je dois dire que j'ai préféré Bridget Fonda en "Marie couche toi là" dans JACKIE BROWN) 

Then of course there is Keanu Reeves. It is really hard to think of a worse casting move than the casting of Keanu Reeves as Buddha. For action roles or even comedy I do not mind him but for serious roles he is about as bad as you could get. His performance at the beginning I do not have a problem with because Buddha is not yet Buddha he is even less than a narrow minded person. At or towards the end though he is supposed to portray Buddha with depth and meaning, not with superficiality and narrow mindedness. That though is exactly what he does though, he stays an idiot from start to finish. As the movie progresses so does the character of Buddha but not the performance of Keanu. In here he appeared about as selfish and superficial as Buddha was selfless and deep.

The directing should be great, after all Bernardo Bertolucci is directing this. Well at times it was spectacular but it was not consistent. Some of the scenes, especially toward the end were great, the sceneries of the Buddhist temples and ceremonies and one particular conversation involving a monk were amazing. It was like watching the Last Emperor again. Then the scenes with Buddha were just horrible and annoying. That part of the story did not seem to get anywhere, they just seemed to go on and on. That is what should have succeeded not failed especially Bertolucci being the director. That is where Bertolucci failed and failed miserably.
                                                                          
The cinematography was amazing at times as mentioned before. Certain scenes were done very stylistically and well. It did provide some sort of educational importance which is the one thing I was really with this movie. The editing was also pretty bad, it was one of the reasons why some of those scenes felt like forever to get by and why whenever the story was just becoming engaging it had to jump right back to the story of Buddha. The writing was pretty bad but not completely horrible.. The one scene with the monk was great in terms of writing but other than that nothing really memorable. The way the Buddha story was written really made me determine this was a bad script and brought down most of the movie.

This movie should have and could have done better but it did not. Cinematographically wise and directing wise some scenes were down right spectacular and other with Keanu Reeves were just down right horrible. Yet the cinematography was just too amazing even in the story of Buddha that I have to say that this an above average movie. It is a good family movie and a little educational but if you want to watch this alone I would not really recommend it. Very easy on the eyes but just a little to easy on the mind.

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Bien content de ne pas avoir vu le film avec vos yeux !

Buddha like you never saw him before

Author: Geert Lemmens (gjl@bookwerk.de) from Cologne, Germany
16 August 2002

There can be no doubt that Bertolucci made a beautiful and very stylistic portrayal of Siddartha (yes, Keanu does and looks very well in this part). There can be doubt though ifthese mystical and captivating scenes that play in the ancient (not necessarily historical!) India and the Far Orient are succesfully intermingled with the present day search for areincarnated soul. I have seen the film several times and I am still not sure. Would this film have been better if it had only focused on the life and times of Siddartha / Buddha?

Or would this just have made the film look "easier"? Present and past, reality and legend, magical scenery and modern city life continuously interchange. Each time the film shifted from Siddartha's "world" to Seattle I felt a little sorry. I wanted more and more of these silent, magic world. Bertolucci keeps us awake by going the other way. The things Siddartha learned can be applied, by us, the viewers, in what happens next. Let's just say Bertolucci's choice for dialectic film making was the right one. Final remark: the video / DVD cover is absolutely ridiculous. Surely the film company also wanted to attract young female Keanu fans by portraying him in a slightly romantic, counter opposing posture to Bridget Fonda.The two never meet in the film at all!

12 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
 
Simplistic, but not bad and educationally useful.

Author: Les Falk (lesfalk@silk.net) from Kelowna, BC, Canada
8 January 2000

Simplistic, and of more value to young people than serious adults, but a more "realistic" dramatization of the subject might be too subtle for many viewers. This is perhaps theonly movie I know of that deals directly with Buddhism from a western point of view, as opposed to Asian movies like those of Kurosawa, or such recent films as "Seven Years in Tibet" which deal more with the political and social aspects of Tibetan culture rather than Buddhism itself. Because Buddhism is drawing increasing interest in the West, a dramatization of the classic story of the Buddha is useful and entertaining. As a high school teacher, I have seriously recommended this film to students a number of times. The movie is well filmed, and, besides the traditional story of the Buddha,in its ancient Indian setting and with all of the mythical elements, it does gives insight into Tibetan culture, and can be linked to "Kundun" and "Seven Years in Tibet" which are excellent, sympathetic films about this Asian country that has received so much undeserved harassment.