[Buddha-l] Film: The Angry Monk http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2007/02/28/the-angry-monk/

[Erik Hoogcarspel]

Curt Steinmetz schreef:
> >> Schaedler clearly has an agenda with this film to push his own 
> ideal of a free Tibet. What he overlooks, however, is that the monks 
> and the nuns and the monasteries are also an integral part of Tibetan 
> culture. Before Buddhism came to Tibet, Tibet was historically a 
> feared and war-mongering country that frequently raided other 
> countries. The history of Tibet itself is very much about the pull of 
> violence on one side and peace on the other. Schaedler could have done 
> more justice to an overall perspective on Tibetan culture in the film 
> by not deliberately excluding the point of view of the Fourteenth 
> Dalai Lama or from Tibetan Buddhist monks and scholars with a 
> different perspective than the scholars he chose to interview, who 
> all, oddly enough, mirror Schaedler's own views on the necessity of 
> preventing Tibetan culture from "stagnating".
>
> In his zest to make a different kind of documentary about Tibet, 
> Schaedler goes too far in showing only the point of view that bolsters 
> his own opinion, which ultimately weakens the film. As a result, Angry 
> Monk becomes less a film about Gendun Choephel, the monk, the man, and 
> the scholar, and more a film that uses Choephel's life as a metaphor 
> to drive Schaedler's view on the politics of Tibet. <<
>
> The above is taken from Kim Voynar's "Sundance Review" of the film 
> "The Angry Monk" - the full review is here: 
> http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=12,2214,0,0,1,0
>
I watched the film twice and I disagree. I learned a lot about Gendun 
Choephel and I think that it is not at all a loss of quality when the 
maker of a documentary sympathizes with it's subject. It is clear that 
Gendun Choephel was not charmed by the conservatism and provincialism of 
the leading Tibetan monks and governement. Maybe he is right, maybe not, 
but his view deserves to be defended. Fact is that if Tibet had been 
less closed and xenofobic, it would have been a lot more difficult for 
the Chinese to invade.


-- 


Erik

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