"Kundun premiered on Christmas Day in 1997 on only two(!) screens in the United States, and ultimately grossed less than $6 million total on a nearly $30 million budget. In 1998, Disney CEO Michael Eisner apologized to Chinese officials for releasing the film, saying: "The bad news is that the film was made; the good news is that nobody watched it.""
"Kundun is, in fact, a pretty good movie. It's not top-tier (or even second-tier) Scorsese, but as minor works by great filmmakers go, it's certainly not some fiasco on the level of or Bonfire of the Vanities. (In Rebecca Miller's terrific new five-part, career-spanning documentary Mr. Scorsese, Kundun receives, by my count, about two minutes' worth of attention, which is probably appropriate.)"
Martin Scorsese's Kundun portrays the Dalai Lama's early life through his 1959 exile from Tibet. Universal dropped the project over concerns about offending the Chinese government; Disney acquired it but deliberately limited its release. The film opened on two U.S. screens on Christmas 1997 and grossed under $6 million against a nearly $30 million budget. Disney CEO Michael Eisner later apologized to Chinese officials, saying the film's existence was the bad news and its obscurity the good. The film earned a reputation for obscurity, but it receives modest critical praise for its spiritual themes and formal beauty within Scorsese's oeuvre.
Read at Slate Magazine
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