The Kite Runner

This review will be rather short... Recall that in my Halo: Legends review, as well as Treasure Planet's review, that I reserve my right as a consumer to stop watching a movie before its completion... This is another one of those times.
Mind you, I have to watch this film all the way through for my film class, but it reached a point where every time I think about continuing to watch it I think "I do not want to watch any more of this..."
Though I will be watching the entire film (as much as I REALLY do not want to...) I shall be reviewing it at this point because if I was not being forced to watch it, this is where I would have stopped.

The Kite Runner is set in Afghanistan, and follows Amir, a bit of a coward and pessimist, who only friend is Hassan, who is a servant of his father's. They go to the movies together, fly battle kites... and Hassan acts as a protector for Amir when some nazi-wannabes come and harass them (I'm serious about the dude being a nazi wannabe. This is set in 1960 by the way).
Amir's mother died giving birth to him, and he blames himself for it (He's worse than the Lannisters in this regard; at least Tyrion does wallow in self-pity all the time), and his father is one of those "well done son" guys, who only shows interest or care when they do something amazing. So winning the kite battle tournament is a big deal for Amir.

After Amir and Hassan win the tournament, Amir sends Hassan to retrieve the kite (there is an earlier scene where Hassan shows an almost psychic ability to know where the kite will come down, and he can collect it). And it is about this point that I do not wish to continue the movie.

Everything up to this point was fine; it had a couple good humorous moments, and some good drama...
But that disintegrates in the next scene.
Amir notices that Hassan has snot returned with the kite, and goes looking for him. He finds out the nazi-wannabes followed him, and cornered him in the alley...

Now, in any normal film or story, one would assume they were going to beat him up, "teach him a lesson," and leave him.
No. They do something much more heinous, stupid, and awful. And I don't mean the characters, I mean the writer.
The Nazi-wannabes gang rape Hassan.
...and Amir sees it happen, but does nothing out of fear. Thus the Nazi-wannabes get away with it...
And when Hassan comes out, Amir is waiting on steps outside the alleyway, and goes up to Hassan... Not even asking if he's okay, just pretending that he was looking for him... Meanwhile, blood is dripping from Hassan's pant legs into the snow.

..........
NO.
No, no no...
I don't care if this happens in real life, or has happened, you do not do this. There is a reason why the "infant immortality" trope exists; it's because these kinds of actions are intolerable. Beating up a child is already heinous, but at least it isn't RAPE.
And, you want to know what else? This is actually a problem on a different level, not just on a moral level.
Earlier in the movie, Amir explains one of his stories to Hassan, about a man whose tears turn into pearl when they fall into a goblet. In order to get more tears, he kills his wife. Hassan asks the legit question: "Why didn't he just cut an onion?"
The obvious answer to Hassan's question is dramatic convenience. Which is what the rape scene is for; rape is more dramatic than being beaten, just as murdering one's wife is more dramatic than cutting an onion. That is already a terrible idea, as it reduces rape to something that gives shock value, but it calls to mind a different idea: Why not use another method for the same effect? Why not have the wife of the man be killed by another, rather than killed by the man? Why not use another form of assault upon Hassan, rather than rape? Assaulting Hassan with a crowbar would be less offensive than raping him.

Thus, I do not wish to continue. I actually hate this more than Titus, or Brave, or anything else... simply because of this awful dramatically convenient rape.
And don't think it gets better, more bad stuff happens to Hassan, some of it actually at the hands of his friend Amir.
It also doesn't get the excuse of "based on a true story." It is based on a novel written by Khaled Hosseini. I'm sure he cared more about the whole rise of the taliban thing that occurs later in the story, but I can't get past this one scene. I cannot get past the pedophilic rape. It was a stupid decision on the part of the writer. It doesn't matter what comes before or after, because this movie will forever be "The one where a nazi rapes a kid" (he actually rapes MANY kids, male and female, later when he is a member of the taliban) It doesn't matter if Amir tries to redeem himself; he will always be awful in my eye.

If you like the movie, fine. But I have presented my reason for why I do not want to watch any further. And I loathe to point out that any arguments trying to oppose this opinion, will have to explain why raping a child is good for the story.

This is more heinous than Spiderman making a deal with the devil, or Marvel's the Blob eating X-men's Bumblebee... At least they didn't involve child rape...


This has been Fixer Sue, discovering that I really hate movies where children suffer.