The film is, in many ways, a remarkable achievement but also a singularly undynamic entry in the director's canon.

It's not exactly 'Goodfellas.' But it's not every filmmaker who can create works as divergent as 'Goodfellas' and 'Kundun,' either.

The music ties together all the pretty pictures, gives the narrative some momentum, and helps to induce a kind of alert detachment, so that you're neither especially interested nor especially bored.

It’s fascinating to see how Scorsese explores the Dalai Lama’s faith...reckoning his steadfast belief in non-violence with the encroaching non-religious, unapologetically brutal forces that approach Tibet in the wake of World War II.