Kite Runner

I have owned a copy of The Kite Runner for probably close to a year but have never watched it until now.  I knew it was a fairly intense movie with subtitles, and you've just gotta be in the right mood to watch a movie like that.

Wow.
Really, that's all I've got right now.  Wow.  If you haven't seen it, do.  It's excellent.


The story is a lot of things, but mostly it's about friendship & loyalty.  One of my favourite scenes is right at the beginning and goes like this:

(Hassan & Amir are the 2 boys in the story and in their spare time they like to fight kites.  They're having a chat while they're waiting for a loose kite to float down to them)

H: It's coming.
A: How do you know?
H: I know.
A: How can you know?
H: Would I ever lie to you?
A: I don't know. Would you?
H: I'd rather eat dirt.
A: Really? You'd do that?
H: Do what?
A: Eat dirt if I told you to.
H: ...If you asked me to I would.

Throughout the story Hassan is fiercely loyal to Amir and repeatedly does things for Amir simply because he is his best friend.  Amir isn't quite as loyal a friend but, of course, pulls through in the end.

But the question is would you eat dirt* for your friend?
I admit, I wouldn't eat dirt for just anybody.  But yeah, I'm pretty lucky and I've got a few pretty great friends whom I would eat dirt for, if they asked me to (and sometimes even when they don't ask me, but I know they need me to).  Why?  Because that's what friends do for each other.  And it makes my heart happy to help a friend.


Just watch the movie.  Or read the book, I'm sure it's good too.


*we're not actually talking about dirt here you know.  It's one of those tricky metaphor things.