Little Buddha

Written on May 27th, 2023 by A. M. Alcazar

Even after having spent the past year immersed in Buddhism and Eastern contemplative practices, it is hard to attribute poor reception to key concepts and ideas going over people’s heads. The film actually does a good job with exposition. It succeeds at narrating key events in the life of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, whilst avoiding the dragging feeling that often takes over when you realise you are entering a story within a story. It is at the junction of both stories that we see one of the most interesting depictions of a religious/mythological scene on film: the story of Siddhartha defeating Mara under the Bodhi tree. It would be hard from here on not to picture Bertolucci’s representation instead of my own every time I am retold this story. Something similar happens when I picture the crucifixion of Jesus - The Passion of the Christ and The Last Temptation of Christ both take turns to percolate through my imagination whenever they do not substitute it outright.

Concepts such as impermanence, the illusory of the self, and Nirvana are address with clarity. Others concepts such as emptiness are used as a pun of sorts. Perhaps this is for the better as it can be one of the most misunderstood concepts within all of Buddhism second only to reincarnation. It is no wonder that much of the film is spent reiterating its meaning and implications. This is necessary given the complexities and how central to the plot these ideas are. I found these explanations as thoroughly enjoyable, but again, I am into these matters.

The film second half is far more enjoyable than the bleak TV movie you get in the first half. If the definition of a poor characterisation is having the only purpose of being the object to a subject, these characters’ background fail to even reach such status. It is perfectly possible to tell a story without concrete antagonist. A race against time, bad fortune, ignorance… any of these can be enough antagonistic enough to for us to have a story. There is no concrete nor abstract antagonist in this story - not really. Perhaps the parents disbelief and confusing were set to represent that, but Chris Isaak (someone whose music I have always found incredibly charming and touching) and Bridget Fonda both seem stilted in form and caricaturesque in substance.

I enjoyed the film, but I am fairly confident I wouldn’t have enjoyed as much were I not already interested in the topics it covers. I believe Bertolucci was too into Eastern philosophy. It is an undeniably thoughtful attempt. But it seems he forgot to hold the audience’s hand throughout moments that perhaps were obvious to him and thought that would be obvious to us. Not having fleshed these out, they fell flat, fell generic, and almost lost us along the way.

Originally published on Letterboxd.