Reviews

10 Questions for the Dalai Lama

A new-age vanity project

By NINA MACLAUGHLIN | November 11, 2008

1.0 Stars

SERIOUSLY: Who's this film about, anyway?

Director Rick Ray’s documentary about the Dalai Lama is a new-age vanity project. Ray chronicles his journey across India and the process of being granted an interview — 10 questions, 45 minutes — with the head of Tibetan Buddhism. In the right hands, this could’ve been a compelling film: the DL, with his Yoda-like timbre, is a joyful, rational spreader of peace (when asked about how to deal with the Middle East, part of his answer involves “more picnics”); China’s invasion of Tibet is worth a history lesson (“a cultural genocide is taking place,” the DL remarks); the selection process of a new DL is extraordinary; and you’ve got the beauty of the Himalaya and all those fluttering prayer flags as backdrop. Here, Peter Kater’s original score sounds like the soundtrack to a yoga video, and when Ray finally meets with the DL, he natters on to his High Holiness about his travels, his observations, his spiritual journey. When he lets the DL get a word in, Ray’s smug smile tells us that “I’m sitting with the Dalai Lama!” is all that’s running through his head.

Related: China, Tibet, and the Olympics, Wheel of Time, Tashi Delek, More

Topics: Reviews , Culture and Lifestyle, Religion, Dalai Lama, More

| More

Most Popular

The Current Issue

Table of Contents

Cover Archive

Masthead | Authors | Contact us

Blogs

Where To Follow Me
Talking Politics | March 24, 2013 at 11:09 AM

Mo Takes His Turn
March 21, 2013 at 12:59 PM

[Q&A] KMFDM's Sascha Konietzko on art, Columbine and having balls
On The Download | March 18, 2013 at 3:22 PM

See this film series: The Belmont World Film Series @ Studio Cinema in Belmont
Outside The Frame | March 18, 2013 at 11:00 AM

See this film: This is Spinal Tap [with post-film talk by expert from Acoustical Society of America] @ the Coolidge
March 17, 2013 at 12:00 PM

ARTICLES BY NINA MACLAUGHLIN

SUMMER GUIDE: AL FRESCO AURAL DELIGHTS | June 11, 2014
Go outside. Listen.

FREE AT LAST, THE WEST MEMPHIS THREE'S DAMIEN ECHOLS IS TRYING TO START OVER... IN SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS | December 14, 2012
A year after his release from prison, Echols has chosen to settle in Salem for a reason: he feels a kinship with the history of the place. He knows what it's like to be the object of a witch hunt.

WITH HIS NEW RESTAURANT ALMOST READY, CHEF WILL GILSON MULLS HERITAGE, HUMILITY, AND HIS YEAR IN CULINARY PURGATORY | October 12, 2012
The door to the kitchen is open, and inside, Will Gilson is getting ready.

ON CARPENTRY AND COLLEGE | October 20, 2011
Age 30, I quit the Phoenix and ended up with a job as an apprentice to a carpenter. Sawing, chiseling, hammering, nail-gunning, tiling, sanding, slotting, framing, hauling, measuring, and sweeping are less obvious outcomes of an undergraduate career in the liberal arts. College, in strange and unexpected ways, prepared me for this sort of work. And in others, did not prepare me at all.

PHDISASTERS | April 27, 2011
I knew a man pursuing a PhD in literature. His dissertation had to do with humor as a form of dissent in 20th-century literature. And how enthused he was at first! How passionate and excited.