Tibet - Cry of the Snow Lion
by Tom Piozet
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Ed Harris, Edward Edwards, Martin Sheen, Shirley Knight, Susan SarandonDirector: Tom Piozet
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 104 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-12-14
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: New Yorker Video
Movie Reviews of Tibet - Cry of the Snow Lion
Movie Review: Mostly Propaganda
Summary: 2 Stars
There's a lot wrong with this film. It is factually incorrect on both big and small claims. Since this is a short review, I'll give one salient example of a gross factual inaccuracy and some recommended readings for the truly curious and fair/open-minded student of Sino-Tibetan history.
The film makes a claim that the human rights organization ICJ (International Committee of Jurists) found that China was guilty of committing genocide and had killed "1.2 million Tibetans." This is the opposite of what the committee actually found. The ICJ concluded that no evidence of genocide occurred in Tibet. Now it is possible that the film was going by the accusations made by the ICJ in 1959 published in a preliminary report based only on exiles' hearsay accounts. This preliminary (pre-investigation) report was titled "The Question of Tibet The rule of Law." However, after an extensive one year investigation, the ICJ was forced to conclude that there was no evidence to support the exiles' claim of genocide as defined under international law. This report was titled "Tibet and the Chinese People's Republic." They concluded their study with:
"The COMMITTEE did not find that there was sufficient proof of the destruction of Tibetans as a race, nation or ethnic group as such by methods that can be regarded as genocide in international law." (Legal Inquiry Committee, "Tibet and the Chinese People's Republic, Geneva ICJ")
No good documentary film-maker, who truly is candidly invested in finding the truth would confuse preliminary accusations with the actual findings. That's like accusing someone of a crime based on what the prosecutor had said at his trial when he had already been legally exonerated by the jury. That is incompetent journalism at best and downright slanderous at worst.
Also, regarding the genocide accusations, see what the former director for the Free Tibet Campaign in London, Patrick French had to say about the pro-Tibet organizations' claims of genocide and the 1.2 million figure:
"These groups hate criticism almost as much as the Chinese government does. Some use questionable information. For example, the Free Tibet Campaign in London (of which I am a former director) and other groups have long claimed that 1.2 million Tibetans have been killed by the Chinese since they invaded in 1950. However...while researching my book on Tibet, I found that there was no evidence to support that figure."
You can read his article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/22/opinion/22french.html
Ironically, many of the experts in the film had written books demolishing the claims within it! For example, A Tom Grunfeld's excellent book "The Making of Modern Tibet," (devoting a large portion of one chapter) explicitly refutes claims of genocide.
Grunfeld's book also claims that Tibet had gained tremendously by way of standard of living post Chinese takeover and that China did have a sufficient legal claim over Tibet under international law. Other factors culminating in the communist decision for a takeover of Tibet involved complex realpolitic maneuvering between the west and China over control of the strategically valuable central Asian region. Western (and especially CIA) skullduggery during that period in Asia and its ultimate tragic consequences for Tibetans had largely been forgotten but is amply documented by Grunfeld and other historians and tibetologists but completely ignored in this film. Given the historical facts, it is understandable why it was inevitable that China would takeover Tibet. This film does not offer a balanced view of that (more complex and accurate) perspective.
Moreover, in an interesting passage, Grunfeld also says that in the propaganda wars between the pro-Tibet side and the Chinese side, the Chinese side had "lied less."
I didn't give this film one star because I do believe that it documents great human rights violations against the Tibetans. These clips should be scrutinized carefully by those who care about the situation Tibet. But for those who truly care, it's not enough to spend two hours watching a movie.
The Tibet-China issue is very complex. I don't doubt great tragedies happened in Tibet as a result of communist brutality and incompetence. But in our culture, we tend to only listen to things condensed into sound-bite-sized pieces and to view things only as black/white or evil/good. It's easy to sip lattes, and shout slogans but to be truly informed about a complicated situation, we may have to get passed the superficiality and actually pick up a book! I recommend, besides the Grunfeld book, Melvyn Goldstein's "The Snow Lion and the Dragon" and Barry Sautman's "Contemporary Tibet." Both may be purchased at amazon.
Summary of Tibet - Cry of the Snow Lion
Ten years in the making, this award-winning documentary was filmed during a remarkable nine journeys throughout Tibet, India and Nepal. CRY OF THE SNOW LION brings audiences to the long-forbidden "rooftop of the world" with an unprecedented richness of imagery. from rarely-seen rituals in remote monasteries, to horse races with Khamba warriors; from brothels and slums in the holy city of Lhasa, to the magnificent Himalayan peaks still traveled by nomadic yak caravans. The dark secrets of Tibet's recent past are powerfully chronicled through riveting personal stories and interviews, and a collection of undercover and archival images never before assembled in one film. A definitive exploration of a legendary subject, TIBET: CRY OF THE SNOW LION is an epic story of courage and compassion.Drama DVD Video
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