Why Disney Has Made It Nearly Impossible To Watch One Martin Scorsese Classic

After returning to his well-trod gangster flick turf (and changing Sharon Stone's career) with 1995's "Casino," Martin Scorsese surprised the film industry by turning his attention to a project about the early life of the 14th Dalai Lama. Based on a script by "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" screenwriter Melissa Mathison, "Kundun" follows the Dalai Lama from his discovery in a small province to his flight from occupying Chinese forces in Tibet to India in 1959.

This was new territory for Scorsese, who has never been a sure box office bet, but Universal, pleased with the success of "Casino" and "Cape Fear," was prepared to green-light the film. This changed when Seagram hooch-slinger Edgar Bronfman Jr. purchased the studio. Worried about ticking off China, and thus losing access to the country's massive marketplace, Bronfman turned that green light deep red, which forced Scorsese to shop "Kundun" to other studios. Shockingly, Disney's Michael Eisner, who had global theme park ambitions, stepped up, albeit with a Chinese-pressured plan for limited distribution. Given what happened next, the news that Disney is currently nearing a deal to make Scorsese's Hawaiian crime flick starring Dwayne Johnson, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Emily Blunt is, to put it mildly, curious.

When "Kundun" was released on Christmas Day 1997, the Chinese government, having forced Disney to pull back on its distribution and marketing plans, threw a public hissy fit. Eisner, who is not a particularly thoughtful man, failed to foresee that China might wait until the film was out to teach him a lesson about making a movie that paints its leaders as anything other than benevolent saints. When the Chinese government finally decided to flex its muscles, it ensured Scorsese's film would become very hard to see going forward.

According to Zhu Rongji's 2015 book "Zhu Rongji on the Record: The Road to Reform," the long-game eschewing Eisner met with China's leadership to grease the skids on building a Disney theme park in the populous country. However, Eisner quickly found himself being chastised for having insulted the nation by telling the tragically true story of the atrocities it visited on the Tibetan people and its role in driving the country's spiritual leader, who rightfully feared for his life, into India. Eisner looked these leaders right in the eye and fully, embarrassingly capitulated.

After calling the film "a stupid mistake," Eisner said, "The bad news is that the film was made; the good news is that nobody watched it. Here I want to apologize, and in the future we should prevent this sort of thing, which insults our friends, from happening."

Shanghai Disneyland officially opened to the public in 2016, which is why you can't legally stream "Kundun" anywhere. The film is not impossible to see if you really want to watch it. There are still-in-plastic copies of the 2019 Kino Lorber limited Blu-ray release on eBay for as low as $59.99, and DVD copies available for under $10. This being not just a Scorsese film, but, in my opinion, one of his very best, you obviously want the highest quality version possible. There hasn't been a new release of "Kundun" in six years, and there are currently no plans for a 4K transfer. I'm quite sure Criterion would love to get its mitts on the movie, and I'm just as sure that Disney isn't taking the company's calls.

When you consider how successful the Chinese government has been in bullying the most powerful studio in Hollywood from releasing an achingly somber film that has little appeal to mainstream audiences, you worry about what'll happen when anyone in its employ dares to speak truth to power in this growingly oppressive moment in the United States. Actually, Rachel Zegler can tell you precisely what will happen.