Little Buddha is a 1993 film by Bernardo Bertolucci that tells the story of choosing the rebirth of Lama Dorje, a great Buddhist teacher. Lama Norbu and a group of monks from Butane go to the US to find an American boy Jesse Conrad. The monks announce that the child is the reincarnation of the great teacher and subsequently offer to take him to Bhutan for a recognition ceremony (Bertolucci, 2018). The film, which ends with a somewhat Hollywood-style happy ending, is a good illustration of how cinema presents religious customs and norms to the general public. This paper aims to discuss how religion is presented in the Little Buddha film.
The film presents different features of religion such as rituals, traditions, sacred practices, and stories from the Buddhist canonical text Hinayana that includes Buddha’s teachings. The legend of Siddhartha is of particular interest as it tells the story of how Buddha discovered the four noble truths about suffering (Dan, 2018). The story of Buddha’s enlightenment is seen in Buddhism and in the film as the final liberation from identification with one’s ego, represented by the demon Mara.
The film teaches that suffering in the world is limitless, as is the number of living beings. Then main idea is that even Siddhartha Gautama Buddha (by Keanu Reeves) could not eradicate this suffering, but only give living beings a chance to find their path to liberation (Suh, 2020). Equally important, the film presents an episode of Lama Norbu’s sacred meditation practice, who is preparing for death. The monk recites the text of the sacred mantra saying that his body is empty, like himself. Another captivating episode is the depiction of the Buddhist religious tradition of spinning the drums with bells at the entrance of the temple, which symbolize the eternal movement of life.
The information presented in the film is based on facts, including the story of Prince Siddhartha Gautama, which is historical evidence. Just as important, the basic facts of Buddhist knowledge were presented accurately. Interestingly, some ideas of Buddhism were reinforced, while others – were not. The themes of compassion, rebirth, and death were in the director’s focus, and were associated with life in Asia. At the same time, the themes of suffering were more associated with life in the United States, and ancient India (Baker, 2019). This attribution caused a particular loss of the film’s objectivity, contributing to the formation of secular stereotypes.
The sacred story of Buddha’s life and enlightenment, which is a part of the Buddhist canon, is given a fair and accurate reading. Even viewers who do not know anything about Buddhism were able to get a good understanding of its basic postulates, such as the four noble truths, the concepts of samsara and rebirth. In my opinion, the Buddhist religion is portrayed fairly in the film, with only slight variations to create a more emotional artistic effect. Some of the directorial decisions were unexpected, such as the film’s ending, when all three candidates for the role of rebirth turned out to be the embodiment of his body, speech, and mind.
Thus, it was discussed how religion was depicted in the Little Buddha film. It presents the foundations of the Buddhist religion clearly, thanks to the masterful incorporation of relevant episodes and stories into the outline of the film. The director sometimes takes liberties with interpretations, for example, in the finale, where all three children turn out to be the reincarnation of Lama Dorje, which never happened in reality. However, the rest of the film is an objective and emotional presentation of the well-known story of Buddha’s enlightenment intertwined with a modern fictional plot.
References
Baker, D. (2019). The mountain of youth: Converting American Buddhism and the authority of the monk-convert paradigm. Horizontes Decoloniales/Decolonial Horizons, 5, 131-164.
Dan, M. (2018). Spiritual quests and obstacles. A cultural paradigm. Philologica Jassyensia, 14(2 (28)), 209-218.
Bertolucci, B. (2018). Little Buddha: Enlightenment [Video file]. Web.
Suh, S. A. (2020). Once the Buddha was born as Keanu Reeves. CrossCurrents, 70(3), 276-288.