REVIEW: ‘The Monk And The Gun’ Is An Instant Classic

Directed and written by Pawo Choyning Dorji, The Monk and the Gun is a superb execution of confident storytelling and misdirection. Bottling a tone akin to controlled chaos, the film, set in Bhutan, is an examination of the wills of the world to drive society in certain directions and the failures they wreak. A triumphant look at how people are pushed towards modernization and how Western media overwrites the rule book for what that entails, the film cleverly builds tension as we wait for the worst to happen.

The Monk And The Gun follows the people of Bhutan after it’s become one of the world’s youngest democracies. Playing with fiction and reality, the film puppeteers history for the sake of farce. The King of Bhutan has announced his plans to abdicate, allowing the people to form a new, democratic government. The government plans to hold a mock election to teach its people how to vote, though the community at large continues to have reservations about this new development. Meanwhile, a monk undergoing his two-year meditation instructs one of his disciples to go out and find him a gun for a mysterious ceremony planned for the day of the election.

The thick, palpable sense of potential tragedy is part of what makes The Monk and the Gun so brilliant. As viewers, especially Western viewers, we have our built-in expectations when guns are involved. There’s no separating them from the bloodshed they leave in their wake. Throughout the movie, we watch as community members watch the James Bond’s film Quantum of Solace on their new televisions. We expect the worst because what else could a gun symbolize in an idyllic, tranquil community other than a breaker of peace? The Monk and the Gun subverts our expectations with a wry wink at the camera and a knowing poke in the eye of those who can’t help but anticipate worst-case scenarios.

Ultimately, The Monk and the Gun is a flat-out comedy that dials up absurdist aspects that have us holding our breath. It’s a wild comedy of errors that sees an American and his Bhutanese tour guide chasing down a monk who walked away with the coveted gun. We see this not just through hilarious writing as monks pour over a gun catalog and pick out their favorites but also in the visuals. One instance is essentially just the story of the tortoise and the hare, patience versus imprudence. It speaks to the overall language of the film that suggests for all that the government is seeking greater political development, the nation is more enlightened than many places in the world.

It comes to light greater still in an ingenious sequence where to best reflect a democratic voting system, officials tell the crowd to start yelling at one another. In the eyes of the officials, to teach democracy is to teach hate and division. The stigma of opinion rules as we watch a family divided, a husband who seeks to vote for the party that champions industrial development clashing with his mother-in-law who is voting for freedom and equality.

Pawo Choyning Dorji expertly weaves the many plot lines and character developments. Tashi (Tandin Wangchuk), seeking the gun his Lama asks for, acts as a mediator of the story, the bridge between the two men also after the weapon and the Bhutan people ensnared in new political systems. How these characters end up crossing paths and how the story wills them forward is constantly sublime and unexpected. Moving with an assured, stable pace, the narrative builds into a crescendo of trials as characters deal with the fallout of their mistakes and seeming karmic intervention.

Built as a fable and a delightful deconstruction of expectations, The Monk And The Gun delivers a biting satire. Overwhelmed with the lush, overgrown beauty of the country, the film marries its visual, quiet grandeur with witty, comical insight. The film merges the tonality of an early, good Taika Waititi films, such as Hunt for the Wilderpeople or Boy, with the satirical chops of The Great Dictator. The film revels in its ability to eschew assumptions while also casting a critical eye towards a nation where the perception is “there are more guns than people.”

The Monk And The Gun is coming soon to Apple TV+.