If you want a better example of how even iconic, international auteurs weren\u2019t exempt from Harvey Weinstein\u2019s bullshit, look no further than the story of Bernardo Bertolucci and his 1993 opus Little Buddha<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Italian filmmaker behind The Conformist<\/em>, Last Tango in Paris,<\/em> and the Oscar-winning The Last Emperor<\/em> decided to make another movie about a little kid who gets a lot of responsibility thrown on his shoulders. This time, it\u2019s a blonde-haired, nine-year-old boy from Seattle named Jesse (Alex Wiesendanger). A bunch of Tibetan monks from the Himalayan province of Bhutan show up at his doorstep to inform him and his parents (Bridget Fonda, Chris Isaak) that he may be the reincarnation of great Buddhist teacher Lama Dorje. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Initially skeptical, the parents eventually go along with it. Buddha<\/em>\u2019s second storyline appears when the mother starts reading Jesse a book given to him by the monks. It\u2019s about Prince Siddartha (Keanu Reeves, hella miscast), who left his comfy surroundings and went on a spiritual quest to learn more about universal suffering before he became the Buddha. The father, who has no qualms telling the monks he doesn\u2019t believe in reincarnation, later takes the kid to Bhutan, where the boy meets two Nepalese tykes who are also in the running to be the next Lama Dorje.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For a filmmaker who spent the \u201870s making controversial, challenging sagas that were politically charged, sexually explicit or both, Bertolucci pulled off his most shocking, subversive feat with Buddha<\/em>. He basically made a family film \u2014 albeit a family film featuring striking cinematography from longtime Bertolucci collaborator Vittorio Storaro. (With the way the Seattle scenes are shot in dreary-but-hypnotic blue hues, you\u2019d swear Bertolucci and Storaro got prepared to film in America by watching a bunch of Michael Mann films.) Both grandiose and far-fetched, this $35-40 million fable of an American lad who easily takes to spiritual enlightenment is Bertolucci at his most audience-friendly. \u201cIn this new film, I take the middle way,\u201d he told<\/a> the Virginian-Pilot<\/em> in 1994. \u201cLittle Buddha<\/em> is the discovery that the middle way can be creative \u2013 and still need not be banal.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Peter Biskind\u2019s invaluable indie-movie history Down and Dirty Pictures<\/em>, Bertolucci\u2019s road to the middle immediately got rocky when Miramax got involved. After reading the script and watching a 20-minute reel, Weinstein snapped up the North American rights for $8 million. He was down to work with the legendary director, even when Jeffrey Katzenberg told him that Bertolucci\u2019s rep for making epic, lengthy films (his 1976 historical drama 1900<\/em> ran for over five hours before a heavily truncated cut hit the States) would drive him batty. \u201cI shoulda listened to Jeffrey on that,\u201d Weinstein later said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even after Bertolucci cut 18 minutes, Weinstein gave Buddha<\/em> an extremely limited run in late May 1994, as it only took in $4.8 million. Since the film was shot on 35 and 65mm film, 70mm prints were struck and shipped out to theaters in New York, Los Angeles, and Atlanta for exclusive engagements. A 70mm print was also shown in Seattle, where it served as the opening-night film for that year\u2019s Seattle International Film Festival. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The critics were divided as hell. Siskel and Ebert disagreed on this one<\/a>. Gene gave it three-and-a-half stars<\/a>, saying it \u201csucceeds in capturing the spirit of Buddhism,\u201d adding, \u201cYou might not think of this as a family film, but it is a great one.\u201d In Roger\u2019s two-star pan<\/a>, he said it was \u201ca slow-moving and pointless exercise by Bertolucci, whose The Last Emperor<\/em> was a much superior telling of a similar story about a child who is chosen for great things.\u201d However, over at the now-defunct New York Press<\/em>, Godfrey Cheshire loved it so much (in his review, he said it kept him \u201cin tears through large parts of its 125 minutes\u201d), he later placed it high atop his \u201895 ten-best list. In fact, both he and fellow Press<\/em> critic Armond White put it in their lists for best films of the 1990s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even with those accolades, Buddha<\/em> is a forgotten part of Bertolucci\u2019s filmography. It\u2019s currently not available on any streaming platform, but Australian Blu-ray label Imprint Films did release a special-edition Blu-ray<\/a> earlier this year. Before passing away of lung cancer in 2018 at age 77, Bertolucci spent his post-Buddha<\/em> years making mature films again. He directed Stealing Beauty<\/em> in 1996 and the NC-17-rated The Dreamers<\/em> in 2003, both erotic tales of rebellious youth that featured a luscious brunette (Liv Tyler in Beauty<\/em>, Eva Green in Dreamers<\/em>) occasionally wearing clothing. Still smarting from the Buddha<\/em> debacle, Bertolucci chose Fox Searchlight Pictures to distribute those pictures over here, practically saving himself from any more disappointment \u2013 and also saving his actresses from having to see Weinstein\u2019s pervy ass on set during their nude scenes.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Little Buddha” may not be available on any streaming platform, but you can view it <\/em>here<\/em><\/a> and <\/em>here<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/little-buddha2-1024x663.jpg\")
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When Harvey and little bro Bob flew to London to see a cut, Harvey went into full Harvey Scissorhands mode and demanded that Bertolucci cut 12-13 minutes. Even when Bertolucci compromised and made some changes \u2014 especially when Weinstein began threatening that he would send the movie straight to video if he didn\u2019t get what he wanted \u2014 the two still couldn\u2019t come to an agreement on Buddha<\/em>\u2019s length. Weinstein went so far as to get someone else to make another cut. Bertolucci, who was in New York to view the film, was so incensed when he found out, he took off to a bar where he slipped on some ice outside and fell on his ass. \u201cOkay, that\u2019s it. That\u2019s my situation,\u201d Bertolucci recalled thinking to himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n