Best Picture: "Gandhi," 1982

Movie Stats:

Released 1982 (India)

British & Indian, in English

Director – Richard Attenborough

Stars – Ben Kingsley, Rohini Hattangadi, Ian Charleson, Roshan Seth, Martin Sheen, and many, many more actors you’ll recognize

Plot Summary:

A biopic of Mohandas K. Gandhi (Kingsley). If you somehow don’t know who Gandhi was, Google is your friend. Hattangadi co-stars as his wife, Kasturba; Charleson as his English clergy compatriot, Charlie Andrews; Seth as Jawaharlal Nehru; and Sheen as the American reporter Walker.

Warnings:

Violence; racist language.

Bad Stuff:

It’s over 3 hours long, although it didn’t start to drag for me until nearly the 3-hour mark.

I’m not saying the acting was bad, because it wasn’t by any stretch of the imagination. However, in a movie like this, where everything else was great, I expect to be wowed and I wasn’t.

Good Stuff:

Gorgeous cinematography; great soundtrack; fantastic costumes. I even found myself admiring the make-up, something I rarely notice in movies (unless it’s bad). I thought they did a wonderful job of aging the actors throughout the movie, which takes place over a 50-year timespan.

It’s very well written. I was never confused about what was happening or why, and I definitely don’t have an especially firm grasp of Indian history.

Movies like this have to tread a fine line between being ineffectual in showing the plight of an oppressed people – in this case, Indian nationals – and overstating the case to the point that one begins to feel preached at. In my opinion, a lot of movies fall on the side of turning preachy. This was not one of them. In fact, I thought it did a masterful job of treading that line without stumbling to either side of it.

The Verdict:

I really liked it. I expected to be bored and I was not. It covers an amazing moment in human history: hundreds of thousands of people earning their independence through non-violence & non-compliance. It’s truly fascinating, and I found myself marveling over the bravery of these people who faced injury, jail time, and death for what they believed in. I even thought the villains – mostly the British – were interesting, when I thought considered their motivations, prejudices, and the fact that they were facing the death of their empire. This is really heady stuff.

Don’t let my minor quibble about the acting dissuade you. There are a lot of good performances here. There is no reason not to see this film.

I give the movie 4.25 stars.